A Personal Story from pizzamachine

Thank you to Cody aka Mr pizzamachine for submitting a personal story to the blog! <3

if you're interested in submitting a personal story, you can contact me through my email to talk about it! <3

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Growing up, I experienced scene culture via the internet (vicariously?). I did not see scene kids at school or anywhere growing up, but I did relate to emo kids who were depressed like me and listened to some music I listened to. They were my friends. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, came the scene community. I discovered MySpace, Millionaires, BOTDF, Brokencyde, Attack Attack!, I Set My Friends On Fire, 30H3, Etienne Sin, etc. Suddenly all the album reviews were talking about Brokencyde, and I was first like “who the fuck is this?”. Nonetheless, the scene aesthetic and fashion sense permeated the internet when I was a kid/teen. It was wild and out there and yet pretty much everyone seemed to be doing it. Searches on Google, YouTube vids, and scene Queens: the internet was OBSESSED with the culture.

I remember being stunned by how seemingly massive scene culture was. After all, it was an entire world of people that almost appeared fictional due to myself never seeing scene kids in real life. Not to mention Warped Tour, which made the scene community seem like an elite club. But that’s also part of why it was so fascinating. Growing up watching Scene Queens try out unique hair styles and clothing was fun and inspiring, and it made me want to try it (the male version cuz I’m a dude). The best I could really do was have spiked hair because my parents controlled a lot about my life. In fact, my parents had no idea I was a scene kid, and I didn’t want them to know cuz the music was so full of swear words and sexual talk (especially in crunkcore).

Basically, I was the perfect age to fall in love with the scene community because it was so dang COOL. It let people get creative, have fun, and let loose. I grew up in a Christian environment (this may be shocking to a lot of people lol), so scene culture felt like an outlet for me to finally give less of a fuck and discover who I am and just be myself. Call it rebelling, whatever, idc. It was a game changer in my life. It was a community that I was a part of and I can always be a part of, which is very neat. I felt accepted and like I belonged, which was important at the time cuz I was a loner on my computer. I’m making it sound like a cult but let’s not get into that lol. Basically, I felt a part of something. I found my people.

Unfortunately, when Brokencyde’s albums started getting less funky and more generic, interest in scene culture started dying out. The unmentionable acts of a certain Dahvie Vanity also put a huge stain on the scene community because most of us scene kids had fallen in love with the band’s music (as terrible as that sounds). This was on top of scene music’s already terrible reputation mostly in part to Brokencyde, Dot Dot Curve, BOTDF, and Millionaires’ unendingly sexual and profanity based lyrics. So instead of scene culture being this inspiring thing, it became a mark of embarrassment and negatives pretty much pummeled the positives, and I think a lot of us moved on. It seemed like a fad that had died, and people started talking about the scene less and less until it almost became a myth. After all, the music was INTEGRAL to the culture. Scene culture is NOT just a fashion based thing. It was a massive part of it, but so was the music.

It took a while, but I eventually forgot about my scene kid roots. I chalk that one up to my #BOTDFtrauma. The only reason I remembered was cuz rawring20s was trending on Tik Tok in 2023. Legit, my repressed memories were THAT deep. That shit is crazy to me. And yet…. I still have so much love for my scene kid roots. The music and the culture was something so unique that it deserves to remain and inspire new scene kids. The rest is history and now I make crunkcore music cuz I love nostalgia, and because crunkcore artists are a rare breed. The stigma is still active, with people still assuming that crunkcore is the worst thing ever, just because certain artists (BOTDF and Dot Dot Curve especially) were terrible influences back in the day. It is what it is, but maybe that perception will eventually (with lots of time) change.

I’ll always be a scene kid, it’s just my personality. The scene community is back again and in more full force now, but it’s not the same thing at all. It looks like a clone trying to be the original copy. That’s gonna make me sound old af saying, “back in my day scene culture was different and waaaay cooler” but it WAS. It was fresh, new, and exciting. You can’t possibly imagine what it felt like to be in the midst of the creation of the movement. People were really creative back then, and a lot of that creativity energy has been lost, especially musically. From crunkcore to metalcore, music used to be very experimental and extremely fun. People just fucked around and did what they wanted regardless of consequences, mainly because the internet used to be a much newer thing so everyone was excited to show the world what they could do. Hence also the scene culture in general and its far reaching existence. Anywho, these are just some opinions. The beauty of the culture is in each person’s personal experience, and it lives on with that flurry of excitement in mind.

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Make sure you check out pizzamachine on soundcloud, he's got awesome music!