Killers' Flowers Rails Against Emo

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Brandon Flowers' new lumberjack beard is making him mean. First he loathed the Bravery, then he went after Fall Out Boy, and now he hates all emo and pop-punk bands (especially, um, Fall Out Boy). In the new issue of the NME the Killers frontman warns the Brits against embracing groups like Fall Out Boy and emo in general because their influence could do untold damage to generations of British children. "Culturally, if it gets as big as it is in America, it could change an entire generation of people growing up here. Emo, pop-punk, whatever you want to call it, is dangerous — there's a creature inside me that wants to beat all those bands to death." Whoa. Is Flowers is threatened by other men who wear eyeliner? Does emo deserve this much vitriol? What do you think?

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Song Stories

“He Will Break Your Heart”

Jerry Butler | 1960

A lightly swinging Latin-influenced, almost cha-cha groove and close harmonies decorated Jerry Butler's early soul hit "He Will Break Your Heart," delivering a stately warning that his rival would never love his girl like he did. The melody came to Butler as he was driving on the highway from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Philadelphia with Curtis Mayfield, and as Butler told Rolling Stone, "I just sang the melody and Curtis put the chords to it." The song's premise, Butler added, "was something that I'd lived ...The lyric was an experience rather than a revelation. Whereas music is usually a revelation."

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