Interview with Jarrod Alonge
"I would literary die for pop punk" -Jarrod AlongeWho is Jarrod Alonge?
Jarrod Alonge is a 24 year old youtuber who makes pop punk and alternative based videos. His bigger videos are the "Every [blank] vocalist" and the misheard lyrics videos. He is a very big person in the pop punk and alternative scene. He has been on Warped Tour ( a very big traveling music Festival that started in 1995 and has hosted such bands as All-American Rejects, Blink-182, and Fall Out Boy) and has made many videos with many different kinds of bands. He has made two albums parodying the alternative music scene. His first album was "Beating A Dead Horse: Deluxe, Ultra-Limited, Executive, Undead Edition" which has his most popular song "Pop Punk Pizza Party" and "First World Tragedy" in which he makes fun of generic pop punk lyrics. In this album he makes fun of easycore bands such as Chunk! No Captain Chunk with his song "Take It Easycore" he also makes fun of Attita with his song "Suck My 104K". On his second Album "Friendville" his made up band "Sunrise Skater Kids" he mainly makes fun of pop punk. He features artists who are actually part of serious bands and makes fun of them. He directly makes fun of Patty Walters of the band "As It Is" in his song "Nothing special" Patty has done songs which him before and is a friend of Jarrod. Jarrod has make the scene a lot more positive and helped kids find other kids who have the same sense of humor and music taste. |
Why do you have a connection to this kind of music?
Personally, I’ve always enjoyed this type of music because it’s just better. Underground music usually stays out of the mainstream spotlight, and because of that artists aren’t afraid to try new experimental ideas and don’t have to worry about “selling out.” I feel connected to alternative music as a genre because I grew up listening to it and is still a big part of my life and work. Do you feel this kind of music helps people? All forms of music have the capacity to help others, it just depends on how well you connect with it. Fans of alternative music seem to be more dedicated and active in the scene, but I’m sure people that listen to mainstream rap and pop enjoy it just as much. Do you think that music had any part in what happened at Columbine Not at all. People get scared of things they don’t understand and try to find something to blame bad events on so they make more sense to them. Same applies to video games leading to violence, which is an idea that’s been scientifically disproven many times over. For some reason, adults don’t like to face the fact that school shootings are usually the product of bullying and troubled living situations. Do you feel it is right for people to automatically think people are a threat because of the music they listen to? No. It doesn’t really make sense. If anything, the people I know that listen to this type are probably the friendliest, least-violent people I know. Have people made false judgments on you based on what you listen to and what you wear? Back in middle school and high school, yes. That’s mostly because kids are insecure and like to project their insecurities onto their peers so they can feel better about themselves. Do you feel you are doing good and helping people by making the kinds of videos you make? Hopefully! If I can make people laugh, I must be doing something to brighten their day. Do you think any of bands you have made videos with mean any harm to anyone or would like their fans to hurt anyone? Absolutely not. Some bands have “violent” personas just for aesthetic purposes, but most lyrics are metaphorical and only exist to express exaggerated feelings. It’s like when someone makes you angry and you want to kill them. You won’t ACTUALLY act on it, but it’s a feeling most people get at some point. Do you know any about Columbine? I was too young to remember Columbine, but I know enough about it. How do you feel about kids who are into this kind of music? If anything, that they have good taste in music. Other than that, nothing. They could be nice people or massive jerks. You can’t deduce someone’s character based on what they listening to. It’s like saying people that eat bananas are serial killers. Is there anything else you’d like to put out there? I think you covered everything. Thanks for reaching out! |
Reflection
This interview is probably the highlight of my report. For starters I completely agree with what he said, he put in a way that I’ve been trying to. Jarrod’s point on my question on the kids in the scene really represents what I’ve been trying to do my whole life and is why I choose topic. Also did I mention how much Jarrod Alonge means to me and how big he is in my life? He means the world to me. I didn’t really have any problems I mean he was chill about it, he didn’t take long to respond, his answers were great, zero problems. I actually didn’t learn anything new beside some information his opinions on things. I did learn that me and Jarrod have the exact same opinion on this kind of thing. I think this is important because it supports what the point of my project was and shows that I’m not some delusional kid or that my opinions are wrong. I don’t know what else I would ask him fitting the theme of my project. If I got to talk to him and didn’t have to keep the theme of my project I probably would ask him stuff about his experiences, ya know? I mean I would love to know what it was like to hang out with some of the bands he made videos with and what it was like being on Warped Tour. I’m grateful this project gave me a chance to talk to Jarrod Alonge.
Interview With Officer Malone
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How much do you know about Columbine?
Um.. I don’t know, not as much as a lot of people I guess it’s not something that I study a lot but I’ve been to a lot of training's and stuff and we talk about um school shootings so I have learned some stuff about it
Do you understand why the did what they did?
Do I understand… I think that’s a misleading question because there is different options on why they did what they did, what do you think they did what they did?
Mental illness
I completely disagree with that, that’s not why they did what they did according to the information I got. Actually to be frank, school shootings, they are a small percentage of the people that have done the school shootings think it’s around 20% of those people have a mental illness that play a part in the decision making process but that has never been the only reason anyone has ever bone school shootings.
What do you think caused them to shoot up the school?
For these two in particular what I think the reason is….. It was it was more of a place of feeling frustrated they weren’t part of the popular group but they weren’t trying to be a part of the popular group, they were different they knew they were different they thought differently and they were a lot smarter than everyone else and I felt like that was more of an contributing factor to their frustration about being able to feel apart no feel a connection with other people because they were mentally more intelligent than a lot of people but because they were from this small town they didn’t have a lot of stuff to challenge them, so they were just feeling frustrated, years and years of frustration built over because they never had that outlet, it’s the same with some people who are creative and they can’t write or they can’t pain they don’t have a way to release it so it’s just built up frustration and it lead them to decide that, at least even in their own words ‘get rid of all the idiots’ there’s um and I don’t know what information you have, but there’s they said uhh they had journals they they wrote down that a lot of the uhh statements they were talking about is pretty demeaning and degrading to other people's intelligence because they were so much smarter than everybody else around them so i think to answer your question, it as a lot of built up frustration and lack of coping skills or even the vision to get themselves out of that environment
Do you believe we need stronger gun control laws?
That’s another question that I find difficult to answer, because out of all the gun laws we have now, it doesn't prevent people from obtaining guns illegally, everybody who i’ve arrested with guns they were all illegal, guns even the ones we have laws on you can make more laws but people are still gonna find ways to get around the law and laws don't’ prevent people from breaking them we can make more laws and make it harder for people to get guns and all that stuff they’ll find another way to get them and their all be illegal, even the guy who sold the guns to these kids went to jail, they got their guns illegally, so having more laws isn’t going to stop people for getting guns, so I do think we need to have stronger gun laws but I don’t think it’s gonna solve the problem
Do you think people are looking for the wrong warning signs?
I think moreso now than before, especially before the Columbine incident because a lot of people looked at it afterwards and were like”oh it was because of bullying” and it wasn’t. If you look at what their original plan was, do you know what their plan was?
Yeah
They weren’t targeting they bullies, they weren’t targeting a certain group of people, they were targeting anybody, they set up bombs to blow off in the cafeteria that was gonna kill everybody, the library was on top of the cafeteria and they were waiting outside for every else to run out who survived, that was their original plan, they weren’t targeting any people. A lot of people, especially after this, they are looking for people who are being bullied and people that dress a certain way, think there are warning signs,yes, but I think the focus is a little misguided and people jump to conclusions about why, especially these two kids did what they did because that’s the easiest solution in their mind, bullying wasn’t the reason they did what they did, and they weren’t targeting bullies, so I think there are warning signs but I think their misguided.
Do you believe that this attack could of been stopped?
By who?
Anybody, by teachers, by like the other students, or the school staff or their parents
I think it could've been stopped a lot of different ways at this specific scenario, if people intervened in different ways, these two kids, if one of the families had to move, would it still have happened, maybe not, if the guy who sold them the ammunition didn’t sell it to them, could it have been prevented, maybe, could they have found another way, I don’t know. If this school was set up to meet all the kids needs, where they were at, because it was clearly documented that these guys were very smart but they weren’t being challenged in school, there was no, there way no outreach maybe, it could've been maybe not, it’s hard to uh say that it could've been prevented because people are going to make their and what might work for you might not work for me as far as intervention even though we could have the same upbringing, the same family dynamics, the same classes, there could be a lot of the same things that just kinda affect you differently than me because we’re different people, i think that it is difficult to say that there’s a one answer that could've prevented this from happening we because we don’t know we just don’t know
Do you think anyone who has an interest in columbine is a threat?
When you asked me earlier about warning signs, that’s one of the warning signs, a lack of family support at home is a warning sign, people who are being targeted in bullying is a warning sign, who have some sort of mental condition is a warning sign, people who are interested in mass murders in those types of situations those are warning signs, people who like to watch violent movies and play violent video games and stuff like that are warning signs, there are a lot of warning signs but one just by themselves doesn’t make someone a threat but it is something that causes people to be concerned because the overall idea is to prevent this from happening and if these kids showed warning signs and no one did anything to go back to your question if it could've been prevented maybe is that the idea is to prevent this from happening again but it still happens you know when the most recent one was?
The one in san something in california
Yeah, it still happens but it doesn’t make someone who is interested in it a threat
But it’s definitely a warning sign be
If someone were to have an interest in Columbine, would it be better if they were open about it than stay silent?
Be open it’s always better when people talk. One of the things, did i tell you I’ve been to a lot of trainings, to talk about active shootings, school shootings, workplace shootings, they do talk about this even if it’s to a small group of people, people do talk and it’s better if we hear that they are talking about it, but it’s also if the people they are talking to share the information with the teachers or the police so that we can we have some sort of action, the aftermath of all of this stuff for people who survived it is really devastating, I would rather they talk about it.
Do you think that the police being more involved in the schools, like not necessarily enforcing stuff but making positive relationships with students, would slow down the schooling issue?
Yes, I think any positive role models from adults is a good thing, I don’t necessary think just police on campus all together is all positive because some people feel like “oh the police are here they are going to take me to jail if i do something wrong” Not everybody has a positive view of police even when I’m here passing out stickers and playing basketball with the kids not all the other students welcome me being here not everybody is happy that I’m here because of their perception about police, but I think it could help but if one of these kids, because there was a school resource officer at their school it didn’t prevent them them from doing it, but could it help, maybe.
Final words:
I think what I wanna, from reading about this stuff is that there’s no excuse for this to happen regardless what their mental condition were, what family, life at home was their social life was, there’s no excuse there’s no reason there’s nothing that validates the outcome especially learning what their plan was, there's no excuse for it, there’s nothing that happens to a person that you can’t overcome, I think people are strong people are tough, people are survivors people can cope people can deal with loss, frustration, with grieving, and if somebody struggles with dealing with those things I think they should seek out help and get support from people and get through it, we can survive and overcome any trial that we have and deciding to end it all and and take people with you when you go I think that shows weakness because people are meant to survive so I don’t look at their situation and see it in anyway that glorifies their action, especially the people who think it was about bullying, that is one of the biggest lies about this whole thing, that it was about them being bullied because that is absolutely not true but people use that to make an excuse to commit violence towards other people and even though bullying is horrible and it affects people it’s something that you can still overcome and it’s something that can make you stronger, and in real life, when you get out of school and you get a job you’re going to have boss or co-workers that you don’t like, you can’t deal with or you can’t tolerate without experiencing frustration but you still have to survive and move on you have to cope, you have to deal with it, you have to develop better communication skills to communicate to people that what they're doing is harmful, but that doesn’t mean people are going to change, but I think the trails that everyone experiences should make them stronger and taking this kind of action shows mental weakness and there’s nothing nothing to be glorified or praised about this because they weren’t even trying to be heroes I think a lot of people who obsessed and read about it, they look at it through the wrong lens there's all the facts out there, with the journals out there people still don’t understand, even the people who praise what they did they don’t even understand why they did what they did, if you look at all the facts you can see it wasn’t something to be glorified because people are taught that’s all.
Um.. I don’t know, not as much as a lot of people I guess it’s not something that I study a lot but I’ve been to a lot of training's and stuff and we talk about um school shootings so I have learned some stuff about it
Do you understand why the did what they did?
Do I understand… I think that’s a misleading question because there is different options on why they did what they did, what do you think they did what they did?
Mental illness
I completely disagree with that, that’s not why they did what they did according to the information I got. Actually to be frank, school shootings, they are a small percentage of the people that have done the school shootings think it’s around 20% of those people have a mental illness that play a part in the decision making process but that has never been the only reason anyone has ever bone school shootings.
What do you think caused them to shoot up the school?
For these two in particular what I think the reason is….. It was it was more of a place of feeling frustrated they weren’t part of the popular group but they weren’t trying to be a part of the popular group, they were different they knew they were different they thought differently and they were a lot smarter than everyone else and I felt like that was more of an contributing factor to their frustration about being able to feel apart no feel a connection with other people because they were mentally more intelligent than a lot of people but because they were from this small town they didn’t have a lot of stuff to challenge them, so they were just feeling frustrated, years and years of frustration built over because they never had that outlet, it’s the same with some people who are creative and they can’t write or they can’t pain they don’t have a way to release it so it’s just built up frustration and it lead them to decide that, at least even in their own words ‘get rid of all the idiots’ there’s um and I don’t know what information you have, but there’s they said uhh they had journals they they wrote down that a lot of the uhh statements they were talking about is pretty demeaning and degrading to other people's intelligence because they were so much smarter than everybody else around them so i think to answer your question, it as a lot of built up frustration and lack of coping skills or even the vision to get themselves out of that environment
Do you believe we need stronger gun control laws?
That’s another question that I find difficult to answer, because out of all the gun laws we have now, it doesn't prevent people from obtaining guns illegally, everybody who i’ve arrested with guns they were all illegal, guns even the ones we have laws on you can make more laws but people are still gonna find ways to get around the law and laws don't’ prevent people from breaking them we can make more laws and make it harder for people to get guns and all that stuff they’ll find another way to get them and their all be illegal, even the guy who sold the guns to these kids went to jail, they got their guns illegally, so having more laws isn’t going to stop people for getting guns, so I do think we need to have stronger gun laws but I don’t think it’s gonna solve the problem
Do you think people are looking for the wrong warning signs?
I think moreso now than before, especially before the Columbine incident because a lot of people looked at it afterwards and were like”oh it was because of bullying” and it wasn’t. If you look at what their original plan was, do you know what their plan was?
Yeah
They weren’t targeting they bullies, they weren’t targeting a certain group of people, they were targeting anybody, they set up bombs to blow off in the cafeteria that was gonna kill everybody, the library was on top of the cafeteria and they were waiting outside for every else to run out who survived, that was their original plan, they weren’t targeting any people. A lot of people, especially after this, they are looking for people who are being bullied and people that dress a certain way, think there are warning signs,yes, but I think the focus is a little misguided and people jump to conclusions about why, especially these two kids did what they did because that’s the easiest solution in their mind, bullying wasn’t the reason they did what they did, and they weren’t targeting bullies, so I think there are warning signs but I think their misguided.
Do you believe that this attack could of been stopped?
By who?
Anybody, by teachers, by like the other students, or the school staff or their parents
I think it could've been stopped a lot of different ways at this specific scenario, if people intervened in different ways, these two kids, if one of the families had to move, would it still have happened, maybe not, if the guy who sold them the ammunition didn’t sell it to them, could it have been prevented, maybe, could they have found another way, I don’t know. If this school was set up to meet all the kids needs, where they were at, because it was clearly documented that these guys were very smart but they weren’t being challenged in school, there was no, there way no outreach maybe, it could've been maybe not, it’s hard to uh say that it could've been prevented because people are going to make their and what might work for you might not work for me as far as intervention even though we could have the same upbringing, the same family dynamics, the same classes, there could be a lot of the same things that just kinda affect you differently than me because we’re different people, i think that it is difficult to say that there’s a one answer that could've prevented this from happening we because we don’t know we just don’t know
Do you think anyone who has an interest in columbine is a threat?
When you asked me earlier about warning signs, that’s one of the warning signs, a lack of family support at home is a warning sign, people who are being targeted in bullying is a warning sign, who have some sort of mental condition is a warning sign, people who are interested in mass murders in those types of situations those are warning signs, people who like to watch violent movies and play violent video games and stuff like that are warning signs, there are a lot of warning signs but one just by themselves doesn’t make someone a threat but it is something that causes people to be concerned because the overall idea is to prevent this from happening and if these kids showed warning signs and no one did anything to go back to your question if it could've been prevented maybe is that the idea is to prevent this from happening again but it still happens you know when the most recent one was?
The one in san something in california
Yeah, it still happens but it doesn’t make someone who is interested in it a threat
But it’s definitely a warning sign be
If someone were to have an interest in Columbine, would it be better if they were open about it than stay silent?
Be open it’s always better when people talk. One of the things, did i tell you I’ve been to a lot of trainings, to talk about active shootings, school shootings, workplace shootings, they do talk about this even if it’s to a small group of people, people do talk and it’s better if we hear that they are talking about it, but it’s also if the people they are talking to share the information with the teachers or the police so that we can we have some sort of action, the aftermath of all of this stuff for people who survived it is really devastating, I would rather they talk about it.
Do you think that the police being more involved in the schools, like not necessarily enforcing stuff but making positive relationships with students, would slow down the schooling issue?
Yes, I think any positive role models from adults is a good thing, I don’t necessary think just police on campus all together is all positive because some people feel like “oh the police are here they are going to take me to jail if i do something wrong” Not everybody has a positive view of police even when I’m here passing out stickers and playing basketball with the kids not all the other students welcome me being here not everybody is happy that I’m here because of their perception about police, but I think it could help but if one of these kids, because there was a school resource officer at their school it didn’t prevent them them from doing it, but could it help, maybe.
Final words:
I think what I wanna, from reading about this stuff is that there’s no excuse for this to happen regardless what their mental condition were, what family, life at home was their social life was, there’s no excuse there’s no reason there’s nothing that validates the outcome especially learning what their plan was, there's no excuse for it, there’s nothing that happens to a person that you can’t overcome, I think people are strong people are tough, people are survivors people can cope people can deal with loss, frustration, with grieving, and if somebody struggles with dealing with those things I think they should seek out help and get support from people and get through it, we can survive and overcome any trial that we have and deciding to end it all and and take people with you when you go I think that shows weakness because people are meant to survive so I don’t look at their situation and see it in anyway that glorifies their action, especially the people who think it was about bullying, that is one of the biggest lies about this whole thing, that it was about them being bullied because that is absolutely not true but people use that to make an excuse to commit violence towards other people and even though bullying is horrible and it affects people it’s something that you can still overcome and it’s something that can make you stronger, and in real life, when you get out of school and you get a job you’re going to have boss or co-workers that you don’t like, you can’t deal with or you can’t tolerate without experiencing frustration but you still have to survive and move on you have to cope, you have to deal with it, you have to develop better communication skills to communicate to people that what they're doing is harmful, but that doesn’t mean people are going to change, but I think the trails that everyone experiences should make them stronger and taking this kind of action shows mental weakness and there’s nothing nothing to be glorified or praised about this because they weren’t even trying to be heroes I think a lot of people who obsessed and read about it, they look at it through the wrong lens there's all the facts out there, with the journals out there people still don’t understand, even the people who praise what they did they don’t even understand why they did what they did, if you look at all the facts you can see it wasn’t something to be glorified because people are taught that’s all.
Reflection
I’m not gonna lie I hated typing this, it was long and painful, that was probably the biggest challenge I had. I had to type 17 minutes worth of audio, it really sucked. My hands still hurt from it. I never really thought about their academic frustration until this interview. I mean it could really help me prove that this attack wasn’t about music or bullying. I also found the warning signs he listed really interesting. I never really thought about the video games one. For me video games are just games I mean if i play a lot of Watchdogs or GTA I’ll look at a car and go “I could steal that” then I realize “Hey this is real life, I can’t do that” and I don’t. I heard from many of my gamer friends this is the case for them as well, if you mix that impulsive thought with the right mental illness you could have things like that happening. I think everything I would ask has been covered. I think everything was covered a little too well.
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