The Revenge Era - Gerard Way Makeup

[bardoftheunknown]

 

The documentary Life on the Murder Scene gives us an amazing glimpse into the life of My Chemical Romance up until the release of the album that shares the documentary’s name. It also gives us more context to the evolution of Gerard’s makeup and how it grows along with the band.

 

When you first think about My Chemical Romance, and more specifically Gerard Way, you likely think about the hair and makeup from this era. Long shaggy black hair that often falls into the eyes, pale or even white foundation, and red or black eyeshadow that makes the wearer look sickly.

 With this your imagination may also drift to the emo generation that grew along with the band- and for good reason. These looks were incredibly accessible. They had to be, because the founding members of the band (Gerard, Mikey, Ray, and Frank) grew up in a low income part of New Jersey. Even as they toured they often went hungry and wouldn't have extra money to put towards Hair and Makeup Artists or extra clothing for costumes.

We see this base look even extended to the modern day E-Girl and E-Boy makeup, long shaggy hair and sickly makeup. Even though this trend focuses more on glam, the influence is still there.

After the release of the album Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, which sold more copies on the first day than the first album had ever sold at that point, MCR is able to put more money into their look.

 That being said they still kept true to their original inspirations. They stook to vampiric looks, took inspiration from the dead, comic books, horror movies, depression, substance abuse, and an anti-war stance. Some of my personal favorite looks take inspiration from super hero masks- a look they hadn't able to complete before due to lack of resources.

When they had enough money for music videos, the makeup and hair design got to shine even more. Of course we have Helena where we see the classic MCR look being executed on both Gerard and the main dancer. 

Then we also have The Ghost of You. MCR had been anti-war from the beginning, after all they formed very shortly after 9/11. But this music video helped them very openly share this view. And of course, the drastic change from their typical look to the militaristic makes this video all the more devastating. This fictional entitlement of service stripped them of any individuality, and ultimately in the video they died while not being themselves. 

Through all of this the band struggled, and this documentary certainly wasn't the end of their struggles. However, it once again reminded me why I'm so incredibly inspired by MCR as an artist and as a human.