Angst?

[Duke Psychology]

what's everyone's problem with angst? i see it bashed everywhere. i never had much of a problem with it. it's good for drama. so why does everyone groan when they hear a movie/book/TVshow/song/videogame/comicbook/cartoon/anime showcases some angst?

[Starflyer 58]

It's becoming more and more cliché, is the problem, and writers can't seem to break out of the same stereotypical situations. I like angst when it isn't the center of a storyline, when it's just a side-effect of an already well-developed plot - that's when it works and is most effective; speaking for myself, of course.

[LazyReaper]

I personally have nothing against angst in a story, but like Starflyer said: it's just being so overused in tv shows now days that its just getting tiresome and repetitive. I don't mind if it is used to progress characters on the side along with another story (I think that's fine) but when angst becomes the main focus of the show over and over with no real substance to hold it up, then that's when the show starts to become a problem to the most of us. (Atleast that's what I think.)

-Aximlli-

[Classic Speedy]

I find it more cliched in music. It seems like there are too many angst-filled rock bands nowadays. To these angst bands, I say, stop complaining and take it like a man. :p

[SSJPabs]

I find it more cliched in music. It seems like there are too many angst-filled rock bands nowadays. To these angst bands, I say, stop complaining and take it like a man. :pThus returning us to the age of Glam Rockers and big hair? Poison you say?! Poison never had issues!! They were MEN! Um, I mean drag queens.

Seriously though I've found angst less enjoyable as I got older and moved on from my teenage angst. I think that's part of it, the older you get the more you tend to think "just take it like a man!" because that's what you have to do in life more often than not. Changing demographics I'd say.

[Mynd Hed]

I'd say telling a story about angst is like telling a story about love-- it can be good, but it's been done so often that it's very difficult to do it without resorting to cliches or else going to the opposite extreme and being different for the sake of different and letting that interfere with being good.

That, and what SSJPabs said-- most people grow out of it around the same time as they grow out of their teen years, and being exposed to it after that point is often just an obnoxious reminder of an increasingly embarrasing portion of one's life. (-: You can relate to stories of alienation and depression pretty easily when you're sixteen, dealing with insane amounts of hormones raging through your body and lonely as hell, but it's a little harder to really feel it when you're in your mid-twenties and up with a good job, good friends, good relationships with your family, and a steady S.O.

[HelloKittyKat]

Angst is a lingering phenomenon of Generation X that just needs to go away, or at least reduced in importance so it can be refreshed as a thematic device. It was great when Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder took the world by storm, angry and angst ridden, but now it's a total joke reserved for WB dramas and nu-metal songs.