Screamo is a subgenre of emo and post-hardcore that evolved in the early 1990s.
This initially involved a more aggressive offshoot of emo music and used short songs
that grafted "intensity to willfully experimental dissonance and dynamics."
Screamo has been described as a dissonant style of emo influenced by hardcore punk using
screaming vocals.
Screamo lyrics often feature topics such as emotional pain, romantic interest, feminism,
politics, and human rights.
Many screamo bands in the 1990s saw themselves as implicitly political, and as a reaction
against the turn to the right.
The term screamo has some issues associated with its use.
It has commonly been used as an umbrella term for all artists using screamed vocals.
It can include several different vocal styles or qualities that are associated with the
term.
Some bands with a guttural vocal style could be included although not universally.
Another issue with the term is that it has been used to describe many different genres,
including modern post-hardcore and metalcore.
Screamo spans several subgenres, including: crunkcore, a style of crunk employing the
vocal technique of screamo; screamo influenced by grindcore; Nintendocore rooted in screamo;
and emoviolence, which combines screamo with powerviolence.
Characteristics Screamo essentially describes a particularly
dissonant style of emo influenced by hardcore punk.
Screamo uses typical rock instrumentation, but is notable for its brief compositions,
chaotic execution, and screaming vocals.
The genre is "generally based in the aggressive side of the overarching punk-revival scene."
Primary characteristics of the genre are described by Allmusic:
In addition to melodic transitions from heavy to soft styles, the genre is also characterized
"by frequent shifts in tempo and dynamics and by tension-and-release catharses."
Screamed vocals are used "not consistently, but as a kind of crescendo element, a sonic
weapon to be trotted out when the music and lyrics reach a particular emotional pitch."
Some consider the genre to be a bridge between hardcore punk and emo.
Conceptual elements Screamo lyrics often feature topics such as
emotional pain, romantic interest, feminism, politics, and human rights.
The New York Times noted that "part of the music's appeal is its un-self-conscious acceptance
of differences, respect for otherness."
Some screamo bands openly demonstrate acceptance of religious, nonreligious, and straight edge
lifestyles Many screamo bands in the 1990s saw themselves
as implicitly political, and as a reaction against the turn to the right embodied by
California politicians, such as Roger Hedgecock.
Some groups were also unusually theoretical in inspiration: Angel Hair cited surrealist
writers Antonin Artaud and Georges Bataille, and Orchid lyrically name-checked French new
wave icon Anna Karina, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, French philosopher Michel
Foucault, and critical theory originators the Frankfurt School.
History Origins
Screamo arose as a distinct music genre in 1991, in San Diego, at the Ché Café,
Gravity Records and Ebullition Records released this more chaotic and expressive style of
hardcore.
The scene is noted for its distinctive fashion sense, inspired by mod culture.
As with emo, the term screamo carries some controversy among participants.
The innovations of the San Diego scene eventually spread elsewhere, such as to the Seattle group
The Blood Brothers.
Many groups from the East Coast were influential in the continual development and reinvention
of the style, including Orchid, Circle Takes the Square, Pg. 99, Hot Cross, Saetia, Ampere,
and City of Caterpillar.
Contemporary screamo
By 1995, the genre name "screamo" drifted into the music press, especially in the journalism
of Jim DeRogatis and Andy Greenwald, and by the mid-2000s, the term was being used to
describe a huge variety of post-hardcore and metalcore acts.
Some bands that were often referred to as screamo in the early 2000s, such as Thursday,
Alexisonfire, Silverstein and Poison the Well popularized the use of the term to describe
many of that era's popular post-hardcore bands.
Thursday cited the post-punk band Joy Division, and the post-hardcore band Fugazi as important
influences, but also took cues from the alternative rock of Radiohead, U2, and The Cure.
Many of these bands took influence from the likes of Refused, At the Drive-In, and Keepsake.
In contrast to the DIY first-wave screamo groups, Thursday and The Used have signed
multi-album contracts with labels such as Island Def Jam and Reprise Records.
Simultaneously, the DIY screamo scene continued to exist, with American bands like Comadre,
Off Minor, and Hot Cross releasing records on independent labels that were stylistically
similar to early screamo bands.
The contemporary screamo scene has also remained particularly active in Europe, with bands
such as Amanda Woodward, Louise Cyphre, Le Pré Où Je Suis Mort, La Quiete and Raein
all being prime examples of their scene.
Many of these bands have existed since the initial explosion of European screamo in the
early 2000s, and the scene in countries like Italy and France has remained strong through
to the present day.
Use of the term "screamo" to describe mainstream post-hardcore acts has begun to subside in
the early 2010s, with the term being largely reclaimed by a new crop of DIY bands.
The genre is once again growing in popularity, with many screamo acts, like Loma Prieta.
Pianos Become the Teeth and Touché Amoré releasing records on fairly large independent
labels like Deathwish Inc..
Influence on other styles Emoviolence is a style of screamo and powerviolence.
The name was coined half-jokingly by In/Humanity.
Recognisable elements of emo violence are its incorporation of amplified feedback and
blast beats; the music is highly dissonant and chaotic, generally featuring fast tempos,
shouting, and screamed vocals.
Emoviolence practitioners include Pg. 99, Orchid, Reversal of Man, Agna Moraine, RentAmerica,
and In/Humanity.
Some screamo groups, such as Orchid, Reversal of Man, and Circle Takes the Square tend to
be much closer to grindcore than their forebears.
Other screamo acts have often incorporated post-rock into their music.
This fusion is characterized by abrupt changes in pace, atmospheric, harmonic instrumentation,
and low-volume vocals.
Pianos Become the Teeth, City of Caterpillar, Envy, Funeral Diner, and Le Pre Ou Je Suis
Mort are examples of post-rock influenced screamo acts.
Other screamo-influenced genres include crunkcore and Nintendocore.
Crunkcore combines screamo with crunk hip hop and various electronic elements.
Nintendocore, a name coined by Horse the Band, is a music genre that fuses elements of modern
rock with video game music, chiptunes, and 8-bit music.
It is considered a derivative form of screamo, post-hardcore and melodic metalcore.
Nintendocore borrows many characteristic of screamo, such as screamed vocals and unpredictable
rhythms.
Vagueness of "screamo" While the genre was developing in the early
1990s, it was not initially called "screamo".
Chris Taylor, lead vocalist for the band Pg. 99, said "we never liked that whole screamo
thing.
Even during our existence, we tried to venture away from the fashion and tell people, 'Hey,
this is punk.'"
Jonathan Dee of The New York Times wrote that the term "tends to bring a scornful laugh
from the bands themselves."
Lars Gotrich of NPR Music made the following comment on the matter:
Allmusic has noted that the term screamo can sometimes be vague, and that even bands that
weren't necessarily screamo would often use the style's characteristic guttural vocal
style.
Derek Miller, guitarist for the band Poison the Well noted the term's constant differing
usages and jokingly stated that it "describes a thousand different genres."
According to Jeff Mitchell of Iowa State Daily, "there is no set definition of what screamo
sounds like but screaming over once deafeningly loud rocking noise and suddenly quiet, melodic
guitar lines is a theme commonly affiliated with the genre."
Bert McCracken, lead singer of The Used, stated that screamo is merely a term "for record
companies to sell records and for record stores to categorize them."
Juan Gabe, vocalist for the band Comadre, alleged that the term "has been kind of tainted
in a way, especially in the States."
See also List of screamo bands
Noise rock Dance-punk
References