Screamo

Screamo is a post-hardcore-influenced subgenre of emo 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."^[1]

Characteristics

Screamo essentially describes a particularly dissonant style of emo influenced by hardcore punk.^[2] 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."^[2] Primary characteristics of the genre are described by Allmusic:^[2]

	"Bang Yer Head" by Portraits of Past An example of early screamo by Portraits of Past, an influential band which helped define the genre.[3] "A Box Full of Sharp Objects" by The Used An example of contemporary screamo by The Used, featuring harsh vocals, stylistic transitions, and emotional lyrics.[4]
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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."^[5] 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."^[5] Some consider the genre to be a bridge between hardcore punk and emo.^[6]

Conceptual elements

Screamo lyrics often feature topics such as emotional pain, romantic interest, feminism, politics, and human rights.^[7] 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^[5]

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.^[8] Some groups were also unusually theoretical in inspiration: Angel Hair cited surrealist writers Antonin Artaud and Georges Bataille,^[1] 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.^[9]

History

Origins (early 1990s–early 2000s)

Screamo arose as a distinct music genre in 1991, in San Diego, at the Ché Café,^[10]

Gravity Records^[11][12] and Ebullition Records^[13] released this more chaotic and expressive style of hardcore. The scene is noted for its distinctive fashion sense, inspired by mod culture.^[8] As with emo, the term screamo carries some controversy among participants.^[1]

The innovations of the San Diego scene eventually spread elsewhere, such as to the Seattle group The Blood Brothers.^[14] Many groups from the East Coast were influential in the continual development and reinvention of the style, including Orchid,^[15][16] Circle Takes the Square, Pg. 99, Hot Cross, Saetia,^[17] Ampere,^[18] and City of Caterpillar.^[2]

Contemporary screamo (2000s–present)

Alexisonfire performing live in 2007

By 1995, the genre name "screamo" drifted into the music press, especially in the journalism of Jim DeRogatis and Andy Greenwald,^[7] and by the mid-2000s, the over-saturation of the screamo scene had caused many bands to purposefully expand past the genre's trademarks and incorporate more experimental elements.^[2] Some bands that were active in the early 2000s, such as Thursday, Alexisonfire, Silverstein and Poison the Well made screamo much more popular.^[2][19] 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.^[20][21] Many of these bands took influence from the likes of Refused, At the Drive-In,^[2] 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.^[22]

Hawthorne Heights, Underoath, and Alexisonfire, three bands frequently featured on MTV, have been noted for their popularization of contemporary screamo,^[2] although all have since made stylistic changes.^[23][24] Other active American screamo acts include Comadre,^[25] Off Minor, A Mola Mola,^[26] Men As Trees,^[27] Senses Fail,^[28][29] A Day to Remember, and Vendetta Red.^[2] The contemporary screamo scene is also particularly active in Europe, with bands such as Amanda Woodward,^[30] Louise Cyphre,^[31] Le Pré Où Je Suis Mort,^[32] La Quiete and Raein all being prime examples of their scene.

Influence on other styles

Emoviolence is a style of screamo and powerviolence. The name was coined half-jokingly by In/Humanity.^[33] 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.^[34][35] Emoviolence practitioners include Pg. 99, Orchid,^[36] Reversal of Man,^[36] Agna Moraine, RentAmerica,^[35] and In/Humanity.^[33][37]

Some screamo groups, such as Orchid, Reversal of Man, and Circle Takes the Square tend to be much closer to grindcore than their forebears.^[36][38] 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.^[39][40] Pianos Become the Teeth,^[41] City of Caterpillar, Envy, Funeral Diner, and Le Pre Ou Je Suis Mort^[32][39] 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.^[42] 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.^[43][44][45] It is considered a derivative form of screamo,^[45] post-hardcore^[43] and melodic metalcore.^[46][47] Nintendocore borrows many characteristic of screamo, such as screamed vocals and unpredictable rhythms.^[43]

Vagueness of "screamo"

While the genre was developing in the early 1990s, it was not initially called "screamo".^[13] 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.'"^[48] Jonathan Dee of The New York Times wrote that the term "tends to bring a scornful laugh from the bands themselves."^[5] Lars Gotrich of NPR Music made the following comment on the matter:^[48]

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.^[2] 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."^[49] 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."^[50] 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."^[51] Juan Gabe, vocalist for the band Comadre, alleged that the term "has been kind of tainted in a way, especially in the States."^[25]

See also

• List of screamo bands

References

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