Screamo
Subgenre of emo music
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Screamo (also referred to as skramz[2]) is a subgenre of emo that emerged in the early 1990s and emphasizes "willfully experimental dissonance and dynamics".[3] San Diego–based bands Heroin and Antioch Arrow pioneered the genre in the early 1990s, and it was developed in the late 1990s mainly by bands from the East Coast of the United States such as Pg. 99, Orchid, Saetia, and I Hate Myself. Screamo is strongly influenced by hardcore punk and characterized by the use of screamed vocals.[4] Lyrical themes usually include emotional pain, death, romance, and human rights.[5] The term "screamo" has frequently been mistaken as referring to any music with screaming.[4][6]
| Screamo | |
|---|---|
Orchid performing in 2000 | |
| Other names | Skramz |
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | Early 1990s, San Diego, California, U.S. |
| Derivative forms | Pop screamo[1] |
| Subgenres | |
| Fusion genres | |
| Regional scenes | |
| Local scenes | |
| San Diego sound | |
| Other topics | |
Characteristics
Screamo is a style of hardcore punk-influenced emo with screaming.[4] Alex Henderson of AllMusic considers screamo a bridge between hardcore punk and emo, and Andrew Sacher of BrooklynVegan states the genre is "built on chaos".[8][9] Screamo uses typical rock instrumentation, but is notable for its brief compositions, chaotic sounds, harmonized guitars, and screaming vocals.[10] Screamo is characterized "by frequent shifts in tempo and dynamics and by tension-and-release catharses".[11] Many screamo bands also incorporate ballads.[10] According to AllMusic, screamo is "generally based in the aggressive side of the overarching punk-revival scene".[4] 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".[11] Emotional singing and harsh screaming are common vocals in screamo.[4]
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Screamo lyrics often feature topics such as emotional pain, breakups, romantic interest, politics, and human rights.[5][12] These lyrics are usually introspective, similar to that of softer emo bands.[4] 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.[11]
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.[13] Some groups were also unusually theoretical in inspiration: Angel Hair cited surrealist writers Antonin Artaud and Georges Bataille,[3] 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.[14]
Etymology
The term screamo is a portmanteau of the words "scream" and "emo".[15] While the genre was developing in the early 1990s, it was not initially called "screamo".[16] The term began to be used by the mid-1990s, solely amongst the DIY hardcore scene.[17] 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.'"[18] Jonathan Dee of The New York Times wrote that the term "tends to bring a scornful laugh from the bands themselves".[11]
Corruption
Following the late 1990s popularity of screamo-adjacent band the Locust, screamo began to attract the attention of people outside of hardcore, and its name was being used more broadly.[17] During the early 2000s, the term became equally as tied to the original screamo sound, as to the more melodic, but screamo-influenced, pop screamo sound of Alexisonfire, Poison the Well and the Used.[19] In 2003, Derek Miller, guitarist for Poison the Well, noted the term's constant differing usages and jokingly stated that it "describes a thousand different genres".[20] In 2008, 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".[21]
By the mid-2000s, the popularity of pop screamo had led to the word "screamo" being used loosely to describe any use of screamed vocals in music.[4] In 2007, Juan Gabe, vocalist for the screamo band Comadre, alleged that the term "has been kind of tainted in a way, especially in the States".[22] Quinn Villarreal of Sirius XM observed, "If a song had singing AND screaming in it, your grandmother and/or school bully probably called it screamo."[23]
Recodification
To combat the increasingly broad-nature of "screamo", the retronym "skramz" began to be used to describe the original DIY definition of screamo.[18] This term was coined jokingly by Alex Bigman of San Diego bands Seeing Means More and Fight Fair.[17] This codification also saw the rise of the term "pop screamo", for the more mainstream derivative,[19] as well as its synonyms "MTV screamo"[24] and "mall screamo".[25] Lars Gotrich of NPR Music made the following comment on the matter in 2011:[18]
The screamo scene [has] change[d] a lot in the last 10 years. There used to be more creative bands like Circle Takes the Square and City of Caterpillar. And then it took this route where screamo got really streamlined and unrecognizable to the point where someone hilariously invented the term skramz to distinguish the first wave of screamo bands.
History
Origins (early 1990s)
Around 1990 and 1991, a number of bands began pushing the sound of early emo into more extreme and chaotic territory. The earliest of these acts were New Jersey's Iconoclast and Merel, however the most influential acts were those from San Diego and signed to Gravity Records.[26] In particular, Heroin are the band generally cited as either pioneering screamo or being the band that inspired the earliest acts in the genre,[26][27][28] with other notable bands from the city, including Angel Hair, Antioch Arrow and Swing Kids.[28] These early San Diego screamo bands were sometimes called "spock rock" by fans due to many of them dyeing their hair black and cutting straight fringes similar to the Star Trek character Spock. This, in combination with their geek-chic style of dressing would prove particularly influential on the development of the subsequent emo and scene subcultures.[29]
In New Jersey, the genre continued to grow, soon expanding into New York City. Native Nod, Rye Coalition, 1.6 Band, and Rorschach all became prominent in this scene, which was centred around ABC No Rio,[30] while the sound expanded to elsewhere in the United States with Universal Order of Armageddon (from Baltimore) and Mohinder (from Cupertino, California).[31]
Diversification (mid–to late 1990s)
Many bands in the southern United States began pushing the early screamo sound even further sonically. Columbia, South Carolina band In/Humanity coined the term "emoviolence" to describe this sound, played by them, as well as Florida bands Palatka and the End of the Century Party. When coined, the term was a tongue in cheek portmanteau of "emo" and "powerviolence", two genre descriptions the members of In/Humanity maligned, as well as a reference to the album Emotional Violence by funk band Cameo, however as subsequent bands took influence from the sound of these groups, the term became increasingly widespread.[32][33]
In San Francisco, Portraits of Past were one of the earliest groups to merge the primitive screamo sound with post-rock.[28] The band's 1993 demo and 1994 split EP with Bleed, showcased a higher pitched scream than many prior bands in the genre, which would set the standard style for vocalists to come.[34] Their fusion with post-rock was continued by Funeral Diner, while also embracing the influence of black metal.[28]
During the mid–1990s, Southern Ontario, Canada developed a populace and diverse hardcore scene. One element of this scene was bands who played music inspired by screamo, the most prominent of which were Grade, New Day Rising and Shotmaker, and based around the annual S.C.E.N.E. Music Festival.[35] Grade had begun their career playing a style indebted to Chokehold. However, by the time of their debut album And Such Is Progress (1995), they had departed into a style more informed by Indian Summer, Rye Coalition and Lincoln. With this change, vocalist Kyle Bishop began contrasting his screams with sung vocals inspired by James Brown, Black Francis and Bob Mould.[36] This fusion was widely influential.[36] Writers, including David Marchese of Spin and Michael Barclay, have credited Grade with creating screamo.[37][38] While journalist Sam Southerland credited them as the first band to "seamlessly" merge screaming and singing, also stating "They occupy the same space as Refused: they did something incredibly innovative... they either get no credit because their progeny is hideous, or they’re dismissed because serious music journalists don’t pontificate about bands Alternative Press covered."[39]
Towards the end of the 1990s and into the 2000s, Virginia developed a large and influential screamo scene: Pg. 99, who continued in the extreme and chaotic screamo sound; City of Caterpillar, who were one of the most influential early bands to merge screamo with post-rock; Majority Rule who merged the genre with metalcore; and Malady who merged post-inflected screamo with indie rock. All of which released albums which BrooklynVegan writer Andrew Sacher called essential albums in the genre.[28] One of the most influential bands to come from the New York City screamo scene was Saetia, who formed in 1997 and created a sound influenced by math rock, jazz and Midwest emo. Following Saetia's 1999 disbandment, its members formed the similarly influential bands Off Minor and Hot Cross. Other impactful groups in the genre at this time included Jeromes Dream, Neil Perry, I Hate Myself, Reversal of Man, Yaphet Kotto and Orchid.[28]
Mainstream crossover (2000s)
Following the release of their 2001 album Full Collapse, New Jersey's Thursday were the first screamo-influenced band to gain significant media attention.[40] The following year, saw the release of Canada's Alexisonfire's self-titled album, which Metal Hammer writer Matt Mills called "key in legitimising the screamo sound".[41] In the following years, the Used, Thrice, Finch and Silverstein all gained significant attention for furthering this sound.[4][11] In contrast to the do-it-yourself screamo bands of the 1990s, screamo bands such as Thursday and the Used signed multi-album contracts with labels such as Island Def Jam and Reprise Records.[42] However, this style's connection to the genre has been disputed, with some referring to it as "MTV screamo"[2] or "pop-screamo".[1]
In the underground screamo scene, post-rock became an increasingly prominent influence amongst bands. The most prominent and influential of these acts was Richmond, Virginia's City of Caterpillar,[28] who Vice writer Jason Heller stated "encompass [the] era".[43] Music critics coined the term "post-screamo" to refer to this sound.[44][45] Other prominent acts making this sound at the time included Circle Takes the Square, Raein, Envy and Daïtro.[28] Fluff Fest, held in Czechia since 2000, was in 2017 described by Bandcamp Daily as a "summer ritual" for many fans of screamo in Europe.[46]
In Spain, bands such as Hongo, Das Plague, Ekkaia, Madame Germen and Blünt merged crust punk with elements of screamo, such as melodic minor key guitar leads, slow segues and acoustic passages. At the time, this fusion was called "emo crust". By 2002, Ekkaia and had toured with the American crust punk band Tragedy, and subsequently adopted elements of each other's styles creating the neo-crust genre.[47]
Revival (2010s)
In the early 2010s the term "screamo" began to be largely reclaimed by a new crop of do-it-yourself bands, with many screamo acts, like Loma Prieta, Pianos Become the Teeth, La Dispute, and Touché Amoré releasing records on fairly large independent labels such as Deathwish Inc.[48] In 2011 Alternative Press noted that La Dispute is "at the forefront of a traditional-screamo revival" for their critically acclaimed release Wildlife.[49] They are a part of a group of stylistically similar screamo-revival bands self-defined as "The Wave," made up of Touché Amoré, La Dispute, Defeater, Pianos Become the Teeth, and Make Do and Mend.[50][51] As well as, California's Deafheaven, who formed in 2010, having been described as screamo, in a style similar to that of Envy.[52]
In August 2018, Noisey writer Dan Ozzi declared that it was the "Summer of Screamo" in a month-long series documenting screamo acts pushing the genre forward following the decline in popularity of "The Wave," as well as the reunions of seminal bands such as Pg. 99, Majority Rule, City of Caterpillar,[53] and Jeromes Dream.[54] Groups highlighted in this coverage, including Respire,[55][56] Ostraca,[57] Portrayal of Guilt,[58][59][60] Soul Glo,[61] I Hate Sex,[62] and Infant Island,[63][64][65] had generally received positive press from large publications, but were not as widely successful as their predecessors. Noisey also documented that, despite its loss of mainstream popularity and continued hold in North American scenes, particularly Richmond, Virginia,[66] screamo had become a more international movement; notably spreading to Japan, France, and Sweden with groups including Heaven in Her Arms, Birds in Row and Suis La Lune, respectively.[67] Also in 2018, Vein released their debut album Errorzone to critical acclaim and commercial success, bringing together elements of screamo, hardcore, and nu metal.[68][69][70] This underground cohort of acts was primarily released by independent labels like Middle-Man Records[71] in the United States, Zegema Beach Records[72] in Canada, and Miss The Stars Records in Berlin.[73]
Subgenres and fusion genres
Emoviolence
Some screamo bands borrow the extreme dissonance, speed, and chaos of powerviolence. As a result, the term emoviolence was half-jokingly coined by the band In/Humanity to describe the fusion of the two styles which applied to themselves, as well as other bands including Pg. 99,[74] Orchid,[75] Reversal of Man,[75] Usurp Synapse,[76] and RentAmerica.[77][78] Additionally, bands such as Orchid, Reversal of Man, and Circle Takes the Square tend to be much closer in style to grindcore than their forebears.[75][79] In contemporary times, the genre is no longer as prevalent or widespread as it had been in the past, yet it still remains as a notable and prevalent force in underground screamo. A revival of the genre has occurred internationally with regional scenes in Southeast Asia[80] and South America[81] taking prominence.
Post-screamo
Bands including City of Caterpillar, Circle Takes the Square, Envy, Funeral Diner, Pianos Become the Teeth,[82] Respire,[83] and Le Pré Où Je Suis Mort[84][85] have incorporated post-rock elements into their music. This fusion is characterized by abrupt changes in pace, atmospheric and harmonic instrumentation, and distorted vocals.[85][86] Similarly, bands such as Heaven in Her Arms and the aforementioned group Envy, use elements of shoegazing.[87]
Sass
Sass (/sæs/) is a broadly-defined genre derived from the early San Diego screamo scene,[88] characterized by overtly flamboyant mannerisms, homoerotic lyrical content, synthesizers, dance beats and a lisping vocal style.[89] The genre originated as reaction against the hypermasculinity of tough guy hardcore,[88] and according to a 2014 Stuff You Will Hate article, was less of a unified sound, and more of a performance and esthetic style that incorporated certain musical elements to support its live performances.[88]
The origins of sass trace back to the Nation of Ulysses, who formed in Washington, D.C., in 1988. The band expanded upon post-hardcore by being fashion-conscious and creating dancable music.[90] Under their influence, bands in mid-1990s San Diego screamo scene began to embrace elements of post-punk and gothic rock into their sound, including the Crimson Curse, Spanakorzo and Antioch Arrow on Gems of Masochism (1995), forming a "proto-sass" sound.[88] Other proto-sass bands were Braniac, Le Shok and Milemaker.[90][91] Sass solidified itself as a genre around 1998, as music began to be released by pioneers the Blood Brothers, who influenced the Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower and These Arms Are Snakes to continue the sound. The centre of the scene was the record label Sound Virus.[90]
Sass bands often take influence from a wide variety of styles including post-punk, new wave, disco, electronic, dance-punk,[92] grindcore, noise rock, metalcore, mathcore and beatdown hardcore.[89] In particular, sass was originally split into a series of distinct substyles: the screamo-leaning music of JR Ewing and later Orchid; the dance punk-leaning "girlfriend sass" sound of Q and Not U, Black Eyes, the Faint and Milemaker; and the mathcore and grindcore influenced sound of the Locust, the Number Twelve Looks Like You, An Albatross and early Daughters,[88] sometimes termed "white belt grind".[91] Sass's influence permeated into many other genres, including the "sass pop" of Head Automatica and "sass metalcore" of Every Time I Die's second album Hot Damn.[90] Sass was closely releated to the dance-punk revival, with sass band A.R.E. Weapons being one of the earliest bands in the Williamsburg, Brooklyn dance-punk revival scene.[90] Furthermore, many bands who went on to be influential bands in the movement, began playing sass including Hot Hot Heat, !!! and the Rapture.[88] The most commericially successful post-sass dance-punk band was Death from Above 1979.[90]
Sass began to decline in popularity around 2003, and had disappeared entirely by 2005.[90] During the early 2010s, there was a revived interest in sass amongst fans active on the screamo message board Cross My Heart With a Knife (CMHAWK).[88] Around 2020, a sass revival had formed, featuring Circuit Circuit and SeeYouSpaceCowboy.[93]
The name sass was derived from sass, referencing the genre's flamboyant vocal expressions and lyrics.[93] It's synonym white belt hardcore originated from how many musicians and fans of the genre wore white belts, which was controversial in the hardcore scene due to its percieved effeminancy.[94] Other synonyms included dancey screamo and the more derogatory sassy screamo.[95]
Around 2018, SeeYouSpaceCowboy began to self-identify as sasscore, a portmanteau of sass and metalcore that the band considered themselves to have coined, to clarify their influences from both styles.[96] In the following years, the term became a popular synonym for all sass;[97] however, in a 2021 article, BrooklynVegan editor Andrew Sacher expressed that "sasscore" encompassed a narrower selection of bands than simply "sass", excluding the softer, less hardcore-based sound of the Blood Brothers, Death From Above 1979 and Hot Hot Heat.[98]
Pop screamo
Pop screamo is a genre derived from screamo that incorporates melodic, sung choruses and metal influenced riffs.[1] It additionally embraces elements of emo pop,[24] and the dissonant metalcore style of Deadguy, Botch, Converge and Coalesce.[2] Notable bands included Poison the Well, Thursday, Alexisonfire, the Used, Funeral for a Friend, Silverstein, He Is Legend, Saosin, Underoath and Hawthorne Heights.[19]
Kittencore
Kittencore is a style of screamo and emoviolence that emphasizes high-pitched screams, commonly performed by unexperienced teenagers.[99] The term was coined up in screamo online forums during the early 2000s, getting its name from its characteristic vocals that resembled meows of a young kitten, and gained widespread recognition after hardcore music blog You Don’t Need Maps published an article on the genre.[99] Portraits of Past's 1993 Demo as well as their split EP with Pennsylvania band Bleed were two important releases that laid the foundations for kittencore, but it was during the 2000s when the genre reached its peak. Notable bands include In Loving Memory, Spirit of Versailles, ...Of Death, Flowers Taped to Pens, Love Lost But Not Forgotten, Tears of Avarel and Nayru.[99]
