screamo

Screamo is a relatively new name for a style of music that's been out sinse the 90's, maybe the 80's. The need for this comes from the cashing in on this genre. Emo has been out since the early 80's (dagnasty, embrace, rites of spring)but it was never labeled that until it hit popularity in the malls. Same with Screamo. Screamo is a hybrid of Hardcore music and Emo. It's Youth of Today + Sunny Day Real Estate. It's characterized by aggressive hardcore or metal riffs with soft melodies and breakdowns woven in between. The stereotypical person that listens to this type of music is the kids who like hardcore music but have that soft side. They're typically very religious, practice straight edge lifestyles and let their surpressed anxieties out through this music. They're too tough for Dashboard yet too soft for Cannibal Corpse. Their stereotypical appearance is also evident of this fusion. The black clothing, brass knuckles, guerrilla bandana, bullet belts and chains adhere to the hard side while the long hair, make-up, pink and white highlights (in the hair and the clothes) represent the soft side. To me, this is just teenage confusion. Although the music was developed from truer roots. These screamo kids are leftover fans of Marilyn Manson, Korn, and other scary crap-metal bands of the late 90's early 2000's. The thing that really gets me about this genre is how so very stereotypical and shallow it is. The music is very much teh same, as well as the wardrobe, and even the manorism of both the audience as well as the performers. I must say, if you've seen one band, you've seen them all.

Atreyeu, Saosin, everyband that where's tight black clothes, has a blonde streak in their hair, plays at church functions, plays in drop d tuning with the guitar strap very short...just flip through the latest AP magazine. Sorry to all of you post hardcore fans of the 90's, face it. Screamo is a term coined by mall america to label this new epidemic but rest assured it will be over soon and we wont remember any of it.

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