ok, well after years of trying to ignore people on this subject, i have personally had my limits and now i have to rant about it. about the overuse of the terms screamo, and emo.
I honestly do not think most people even know what true screamo is. I have heard these *many* times before and it just irritates me:
"They are screaming so they must be screamo"
"That band is screamo"
"Metal is the same thing has screamo"
"They talk about relationships, they must be emo!"
and stuff like that, when it is not true.
I have had many of my favorite bands called emo/screamo just because of screams/growls, and you know what, that used to turn me off from listening to them because screamo tends to have a bad rep, mostly due to lack of knowledge on what it truly is.
First off, I want to say why screamo is not, and never was, metal. Screamo has stylistic origins based off 80's punk, as well as hardcore (which by the way is not metal, it is also punk). Hardcore nor punk have ANYTHING to do with metal (no, I am not counting metalcore because that is different), they are two different styles. I am not sure how to even explain this further.
Second, bands like "the fall of troy", "alexisonfire", or "underoath" or whatever trendy shit thats on the radio/that is popular are NOT SCREAMO. True screamo is orchid, one eyed god prophecy, raein, you know, bands that you probably never have heard of. I recently started listening to orchid.
Let me post some videos (just music)
my personal favorite from orchid:
[yt]bbTAP6eZSGk[/yt]
raein - tigersuit
[yt]Miqt5lbpsGc[/yt]
now, the first thing you may notice everything is practically chaotic. it is not very catchy, there is not really any true singing. it is very raw, very emotional. compare that to, say, the fall of troy and alexisonfire. those two bands are catchy in their riffs, they combine unclean (i refuse to say scream since that is not always the case, for almost any band that is labeled screamo nowadays). the only thing closest to screamo for the fall of troy is their self titled album, and even that is not screamo. bands like alexisonfire and the fall of troy are post-hardcore.
also, lets touch on emo for a minute. just because a band sings about emotional things does not make things emotional.
lets use this as an example: pink floyd's the album "the wall", and lets even go further to the song "wish you were here".
if you have not listened to the wall, this contains spoilers, you can read on if you do not really care, im not going to :
the wall is an rock opera. it tells the story of a character named pink. pink's father died in a war when he was little, and his mom had lied about it (listen to 'when the tigers broke free'. yes, i know this is not on the wall, it is on the final cut, but if you were a true pink floyd fan, you would know that the final cut is basically songs cut from the wall, and WTTBF was included in the movie</minirant>)
OH GOD, emotional, right?
but lets go on, later in pink's life, he is a rock star. he gets married, but they are problems ("empty spaces"), and is about to cheat on her with a groupie and he goes on a rampage and becomes violent ("one of my turns").
drama
he starts becoming closed off from the world, becoming very isolated (happens throughout part 1, but finally completed in "goodbye cruel world", isnt that such an emo saying?). in "hey you" pink is basically starting to long for the outside world again (if that makes sense). "nobody home" basically is him saying how lonely he is. god, he must be emo, rite? "comfortably numb" marks a big turning point in the album, he begins to become delusional (because of drugs, that is why he is 'comfortably numb', reminding him of his childhood. "in the flesh", continuing in his hallucination, becomes basically a leader of a neonazi group. the next few songs are him still imagining himself as the leader, and what he is getting people to do. "stop" marks the end of him being the leader, and wants to go back home. and now for one of the most emotional parts of the album, "the trial".
the trial is, well, a trial. he is putting himself up on trial basically, and witnesses against him is a school teacher, his wife, his mother. the judge sentences him to tear down his wall. this song is filled with emotion.
lets go onto "wish you were here" - a song that is very emotional. it is a song that has alot of emotion put into it, and is done with great passion.
[yt]=IXdNnw99-Ic[/yt]
hell, lets throw in more pink floyd songs. dogs, jugband blues, the final cut, breathe, time, sheep. those are all pretty depressing songs, so they got to be emo right?
well, i hope you get what i am trying to say with even explaining this. i do not care if you like pink floyd or not, but the point remains the same. just because emotions are dealt with in music, or talk about emotional things does not make it emo. you can not believe *how* much i hear this.
hey while were at it lets throw maggot brain. it had alot of emotion put into it.
[yt]dh3bleXWaCk[/yt]
please note, i am not saying pink floyd is emo. they were originally psychedelic then progressive rock. not i am not saying funkadelic are either.
tl;dr:
screamo != metal
post hardcore != screamo
metal will never be screamo
just because there are unclean vocals in music, this does not mean it is screamo.
just because emotions are talked about in songs, this does not make it emo.
this concludes a rant, that took me almost 2 hours to write. i am tired as hell and i do not even know if this makes total sense
but hope fully my points came across.
good night, I am exhausted as hell.
I honestly do not think most people even know what true screamo is. I have heard these *many* times before and it just irritates me:
"They are screaming so they must be screamo"
"That band is screamo"
"Metal is the same thing has screamo"
"They talk about relationships, they must be emo!"
and stuff like that, when it is not true.
I have had many of my favorite bands called emo/screamo just because of screams/growls, and you know what, that used to turn me off from listening to them because screamo tends to have a bad rep, mostly due to lack of knowledge on what it truly is.
First off, I want to say why screamo is not, and never was, metal. Screamo has stylistic origins based off 80's punk, as well as hardcore (which by the way is not metal, it is also punk). Hardcore nor punk have ANYTHING to do with metal (no, I am not counting metalcore because that is different), they are two different styles. I am not sure how to even explain this further.
Second, bands like "the fall of troy", "alexisonfire", or "underoath" or whatever trendy shit thats on the radio/that is popular are NOT SCREAMO. True screamo is orchid, one eyed god prophecy, raein, you know, bands that you probably never have heard of. I recently started listening to orchid.
Let me post some videos (just music)
my personal favorite from orchid:
[yt]bbTAP6eZSGk[/yt]
raein - tigersuit
[yt]Miqt5lbpsGc[/yt]
now, the first thing you may notice everything is practically chaotic. it is not very catchy, there is not really any true singing. it is very raw, very emotional. compare that to, say, the fall of troy and alexisonfire. those two bands are catchy in their riffs, they combine unclean (i refuse to say scream since that is not always the case, for almost any band that is labeled screamo nowadays). the only thing closest to screamo for the fall of troy is their self titled album, and even that is not screamo. bands like alexisonfire and the fall of troy are post-hardcore.
also, lets touch on emo for a minute. just because a band sings about emotional things does not make things emotional.
lets use this as an example: pink floyd's the album "the wall", and lets even go further to the song "wish you were here".
if you have not listened to the wall, this contains spoilers, you can read on if you do not really care, im not going to :
the wall is an rock opera. it tells the story of a character named pink. pink's father died in a war when he was little, and his mom had lied about it (listen to 'when the tigers broke free'. yes, i know this is not on the wall, it is on the final cut, but if you were a true pink floyd fan, you would know that the final cut is basically songs cut from the wall, and WTTBF was included in the movie</minirant>)
OH GOD, emotional, right?
but lets go on, later in pink's life, he is a rock star. he gets married, but they are problems ("empty spaces"), and is about to cheat on her with a groupie and he goes on a rampage and becomes violent ("one of my turns").
drama
he starts becoming closed off from the world, becoming very isolated (happens throughout part 1, but finally completed in "goodbye cruel world", isnt that such an emo saying?
). in "hey you" pink is basically starting to long for the outside world again (if that makes sense). "nobody home" basically is him saying how lonely he is. god, he must be emo, rite? "comfortably numb" marks a big turning point in the album, he begins to become delusional (because of drugs, that is why he is 'comfortably numb', reminding him of his childhood. "in the flesh", continuing in his hallucination, becomes basically a leader of a neonazi group. the next few songs are him still imagining himself as the leader, and what he is getting people to do. "stop" marks the end of him being the leader, and wants to go back home. and now for one of the most emotional parts of the album, "the trial".the trial is, well, a trial. he is putting himself up on trial basically, and witnesses against him is a school teacher, his wife, his mother. the judge sentences him to tear down his wall. this song is filled with emotion.
lets go onto "wish you were here" - a song that is very emotional. it is a song that has alot of emotion put into it, and is done with great passion.
[yt]=IXdNnw99-Ic[/yt]
hell, lets throw in more pink floyd songs. dogs, jugband blues, the final cut, breathe, time, sheep. those are all pretty depressing songs, so they got to be emo right?
well, i hope you get what i am trying to say with even explaining this. i do not care if you like pink floyd or not, but the point remains the same. just because emotions are dealt with in music, or talk about emotional things does not make it emo. you can not believe *how* much i hear this.
hey while were at it lets throw maggot brain. it had alot of emotion put into it.
[yt]dh3bleXWaCk[/yt]
please note, i am not saying pink floyd is emo. they were originally psychedelic then progressive rock. not i am not saying funkadelic are either.
tl;dr:
screamo != metal
post hardcore != screamo
metal will never be screamo
just because there are unclean vocals in music, this does not mean it is screamo.
just because emotions are talked about in songs, this does not make it emo.
this concludes a rant, that took me almost 2 hours to write. i am tired as hell and i do not even know if this makes total sense
but hope fully my points came across.
good night, I am exhausted as hell.
