Stand Up and Scream
Photo: American Band, Attack Attack! At a photo shoot.
Photo: American Band, Attack Attack! At a photo shoot.
Screamo is a music genre which evolved from emo and hardcore punk in the early 1990s. General characteristics of screamo are screaming vocals, harmonized guitars, rhythmic bass, and fast-paced riffs. It can be described as “mixing literate, poetic lyrics of punk with a harsher and more metallic brand of sonic thrash”. Screamo is a popular genre. Though there are no mainstream screamo bands, and just because a band has screaming in their songs doesn’t mean they are screamo. Not all screamo bands use vocals. In fact many are a mix of clean (not screamed), and screamed vocals. This depends on the sub – genre, for example Post – Hardcore is derived from Hardcore – Punk, and has influenced Electronica to create Electronic Post-Hardcore. A few better known bands of mixed genres include, Asking Alexandria, Attack Attack! and Bring Me the Horizon.
The reason a lot of people disapprove of this genre is because it is not mainstream and though wildly known it is seen as vulgar and not understood and the general population fears things they don’t understand. Most commonly people that listen to this genre are labeled emo, this is an example of a typical stereotype. I for one listen to many different genres of music, and like them both just as much. People may find it strange when my iPod is on shuffle, and the song changes from some hardcore screamo song to Katy Perry.
In fact many bands have covered “pop” songs and added screamo, guitars and a raging beat to them. These are sometimes added to the wildly popular Punk Goes series, the series has gone on to sell over 650,000 albums and over 3 million singles in just over a decade.
Mainstream music is easy, that’s why many of us don’t like it. All people have to do to become a mainstream artist is grab a beat and repeat lyrics about sex, alcohol, guns and money. This is not good enough and the few mainstream musicians that have quality work aren’t credited enough for what they do. Mainstream music is a bad influence on “Pop Culture”
Being different is okay, and just because you don’t understand something doesn’t mean you can automatically dispense it as “crap”. To each his own, and my own is something for me to decide and for others not to criticise.