The Bastardization of the Term “Screamo”

At this point, when I hear somebody refer to a “screamo” band, I genuinely have no clue what they'll be describing, even if they're knowledgeable on this type of music... because it's so misused and almost everybody seems to know that, and yet they still use it. I've people describe everything from “Pray for Plagues”-era Bring me the Horizon to My Chemical Romance to Cannibal Corpse as screamo, yet some how I've never heard one person refer to an actual screamo band as screamo. Many even began referring to it as “skramz” (which was first coined half jockingly but has become used in serious lexiconical way).

Maybe that's because the genre is, actually, much more obscure than the term itself, or maybe the term has become so misused that it has simply become used to describe something different; the same can be said for multiple other hardcore genres such melodic hardcore, hardcore punk and emo (we've actually done an article on this one).

If you didn't know, skramz grew out of emocore in the early-1990s when bands like Sleeping Bodies, Antioch Arrows, Heroin and Ivich began increasing their tempos and incorporating screams (or at least shouts that were pushed to the extent that they could be referred to as such). Eventually, screamo splintered, bands like Pg.99, Orchid and Saetia took an even more aggressive root, becoming inspired by powerviolence, while bands like City of Caterpillar, Circle Takes the Square and Funeral Dinner thrived on the contrast of soft and heavy, incorporating elements of post-rock. There was even a small crop of bands like the Blood Brothers, Black Cat #13 and the Red Light Sting who incorporated flamboyant dance punk and indie rock into their sound, referred to as “sass” or “sassy screamo”.

These bands broadening the scope the screamo, could have easily been some of the driving factors into how the term became so widely used.

Now here's where it gets complicated, because Alexisonfire and the Used (later-on the same could be said about Touché Amoré, Pianos Become the Teeth and La Dispute) are both bands that even those knowledgeable on screamo, will sometimes argue are screamo, which they are not. Both bands do definitely have influences from the genre, Alexisonfire cite Orchid, Pg.99 and Saetia as influences, despite primarily playing alternative metalcore during the periods in which they are described as this (only Alexisonfire's first two albums are usually attributed the title, while the same can be said for the Used debut).

And this, I believe is where the confusion really started, as those unaware of the term “screamo” heard these two bands being described as such and began using it for bands who played a similar style but were less indebted to screamo, itself.

Furthermore, as further alternative metalcore bands gained mainstream popularity, such as Silverstein, Underoath and Senses Fail, the mainstream subsequently grabbed a hold of the term and began attributing it as any band who uses any of kind of unclean vocals: thus the Cannibal Corpse and Bring me the Horizon comments.