The Emo/Screamo Appreciation Thread

[Wagomu]

Emo and screamo are two genres that are incredibly misunderstood. The public media has done a job in reworking the terms to refer to any music that's dramatically depressive or contains screaming. These are not emo or scremo. Many people think that emo just refers to emotional. If it was just that, than almost any music could qualify as emo. So what's the truth behind the genres? Emo is really short hand for emotive hardcore. It first grew as a reaction to the overly political nature of hardcore punk. Emo bands decided that hardcore should be more personal, focused on people and emotions rather than just the outside world. Screamo developed as a much more aggressive offshoot of emo. Yes, it does include screaming, but screaming does not define screamo. Both genres are really in tune with more melodic and atmospheric sounds combined with the raw power of hardcore punk. Both genres were also pretty far underground and stayed there, working almost purely in DIY production and distribution. Only in the age of the internet has a lot of it surfaced to the point where it has a lot of cult popularity.

That's the skinny of it. If you want a nice and more in depth account, check out this site. They do a relatively good job at giving background to emo music.

This is an open thread for the discussion, worship or dumping of music that fits either genre. I'm going to go ahead with the latter of those three options now:

Emo:

Hidden:

Scramo:

Hidden:

[Sakonosolo]

Punk isn't a genre that I listen to all that much but there's some that I like, and it's nice to have a concrete explanation of where emo and screamo came from as I never knew that before. It is misunderstood like you said and it is a shame that people wave these two genres off because of their wrongly applied reputation.

[Wagomu]

Yeah, the notion that the emo title got so far misused in the first place is weird to me. Emo and what's mislabeled as emo are on opposite ends of the punk spectrum in sound, attitude and popularity. Most people place the missing link as Sunny Day Real Estate, but I still think we're missing a few steps. And granted a lot of emo bands do contemplate suicide and self-loathing, they do it with an honesty and intensity that's absent from those wannabe borderline cases that we have mislabeled as emo kids.

[GuetaMinute]

Is Saosin emo or screamo? I like Saosin.

[Wagomu]

Neither. They hardly even seem related to punk. Really clean-sounding music altogether. Like part of the post-grunge movement. I dumped a bunch of samples in the first post. They should be a good guide to what it sounds like.

[Sakonosolo]

A couple more that I stumbled upon




The second song is actually pretty soft, but it's still listed as emo.

Edit: Also, some of the bands I've been going through have "twinkly" as a tag. This is the description for that tag:

when you look at the stars and think about what kind of music they would make.
Quick tip: stars make emo mathrock.

[Wagomu]

I'm a big fan of Circle Takes the Square, thoughI'm a little disappointed that they have not continued their Decompositions series past the first EP. It was soooo goooood. Perhaps they plan to, but I haven't heard a thing about it.

Have you stumbled upon American Football yet? You'll like them with your recent listenings:

[Sakonosolo]

Yup, listened to a bit last night and do like them.

[Drake]

Thankyou for distinguishing the genres :D.

Anybody here listen to good ol' classic I Hate Myself?
They were one of the first emo/screamo bands I ever heard.

Spoiler:

Also, Cap'n Jazz probably did my favorite cover of all time (Take On Me by A-ha).