Screamo is a subgenre of the more melancholic and introspective sounds of Punk, such as Emotional Hardcore (also known as Emocore) and Post-Hardcore, making use of the desperate and heartbreaking scream as its most notorious characteristic, as well as its more aggressive and sad instrumental.
It started in the 90s with bands like Saetia, Portraits of Past and One Eyed God Prophecy, which performed this depressive, melancholic and passionate sound characterized by the rawness of the voice and lyrics.
For the 2000s and 2010s, Screamo continues to develop with bands like Envy, Funeral Diner, Pg.99, Gospel, Pianos Become The Teeth, Shin Guard and Loma Prieta, which updated the sound to a more contemporary one, which is noticeable in the sonic influences as well as in the production.
It is worth noting that this is not the genre to which bands like The Used, Funeral For A Friend or Saosin belong, which have more of a Post-Hardcore scream mixed with the poppy and dramatic essence of Emo-Pop Punk bands like My Chemical Romance or Fall Out Boy, which results in genres known as Pop Post-Hardcore, Post-Hardpop or Pop Screamo.
The genre is also known as Skramz, which is a term created to gather the bands from the 90s scene and as a response to every major musical media saying that Screamo belonged to bands that just had screams on their songs. There's also a term called Real Screamo, which is similar but it tends to gather bands that would belong to Emoviolence.
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