Screamo, also called skramz, is a type of emo music that began in the early 1990s. It focuses on unusual sounds and changes in volume. Bands from San Diego, such as Heroin and Antioch Arrow, started the genre in the early 1990s. In the late 1990s, groups from the East Coast of the United States, including Pg. 99, Orchid, Saetia, and I Hate Myself, helped the genre grow. Screamo is influenced by hardcore punk and is known for using screamed vocals. The topics in its songs often include emotional pain, death, romance, and human rights. The word "screamo" is sometimes misunderstood to mean any music that includes screaming.

Characteristics

Screamo is a type of music that combines elements of hardcore punk and emo, often using loud screaming. Alex Henderson from AllMusic says screamo connects hardcore punk and emo, while Andrew Sacher from BrooklynVegan describes the genre as "built on chaos." Screamo uses common rock instruments, but it is known for short songs, loud and unpredictable sounds, harmonized guitars, and screamed vocals. The genre is marked by sudden changes in speed and loudness, as well as moments of tension and release. Many screamo bands also include soft, melodic songs. According to AllMusic, screamo is "generally based in the aggressive side of the overarching punk-revival scene." Screamed vocals are not used constantly but are instead used to build up intensity, acting as a powerful tool when the music and lyrics reach a strong emotional point. Both emotional singing and harsh screaming are often used in screamo.

Screamo songs often discuss topics like emotional pain, breakups, romantic relationships, politics, and human rights. These lyrics are usually introspective, similar to those of softer emo bands. The New York Times noted that "part of the music's appeal is its un-self-conscious acceptance of differences, respect for otherness." Some screamo bands openly support religious, nonreligious, and straight edge lifestyles.

Many screamo bands in the 1990s saw themselves as political, reacting against right-wing policies in California, such as those of Roger Hedgecock. Some groups were influenced by unusual ideas: Angel Hair was inspired by surrealist writers Antonin Artaud and Georges Bataille, and Orchid mentioned French new wave icon Anna Karina, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, French philosopher Michel Foucault, and the Frankfurt School, who started critical theory.

Etymology

The word "screamo" is a combination of "scream" and "emo." In the early 1990s, the music style it describes was not yet called "screamo." The term began to be used by the mid-1990s, but only within the independent music scene. Chris Taylor, the lead singer of the band Pg. 99, said, "We never liked the term 'screamo.' We tried to show people that our music was punk, not part of that style." Jonathan Dee of The New York Times noted that the term often made musicians laugh because they did not like how it was used.

After the late 1990s, when the band the Locust became popular, more people outside of hardcore music started paying attention to screamo. By the early 2000s, the term was used to describe both the original screamo sound and a more melodic version influenced by screamo, such as the music of Alexisonfire, Poison the Well, and the Used. In 2003, Derek Miller, guitarist of Poison the Well, joked that "screamo" could describe many different types of music. In 2008, Bert McCracken, lead singer of the Used, said the term was mainly used by record companies and stores to help sell and organize music.

By the mid-2000s, the term "screamo" was used more broadly to describe any music with screamed vocals, even if it did not match the original style. In 2007, Juan Gabe, vocalist of the band Comadre, said the term had become unclear, especially in the United States. Quinn Villarreal of Sirius XM observed that people might call any song with both singing and screaming "screamo."

To address the confusion, the term "skramz" was created to describe the original screamo sound. This word was made up jokingly by Alex Bigman, a member of San Diego bands Seeing Means More and Fight Fair. At the same time, the term "pop screamo" was used to describe the more mainstream version of the style, along with other terms like "MTV screamo" and "mall screamo." In 2011, Lars Gotrich of NPR Music commented on these changes.

History

Around 1990 and 1991, several bands started changing the sound of early emo music, making it more intense and chaotic. The first of these bands were Iconoclast and Merel from New Jersey, but the most important bands came from San Diego and were signed to Gravity Records. Heroin is often credited with either starting the screamo style or inspiring the first bands in the genre. Other notable San Diego bands included Angel Hair, Antioch Arrow, and Swing Kids. These early screamo bands were sometimes called "spock rock" by fans because many of them dyed their hair black and cut straight bangs like the Star Trek character Spock. Their style of dressing, which was geeky and stylish, influenced later emo and scene subcultures.

In New Jersey, the genre grew and spread to New York City. Bands like Native Nod, Rye Coalition, 1.6 Band, and Rorschach became important in this scene, which centered around ABC No Rio. The sound also reached other parts of the United States, including Universal Order of Armageddon from Baltimore and Mohinder from Cupertino, California.

Many bands in the southern United States pushed the screamo sound even further. A band from Columbia, South Carolina called In/Humanity created the term "emoviolence" to describe their music. This term was a playful mix of "emo" and "powerviolence," two styles the band members disliked, and also a reference to the album Emotional Violence by the funk band Cameo. Over time, the term became widely used as more bands adopted the sound.

In San Francisco, Portraits of Past were among the first to blend screamo with post-rock. Their 1993 demo and 1994 split EP with Bleed showed a higher-pitched scream than earlier screamo bands, which became a standard for future vocalists. Other bands, like Funeral Diner, continued this fusion while also drawing influence from black metal.

During the mid-1990s, Southern Ontario, Canada developed a diverse hardcore scene. Some bands in this scene played music inspired by screamo, including Grade, New Day Rising, and Shotmaker. These bands were connected to the annual S.C.E.N.E. Music Festival. Grade started by playing a style influenced by Chokehold but later changed their sound to include influences from Indian Summer, Rye Coalition, and Lincoln. Their vocalist, Kyle Bishop, mixed screaming with singing inspired by James Brown, Black Francis, and Bob Mould. This style became highly influential, and some writers, like David Marchese of Spin and Michael Barclay, said Grade helped create screamo.

By the late 1990s and early 2000s, Virginia became a major center for screamo. Bands like Pg. 99, City of Caterpillar, Majority Rule, and Malady helped shape the genre. City of Caterpillar was especially influential for blending screamo with post-rock. BrooklynVegan writer Andrew Sacher called their albums essential to the genre. In New York City, Saetia formed in 1997 and created a sound influenced by math rock, jazz, and Midwest emo. After Saetia disbanded in 1999, its members formed Off Minor and Hot Cross, both of which were also influential. Other important bands at this time included Jeromes Dream, Neil Perry, I Hate Myself, Reversal of Man, Yaphet Kotto, and Orchid.

In 2001, New Jersey's Thursday became the first screamo-influenced band to gain major media attention with their album Full Collapse. The following year, Canada's Alexisonfire released their self-titled album, which Metal Hammer writer Matt Mills said was key to making screamo more accepted. Later, bands like the Used, Thrice, Finch, and Silverstein gained attention for continuing this sound. Unlike earlier DIY screamo bands, these groups signed big record deals with labels like Island Def Jam and Reprise Records. However, some people called this style "MTV screamo" or "pop-screamo" because it was more polished.

In the underground screamo scene, post-rock became a bigger influence. City of Caterpillar, from Richmond, Virginia, was especially important. Critics later called this style "post-screamo." Other bands making this sound included Circle Takes the Square, Raein, Envy, and Daïtro. Fluff Fest, held in Czechia since 2000, became a popular event for European screamo fans.

In Spain, bands like Hongo, Das Plague, Ekkaia, Madame Germen, and Blünt mixed screamo with crust punk, a style that included melodic guitar riffs, slow transitions, and acoustic passages. This fusion was called "emo crust." By 2002, Ekkaia had toured with the American crust punk band Tragedy and later combined elements of both styles to create the neo-crust genre.

In the early 2010s, the term "screamo" was reclaimed by new DIY bands. Groups like Loma Prieta, Pianos Become the Teeth, La Dispute, and Touché Amoré released music on independent labels like Deathwish Inc. In 2011, Alternative Press said La Dispute was leading a revival of traditional screamo with their album Wildlife. These bands, along with others like Touché Amoré, Defeater, and Make Do and Mend, called themselves the "wave." California's Deafheaven, formed in 2010, was also described as screamo in a style similar to Envy.

In August 2018, Noisey writer Dan Ozzi called it the "Summer of Screamo," highlighting new bands pushing the genre forward after the "wave" declined in popularity. This included the reunions of older bands like Pg. 99, Majority Rule, City of Caterpillar, and Jeromes Dream. Bands like Respire, Ostraca, Portrayal of Guilt, Soul Glo, I Hate Sex, and Infant Island received positive reviews but were not as widely successful as earlier screamo bands. Despite losing mainstream popularity, screamo remained strong in North American scenes, especially in Richmond, Virginia, and spread internationally to Japan, France, and Sweden. In 2018, Vein released their debut album Errorzone, which combined screamo, hardcore, and nu metal, and received critical praise and commercial success.

Subgenres and fusion genres

Some screamo bands use the loud, fast, and unpredictable sounds of powerviolence. Because of this, a group called In/Humanity jokingly created the term "emoviolence" to describe the mix of these two styles. This term also applied to other bands like Pg. 99, Orchid, Reversal of Man, Usurp Synapse, and RentAmerica. Bands such as Orchid, Reversal of Man, and Circle Takes the Square often sound more like grindcore than earlier screamo bands. Today, the genre is not as common as it once was, but it still has a strong presence in underground screamo scenes. In recent years, new scenes in Southeast Asia and South America have helped revive the genre.

Bands like City of Caterpillar, Circle Takes the Square, Envy, Funeral Diner, Pianos Become the Teeth, Respire, and Le Pré Où Je Suis Mort have added post-rock elements to their music. This mix includes sudden changes in speed, atmospheric sounds, and distorted vocals. Bands such as Heaven in Her Arms and Envy also use sounds from shoegazing.

Sass is a music style that began in the San Diego screamo scene. It is known for exaggerated fashion, romantic lyrics, electronic music, and a unique way of speaking. Sass started as a reaction to the tough, masculine style of hardcore music. According to a 2014 article, sass was more about how bands performed and looked than a single sound.

The earliest sass band was Nation of Ulysses, formed in Washington, D.C., in 1988. They added fashion and danceable music to post-hardcore. In the 1990s, San Diego bands like Crimson Curse, Spanakorzo, and Antioch Arrow began mixing post-punk and gothic rock into their music, creating a "proto-sass" sound. Other early bands included Braniac, Le Shok, and Milemaker. Sass became a clear genre around 1998, led by pioneers like the Blood Brothers, who influenced bands such as Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower and These Arms Are Snakes. The record label Sound Virus was central to the sass scene.

Sass bands often use sounds from many styles, including post-punk, new wave, disco, electronic, dance-punk, grindcore, noise rock, metalcore, mathcore, and beatdown hardcore. Early sass had substyles: the screamo-like music of JR Ewing and Orchid, the dance-punk sound of Q and Not U, Black Eyes, the Faint, and Milemaker, and the mathcore and grindcore style of the Locust, the Number Twelve Looks Like You, An Albatross, and early Daughters. Sass influenced other genres, like "sass pop" (Head Automatica) and "sass metalcore" (Every Time I Die). Sass was linked to the dance-punk revival, with bands like A.R.E. Weapons playing a key role. Many later influential bands, such as Hot Hot Heat, !!!, and the Rapture, started with sass. The most successful post-sass band was Death from Above 1979.

Sass became less popular around 2003 and faded by 2005. In the early 2010s, fans on the screamo forum Cross My Heart With a Knife (CMHAWK) showed renewed interest. By 2020, a new sass revival began, with bands like Circuit Circuit and SeeYouSpaceCowboy.

The name "sass" comes from the genre's expressive and flamboyant style. A term for sass was "white belt hardcore," named after the white belts many fans and musicians wore, which was controversial in the hardcore scene. Other names for sass included "dancey screamo" and "sassy screamo."

In 2018, SeeYouSpaceCowboy started calling their style "sasscore," a mix of sass and metalcore. This term became popular for describing sass, but some sources later noted that "sasscore" only included certain bands, not all sass artists.

Pop screamo is a style that mixes screamo with melodic singing and metal-influenced guitar riffs. It also includes elements from emo pop and metalcore bands like Deadguy, Botch, Converge, and Coalesce. Notable bands include Poison the Well, Thursday, Alexisonfire, the Used, Funeral for a Friend, Silverstein, He Is Legend, Saosin, Underoath, and Hawthorne Heights.

Kittencore is a style of screamo and emoviolence that uses high-pitched screams, often performed by young, inexperienced singers. The term was created in online screamo forums in the early 2000s, named for the sound of a kitten's meow. It gained attention after a blog called You Don't Need Maps wrote about it. Early releases by Portraits of Past, such as their 1993 demo and a split with Bleed, helped shape kittencore. The genre was most popular in the 2000s, with bands like In Loving Memory, Spirit of Versailles, …Of Death, Flowers Taped to Pens, Love Lost But Not Forgotten, Tears of Avarel, and Nayru.

Bedroom skramz (or bedroom screamo) mixes screamo with bedroom pop. It was started by Your Arms Are My Cocoon on their 2020 EP, which became influential on platforms like Bandcamp. The project also used chiptune sounds. Later bedroom skramz bands combined Midwest emo guitar riffs and screamed vocals with upbeat synth melodies and calm drum samples. By 2022, bands like Rookie Card, That Same Street, the Civil War In France, Calendar Year, and Garden Angel adopted this style. Some bands, like Garden Angel, added elements of Nintendocore, house music, and country, while That Same Street used vocaloid vocals. On their 2025 album Apiary, Gingerbee expanded bedroom skramz with more complex musical ideas.