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Pop screamo (or mall screamo) is a subgenre of post-hardcore that combines elements of screamo, emo pop and metalcore. It is characterized by the incorporation of both screamo-indebted screaming in verses and emo pop-indebted clean singing in choruses, as well as choatic, metalcore-influenced instrumental elements, particularly breakdowns.
The genre has its origins in late 1990s bands such as such as Grade, Keepsake, Poison the Well and Drowningman, who were merging screamo and metalcore, while also incorporating the clean singing of emo and pop-punk. It is first codified wave began with Thursday's Full Collapse (2001). This wave entered the mainstream in the United States with My Chemical Romance, the Used and Thrice, Canada with Alexisonfire and Silverstein, and the United Kingdom with Funeral for a Friend. The genre reached its commercial peak in 2004, soon declining in mainstream prominence as emo pop became increasingly dominant. During this time, some pop screamo releases continued to gain commercial success, particularly Hawthorne Heights's "Ohio Is for Lovers" (2005) and the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus's "Face Down" (2006). During this time, many bands began to expand upon the genre's sonic landscape, with Escape the Fate merging it with elements of 1980s hard rock, Fightstar with post-rock and classical music, the Fall of Troy with math rock and I Set My Friends on Fire with electronic music.
During the late 2000s, pop screamo became progressively intertwined with metalcore, when Alesana, Drop Dead, Gorgeous and From First to Last increasingly incorporated metal elements, pioneering the Risecore genre, soon popularized by Attack Attack!, the Devil Wears Prada and Of Mice & Men. At the same time, Brokencyde and Breathe Carolina pioneered the hip hop fusion genre crunkcore using elements of pop screamo. During the 2010s, later first-wave pop screamo bands Pierce the Veil and Sleeping with Sirens continued to gain commercial success, while newer bands Before Their Eyes, the Ongoing Concept, Too Close to Touch and I Am Terrified were partaking in a minor revival. By the end of the decade and the beginning of the 2020s, a prominent pop screamo revival was being fronted by Static Dress and SeeYouSpaceCowboy.
During its peak popularity, pop screamo was often called simply screamo. Pop screamo was coined in order to differentiate the genre from the traditional screamo style that inspired it, which similarly developed the name skramz.
Alternative Press Magazine described it as a subgenre of post-hardcore, while Ultimate Guitar editor Jorge Martins called it a subgenre of the post-hardcore subgenre screamo.
By the mid-2000s, the popularity of pop screamo had led to the word "screamo" being used loosely to describe any use of screamed vocals in music. To combat the increasingly broad-nature of "screamo", the term "skramz" began to be used to describe the original DIY definition of screamo.Lars Gotrich, Pg. 99: A Document Revisited : NPR Music Interview This recodification also saw the rise of the term "pop screamo", for the more mainstream derivative, as well as its synonyms "MTV screamo", "mall screamo" and "screamo-lite". The German blog Heavy Pop noted "mall screamo" as a derogatory label.
Coral Springs, Florida band Keepsake began to merge pop-punk and screamo on their 1998 debut album The Things I Would Say. Law of Inertia magazine noted that "their whole schtick is being a pop-punk band because that's in and simultaneously being a 'screamo-o' band because that's also in. The two genres don't mix, were never intended to mix". Going on to note their similarity to later pop screamo acts. The Keepsake side project Poison the Well were one of the earliest bands to merge post-hardcore, emo and metalcore, shaping the sound that would later become pop screamo. This was particularly prominent on their first three albums The Opposite of December... A Season of Separation (1999), Tear from the Red (2002) and You Come Before You (2003). Lambgoat.com said of their legacy, Poison the Well "walked so (insert mall screamo band here) could run." In a 2003 interview with the radio station KNAC, the band's guitarist Derek Miller was asked about their "Hardcore meets Emo sound" sound. He responded "As far as I’m concerned, the whole thing to start this 'Emo-Metal' was Cave In with Beyond Hypothermia", going on to clarify that on The Opposite of December, they were simply copying Cave In and "not thinking about being original".
Exclaim! writer Sam Sutherland noted Drowningman as having "essentially pioneered" the genre. The band were influential upon many subsequent bands in the genre. They disbanded in 2002, just before their proginey's mainstream prevalence. Maximum Rocknroll called Codeseven's 1999 album Division of Labor "proto-mall screamo" due to its fusion of metalcore and post-hardcore, similarly Alternative Press magazine cited Beloved, formed in 1999, as "forefathers of the pop-screamo era".
Under the influence of Thursday, many other bands in New Jersey began to fuse the same styles, such as Senses Fail and My Chemical Romance. The New Brunswick basement scene became what ultimately brought emo to mainstream attention, (2026). 9780063251281, Dey Street Books. ISBN 9780063251281 with Em Casalena of American Songwriter stating that "Any conversation about bands that defined the emo sound will likely at least mention My Chemical Romance." The band's debut album I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love (2002) was influential of the sound on subsequent releases in emo, due to its use of the nascent style. Revolver named them as a key band in the "short yet crucial time-span" of mall screamo. On its follow up Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge (2004), they moved away from the style. Senses Fail's debut EP From the Depths of Dreams was released the same year. Loudwire wrote of Senses Fail's debut album Let It Enfold You (2004): "As a full-length debut, this album is impressive enough; its impact can still be seen rippling across the scene", Alternative Press note that it "will always be a staple of the pop-screamo genre". The album peaked at number 34 on the Billboard 200, selling 25,000 copies during its first week of release. It also charted at number two on the Independent Albums chart. It was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America in the US in 2020.
Finch's debut album What It Is to Burn (2002) influenced much of the subsequent acts in the genre. What It Is to Burn charted at number 99 on the US Billboard 200 chart. By April 2003, the album had sold over 200,000 copies in the US. It charted at number 177 on the UK Albums Chart, while "Letters to You" reached number 39 on the UK Singles Chart. "What It Is to Burn" peaked at number 15 on the US Alternative Songs chart and number 35 on the Mainstream Rock chart. By October 2007, What It Is to Burn had sold over 400,000 copies worldwide.
In the Los Angeles metalcore scene, Eighteen Visions had defined a flamboyant and effeminate style of dress they called "fashioncore". With the rise of pop screamo, some fashioncore bands began to incorporate elements of the genre into their metalcore style, particularly Atreyu, began to do this on their debut album Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses (2002). In following year, fashioncore band A Static Lullaby toured with Long Island's From Autumn to Ashes and, New Jersey's Senses Fail. Through this Senses Fail to adopted the fashioncore look, spreading it to other New Jersey bands, which would help to define subsequent iterations of the emo subculture. (2026). 9780063251281, Dey Street Books. ISBN 9780063251281 By 2008, the band had begun to be concerned their music "could end up a pop-screamo-type jam".
The sound expanded in the area, with the subsequent success of the Blackout, Adzuki, Covergirl, Shape of My Addiction and Robots Talk In Twos. In the wake of this success, a number of popular publications also began running stories stating that "Newport is the new Grunge" or "South Wales is the new Seattle". The sound of these bands was generally shaped by albums from American groups such as Full Collapse (2001) by Thursday, Tear from the Red (2002) by Poison the Well and Worship and Tribute (2002) by Glassjaw. In a 2015 article by Vice Media, Funeral for a Friend vocalist Matthew Davies-Kreye stated that "We took the and spun it on head, gave it a bit more of a geographical sensibility. You write what you know, so the lyrical content distilled all the elements of the world around us", going on to cite the Manic Street Preachers, especially their third album the Holy Bible (1994), as "very influential on absolutely everyone".
Saosin's Translating the Name EP (2003) was one of the definitive releases of the period, being widely influential in the subsequent years. The release put a greater emphasis on the influence metal. Around this time, some metalcore bands, including As I Lay Dying and Underoath, began to incorporate the influence of pop screamo into their sounds. On They're Only Chasing Safety (2004), Underoath transitioned into pop screamo, but retained many of their heavier, metal influences. The album peaked at number 101 on the | Billboard 200 and number seven on the Christian Albums charts. The album and its followup Define the Great Line (2006) permeated the mainstream, both being certified gold by the RIAA. In 2024, Andrew Sacher of BrooklynVegan named the album as one of the best emo albums of 2004, saying: "A lot of bands mixed metalcore and pop-emo in the early/mid 2000s, but few did it better than Underoath did on They’re Only Chasing Safety. ... if you weren’t looking closely, they might’ve seemed interchangeable with the countless other similar bands of that era. But Underoath had a lot more depth to them than a lot of the bands they were often grouped with" Define the Great Line debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 charts, selling over 98,000 copies in its first week. It became the highest-charting Christian release since by LeAnn Rimes reached the top spot in 1997. Following this album, the band returned to persueing a heavier direction.
This time also saw the releases of influential albums by Story of the Year, AFI, and He Is Legend. The genre reached its commercial peak around 2004.
From the Welsh pop screamo scene emerged Bullet for My Valentine, who merged elements of it into their melodic metalcore sound. (2016). 9781784189815, John Blake Publishing. ISBN 9781784189815 Their debut album The Poison was released in 2005, Corey Apar of AllMusic compared its sound to Atreyu, Funeral for a Friend and Alexisonfire, stating that the band utilize "the glossy, melodic metal-meets-emo aesthetic, utilizing darkly romanticized lyrics that are smoothly sung and growled side-by-side". On their second album Doppelgänger (2005), the Fall of Troy incorporated technical math rock riffs and progressive rock song structures into pop screamo, creating what BrooklynVegan writer Andrew Sacher called "pop-screamo's answer to Van Halen". London's Fightstar were described Yorkshire Evening Post as "a British rival" to the likes of Thursday, but expanding upon the sound by embracing elements of post-rock and the song structures of classical music. Their debut EP They Liked You Better When You Were Dead (2005) was a concept album inspired by Fight Club, and their debut album Grand Unification (2006), being based upon the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise. Kerrang! editor Paul Brannigan called Grand Unification "one of the best British rock albums of the last decade". They then received a nomination for Best British Band at the 2006 Kerrang! Awards
On their second album, This War Is Ours (2006), Escape the Fate began merging it with 1980s-style hard rock. Alongside Blessed by a Broken Heart, the album and the band's visual style helped to pioneer a fusion between the scene subculture and glam metal, which would go on to be continued by Black Veil Brides and Falling in Reverse.
In the mid-2000s, many pop screamo bands began to push their music further into the prevailing metalcore sound, particularly Alesana, Drop Dead, Gorgeous, Blessthefall and From First to Last. In turn, Drop Dead, Gorgeous, Alesana, Blessthefall, A Skylit Drive and Escape the Fate became early pioneers of metalcore's Risecore and scenecore subgenres. By the end of the decade, this style had been popularised by Attack Attack!, the Devil Wears Prada, I See Stars, We Came As Romans and Of Mice & Men.
I Set My Friends on Fire merging pop screamo with electronic elements, in a style that led to BrooklynVegan editor Andrew Sacher retrospectively calling them "pop-screamo maniacs" and "hyperpop godfathers". At the same time, Brokencyde and Breathe Carolina began to merge pop screamo vocals and hip hop instrumentals. They helped to pioneer the crunkcore genre.
Sleeping with Sirens' debut album With Ears to See and Eyes to Hear (2011) peaked at seven on the U.S. heatseekers charts Their second album Let's Cheers to This (2011) peaked at number five on the Top Hard Rock Albums, and its most commercially successful single "If You Can't Hang" (2011), was later certified platinum by the RIAA. On their third album Feel (2013), they shifted to a lighter sound.
The genre had a revival in the mid-2010s, including such outfits as Before Their Eyes, the Ongoing Concept, Too Close to Touch and I Am Terrified. MetalSucks writer Finn McKenty acredited this to the genre losing its stigma amongst young people of the decade, as well as successful campaigns by Hawthorne Heights, Haste the Day and Falling in Reverse. In January 2017, From First to Last's classic vocalist Sonny Moore rejoied the band, releasing the single "Make War".
In the 2020s, a second revival emerged, including SeeYouSpaceCowboy, Static Dress and Wristmeetrazor. Loudwire credited SeeYouSpaceCowboy's third album Coup de Grâce with having "managed to merge both true screamo à la Orchid and Honeywell with the mainstream interpretation à la Alesana and Drop Dead, Gorgeous", and "refining pop screamo choruses into something simultaneously nostalgic and modern". During this time, Pierce the Veil and Sleeping Sirens' collaborative single "King for a Day" re-entered the Billboard charts, reaching number one on the U.S. Billboard Hard Rock Streaming Songs chart, number seven on the Rock Streaming Songs chart, number six on Alternative Streaming Songs chart, and number 21 on Alternative Digital Song Sales chart on August 17, 2022. This was derived from a surge in usage of the song on TikTok.
The wave, whose core bands were Touché Amoré, La Dispute, Defeater, Pianos Become the Teeth and Make Do and Mend, was a rejection of the developments of pop screamo, emo pop and Risecore in the 2000s. Touché Amoré vocalist Jeremy Bolm described pop screamo as "years of awful, awful, awful insincere garbage that has taken over everything for so long now and I'd like to hope that it's starting to get weeded out…you know, like, the terrible swoop hair, rock star attitude, bullshit breakdown bands that have nothing to really offer anybody".
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