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The scene subculture is a youth subculture that emerged during the early 2000s in the United States from the pre-existing emo subculture. The subculture became popular with adolescents from the mid 2000s to the early 2010s. Members of the scene subculture are referred to as scene kids, trendies, or scenesters. Scene fashion consists of skinny jeans, bright-colored clothing, a signature hairstyle consisting of straight, flat hair with long bangs covering the forehead, and bright-colored hair dye. Music genres associated with the scene subculture include metalcore, crunkcore, deathcore, electronic music, and pop punk.
From the mid-2000s to early 2010s, scene fashion gained popularity among teens and the music associated with the subculture achieved commercial success in both the underground and the mainstream. Groups like Bring Me the Horizon, Asking Alexandria, Pierce the Veil, and Metro Station garnered mainstream attention and large audiences while still largely being tied to the scene subculture. In the mid-to-late 2010s, the scene subculture lost popularity; however, since 2019, there have been movements that have given it a revival.
"Fashioncore" was an aesthetic originated by Orange County metalcore band Eighteen Visions that helped to originate the scene subculture. Originating as a way of purposely being confrontational to the hypermasculinity of hardcore, it used many aspects that would come to define scene fashion, such as eyeliner, tight jeans, collared shirts, straightened hair and white belts. According to MetalSucks writer Finn McKenty, the quintessential scene haircut was invented by Eighteen Visions bassist Javier Van Huss. Huss, himself, had been inspired to create the haircut from seeing a poster of the band Orgy. In Louder Than Hell by Katherine Turman and John Wiederhorn, Ryan Downey states "Javier Van really led the charge with crazy hairstyles and pink and blond and blue chunks in their hair". Though the term began as pejorative against fashionable people in the hardcore scene, the style was eventually popularized in the early-2000s through the success of Eighteen Visions, Atreyu and From Autumn to Ashes.
Sass music was also a notable origin of scene. Like fashioncore, sass was also a deliberate confrontation to hardcore's hyper masculinity, with sass bands doing so through their use of overt homoeroticism. The fashion of many sass musicians, notably Johnny Whitney, lead vocalist for the Blood Brothers, were influential upon the development of scene.
In the following years, the spectrum of scene fashion broadened to include a number of sub-styles taking influence from a wide range of fashion styles. According to PopMatters writer Ethan Stewart, "the most renowned sub-style was those who merged the subculture with brightly coloured party fashion", a style he attributed the beginnings of to Cobra Starship vocalist Gabe Saporta and his influence from rave music and Harajuku street fashion. He also noted those who took influence from 1980s glam metal fashion, such as the members of Black Veil Brides, Escape the Fate and Falling in Reverse. He attributed the origin of this style to Blessed by a Broken Heart.
Members of the subculture quickly began using MySpace. As the popularity of MySpace grew, the website began to develop some of the earliest internet celebrities, referred to as "scene queens". Notable MySpace scene queens include Audrey Kitching, Jeffree Star and the members of the Millionaires.
The music festival Warped Tour became popular with members of the scene subculture during the 2000s. Artists associated with the subculture would often play at the festival. Bands influenced by crunkcore, electropop and electronic dance music gained popularity among scene kids during the mid to late 2000s, including Cobra Starship and 3OH!3. Blood on the Dance Floor became especially popular, after Jayy Von Monroe joined as lead singer in 2009.
During the late 2000s, similar subcultures emerged in Asia and Latin America, including the Shamate in China, the Floggers in Argentina, the Coloridos of Brazil, and the Pokemón in Chile. Like their American counterparts, these scene kids wore brightly colored clothing, androgynous big hair and eyeliner, and identified with the emo pop, indie rock, hip hop, and EDM scene.
The late 2010s saw the growing popularity of musicians who had begun their careers as members of scene bands, most notably Lil Lotus, Blackbear, Post Malone, Mod Sun and Lil Aaron. Within this movement came the mainstream success of emo rap, itself influenced by scene.
Beginning in 2019, there were several movements promoting the return of the subculture, such as #20ninescene (2019) and the "Rawring 20s" (2020s). Websites like SpaceHey and FriendProject, which retain Myspace early design, have gained popularity among teenagers, and social media influencers on Instagram and TikTok have begun adopting scene fashion. Around this time, the subculture was also influential on the development of the e-girls and e-boys subculture, and the development of hyperpop. Scene festivals also returned in 2022 with the When We Were Young festival.
Many musical artists who began promoting their music on Myspace went on to enjoy sustained commercial success, though by 2011, the initial music scene associated with the platform no longer existed. Loudwire stated that bands that continued to produce music past the scene's peak period eventually "ditched the emo combovers and excessive guyliner" later in their careers. Most of these bands would ultimately change their sounds as well. Some acts associated with the scene subculture include Cute Is What We Aim For, Blood on the Dance Floor, Asking Alexandria, We Came As Romans, The Devil Wears Prada, Paramore, Breathe Carolina, and Taking Back Sunday.
Many bands described as "scene" gained popularity through the use of Myspace for promotion, and consequently, many of them may also be considered " Myspace bands", a term that has been used by publications such as Stereogum, Kerrang! and Metal Hammer. Writing for Red Bull, Eli Enis used the term " Myspace metalcore" to refer to artists like Bring Me the Horizon. Alternative Press also stated that the terms " neon punk" and " Myspace-core" have been used interchangably to label this style. Loudwire stated that bands in genres ranging from deathcore to screamo were grouped together under these labels due to their mutual popularity with "the scene kids of MySpace," as well as goers of the Warped Tour and Mayhem Festival music festivals. The publication cited Bullet for My Valentine, Carnifex, From First to Last, Hollywood Undead, Ice Nine Kills, Panic! at the Disco, Protest the Hero and the Black Dahila Murder as examples of bands commonly categorized this way. In 2007, Village Voice Media also used the term " Myspace emo" to describe a purported offshoot of pop-punk characterized by "bratty, charged-up enthusiasm." American Songwriter, Vice and Paste have also used this term. BuzzFeed used this term to refer to fans of the style themselves. These terms were originally pejoritives, intended to mock the use of the suffix "-core", which has been used to describe genres related to the scene subculture. According to Exclaim!, the term " fashioncore" was originally coined by the post-hardcore band From Autumn to Ashes when they printed it on merchandise, and was also subsequently used to ridicule the style by its critics. OC Weekly stated that "fashioncore" was a "subgenre of metalcore". Loudwire argued against the designation of "fashioncore" as an actual subgenre of hardcore, instead saying "it was coined as an insult to hardcore kids who started caring more about how they dyed their hair than the actual music." Ultimate Guitar used the term "Mall core" to refer to this style, including bands such as Escape the Fate and Enter Shikari as examples.
According to Invisible Oranges, many scene bands ignore convential song structure and instead "blast through different genres at a neck-breaking pace." Songs that employ this compositional style may borrow various elements from styles like metalcore, pop-punk, pop music, hip-hop and dubstep. Other elements that may be fused together include electropop, dance music, Trance music, pop metal and heavy metal. Music journalist Eli Enis stated that modern availability of digital audio workstations like GarageBand made it easier for young musicians to experiment with fusing different styles of music, for example, tracking screams over a dance beat.
One musical subgenre of scene music is crunkcore, characterized by the combination of cultural and musical elements from crunk, screamo, pop, electronic music and dance music, the genre often features screamed vocals, hip hop beats, and sexually provocative lyrics. Notable groups in the genre included Brokencyde, Hollywood Undead, 3OH!3 and Millionaires. Another style associated with the culture is neon pop-punk, which emerged in the late 2000s as a style that blended elements of power pop and electronic music with the upbeat, catchy sound of pop-punk. Bands in this genre embraced bright, glistening aesthetics and often featured neon colors in their merch and music videos. Notable groups from that era include All Time Low, the Maine, the Cab, Metro Station, We the Kings, Marianas Trench, Boys Like Girls, The Summer Set, Cobra Starship, Hey Monday, the Academy Is... and Forever the Sickest Kids.
Another apparent hallmark of bands under the scene umbrella is excessively long song titles. Alternative Press stated that some of these titles "could barely fit on the back covers of CDs." The precise origin of this trend is unknown.
Michael Siebert of Invisible Oranges gave the assessment that the tendency of bands under the scene music umbrella to juxtapose highly dissimilar styles in their songwriting prevented many from achieving critical success: Despite this, numerous albums considered to be "scene" have achieved Platinum album-selling status.
According to a 2008 article by The Sydney Morning Herald, the scene subculture has been criticized for its perceived derivativeness of emo fashion. was a popular scene band that received widespread criticism for their sound and fashion.]]
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