EMO Girl

Offshoots
• Screamo
The term "screamo" was initially applied to a more aggressive offshoot of emo that developed in San Diego in 1991, which used short songs that grafted "spastic intensity to willfully experimental dissonance and dynamics." Screamo is a particularly dissonant style of emo influenced by hardcore punk and uses typical rock instrumentation, but is noted for its brief compositions, chaotic execution, and screaming vocals. The genre is "generally based in the aggressive side of the overarching punk-revival scene." The style began in 1991, in San Diego, at the Ché Café, with groups such as Heroin, Antioch Arrow, Angel Hair, Mohinder, Swing Kids, and Portraits of Past. These groups were influenced by Washington D.C. post-hardcore (particularly Fugazi and Nation of Ulysses), straight edge, the Chicago group Articles of Faith, hardcore punk band Die Kreuzen and post-punk, such as Joy Division and Bauhaus.
Some bands that formed in the United States during the late 1990s and remained active throughout the 2000s, such as Thursday, Thrice, and Poison the Well made screamo much more popular. Many of these bands took influence from the likes of Refused and At the Drive-In. By the mid-2000s, the over-saturation of the screamo scene caused many bands to purposefully expand past the genre’s trademarks and incorporate more experimental elements. Even bands that weren’t necessarily screamo would often use the style's characteristic guttural vocal style. Derek Miller, guitarist for the post-hardcore band Poison the Well, claimed that the term screamo "describes a thousand different genres." According to Jeff Mitchell of Iowa State Daily, "there is no set definition of what screamo sounds like but screaming over once deafeningly loud rocking noise and suddenly quiet, melodic guitar lines is a theme commonly affiliated with the genre." Juan Gabe, vocalist for the band Comadre, alleged that the term "has been kind of tainted in a way, especially in the States."