Music Forums - Music Forum - The Music Community - View Single Post - Can you tell me what makes a band screamo, or rock, or punk rock, or

Alex P · #2 08-18-2007

Alright, here's the basic run down of common genres.

Screamo/emo (most of the time go hand in hand)
Normally screamo bands are about 5 or 6 piece, and the vocals will be a bit more higher than other bands, with some high harsh vocals. Some examples are Drop Dead Gorgeous, for the more emo side of screamo, or Silverstein for the less emoish screamo.

Hardcore bands are alot more harder than screamo. They use harsh vocals, but differently than screamo bands do. An example of what I mean is the band Demon Hunter or Haste The Day. Listen to one of those and compare it to Drop Dead Gorgeous and you'll see what I mean.

Rock... All of these genres can be considered rock. Hardcore, screamo, emo, punk, pop, all of those are subgenres of rock.

Punk rock is alot more upbeat than other genres, most of the time no harsh vocals at all. Punk rock focus alot more on the words and meanings of the song than it does the instrumental part. Some examples are Blink 182, MxPx, Green Day... Stuff like them.

Powerpop is alot like half punk rock, half emo, and alot of time incorporates the use of a synth. That's about all I can explain on that one. For an example band, listen to Forever The Sickest Kids (I know the guitarist Caleb from that band :P)

Now Ska... Ska is probably my favorite genre. Very, very upbeat, but not at all punk rock. It uses bright, clean guitars alot of the times, and has a brass section (Trumpets, trombones, saxophones, etc). For example bands, Five Iron Frenzy (my favorite), The O.C. Supertones, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and the Aquabats.

Hope this helps!