Many people dislike today’s music that has been dubbed as, “Screamo”. Why? Some people feel that the screams and lower key of the music is evil. Granted, there are many great examples of metal bands who emit an evil message. BUT, there are just as many who are positive bands or Christian. Yes - Christian “Screamo” bands. That, and many just can’t get past the “screaming” part of the music. Personally, I like quite a bit of this genre.
Why would a guy who tends to lean more toward folk music, indie rock, piano rock - and everything on the soft spectrum, ever listen to music that some say,”sounds as though a cat is screaming”. I’ll tell you why, and it deals with one very simple reason - emotion.
I am a huge fan of capturing emotion in a work of art. Mostly I lean towards arts involving language. So theatre, music, and poetry are a few of my favorites. What I love about the screaming in music is that it brings out a raw emotion. Whether it is anger, jealousy, sadness, pain - it can all be captured with the screams. It’s something I never understood until I went to a live show and saw how much emotion was coming out on stage. I feel that capturing raw emotion in such a fashion is very moving and creative. And I believe all of this to be a good thing, if done creatively and in the right light.
I look at the emotional transparency of actors on a stage, or the words of a poet. I do the same for music. How much emotion can I FEEL when listening to a piece of music? And I keep finding myself impressed by “screamo” music and how much emotion is conveyed. Just listen to some songs from this genre - don’t focus so much on why you hate it, instead focus on the emotion.
