Screamo evolved from hardcore punk and emo in the early 1990s. The term was initially applied to a more aggressive offshoot of emo that developed in San Diego in 1991, which used short, chaotically executed songs, often with a political message. In the early 2000s, the name began to describe a different, slower and less dissonant style that borrowed from alternative rock and incorporated commercial elements of rock, emo and post-hardcore. This "second-wave" screamo has been described as mixing the literate, poetic lyrics of hardcore punk with a harsher and more metallic brand of sonic thrash as well as using screaming vocals as a kind of crescendo element, a sonic weapon to be trotted out when the music and lyrics reach a particular emotional pitch. The term's application to the "second wave" is controversial among fans and practitioners of the earlier style, and groups today generally prefer to be described as post-hardcore.

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