The scene subculture is a youth subculture that emerged in the United States and the United Kingdom during the early 2000s. The subculture became popular with adolescents from the mid-late 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 fringes covering their forehead, and bright colored hair dye. Music genres associated with the scene subculture include post-hardcore, metalcore, crunkcore, deathcore, electronic music, and pop punk. From the late 2000s to mid 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, Metro Station and Twenty One Pilots garnered mainstream attention and large audiences while still largely being tied to the scene subculture. In the late 2010s, the scene subculture lost popularity. The scene subculture has been confused with the emo subculture.
Subculture
Fashion
Scene fashion is known for its bright colored clothing, skinny jeans, stretched earlobes, sunglasses, piercings, large belt buckles, wristbands, fingerless gloves, eyeliner, hair extensions, and straight, androgynous flat hair with long bangs covering the forehead and sometimes one or both eyes. Scene people often dye their hair colors like blond, pink, red, green, or bright blue. Members of the scene subculture often shop at Hot Topic. According to The Guardian, a scene girl named Eve O'Brien described scene people as "happy emos". Scene kids' hairstyles have caused scene fashion to be confused with emo fashion.
The scene subculture emerged in the UK during the early-mid 2000s following the mainstream exposure of the emo subculture, indie pop, pop punk, and hip-hop, and quickly spread to America and Australia. The scene subculture is considered by some to have developed directly from the emo subculture and thus the two are often compared. During the mid-2000s, members of the British and American scene subculture took inspiration from the deathcore music scene. In a 2005 article by Phoenix New Times, writer Chelsea Mueller described the appearance of the band Job for a Cowboy by writing that the band "may look like scenesters with shaggy emo haircuts and tight pants, and may mock metal greats, but this death-metal band is for real." Mueller described Job for a Cowboy as "five guys in girls' jeans and tight band tee shirts". Another early deathcore group popular among members of the scene subculture is Bring Me the Horizon. 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 Pokémon in Chile. Like their British and American counterparts, these scene kids wore brightly colored clothing, androgynous big hair and eyeliner, and identified with the emo pop, indie rock, rap, and EDM scene. By the mid 2010s the subculture had seen a decline in popularity. Warped Tour had its last show in 2019 after running annually since 1995.
Criticism
According to an article by The Sydney Morning Herald from March 30, 2008, emo people have criticized the scene subculture, accusing scene people of "ripping off their style." The scene subculture has also been the subject of criticism from members of the heavy metal subculture. Pejorative terms such as "myspace-core", "scenecore", “mallcore” and "emocore" have been used to describe scene music and artists. These terms mock the use of the suffix “-core” which has been used to describe genres related to the scene subculture such as metalcore, crunkcore, and deathcore. Crunkcore has received criticism and the genre has been poorly received by music reviewers. The Boston Phoenix has mentioned criticism of the style, saying that "the idea that a handful of kids would remix lowest-common-denominator screamo with crunk beats, misappropriated gangsterisms, and the extreme garishness of emo fashion was sure to incite hate-filled diatribes". Deathcore has been criticized by members of the heavy metal community for its use of breakdowns.
