SCENE LORE: THIS BREAKDOWN IS REALLY LONG.

unlike many people think, scene ALSO has origins in hardcore. the word SCENE comes from "the hardcore scene" (plus the derogatory term "scene queen" that will be talked about later), and is a community that was formed and evolved from the emo subculture. hell, a lot of music genres included in the label "scene music" are also shared from the emo genre. Metalcore, deathcore, post-hardcore, screamo, etc...

speaking of music, YES, music is just as important in scene culture as fashion. many young scenesters think it is more fashion-based than anything, but listening to music and attending concerts were an essential part of being a scene kid during the 2000s.

DISCLAIMER: despite how influential music is in the subculture, you CANNOT be scene without rocking the look, since it was what you wore and how you behaved that MADE YOU SCENE. scenesters are music-savvy and very loyal to some specific subgenres: hardcore, metal, indie, retro and many others. their loyalty was shown by how they dressed, so that is exactly why fashion in the scene is so important.

"why did so many out there call scene a poser subculture?" the answers simple! imagine: youre an emo in the early 2000s, and suddenly an entire group of poser looking people who were obviously ripping off fashioncore and "shared" your same music taste suddenly popped up, how baffled would you feel? thats exactly what happened. the term "scene queen" was first used in 2002 as a derogatory term for emo posers who cared more about fashion than the music in itself; targeting mostly standard preppy girls who would only start dressing alternative to attract band guys LOL.

BUT, of course this triggered scene to become its own thing.

going back to talking about fashion, the popularization of the famous (or infamous) side-swept fringe first came with refused's "new noise", and then with the metalcore band eighteen visions; which created fashioncore as a way to stand against the hyper-masculinity affecting the hardcore scene of the late '90s.

javier van huss from eighteen visions, being a cosmetology student along with the band's other members, experimented heavily with the hair of his group: by dyeing streaks and blocks, cutting swooping bangs and asymmetric fringes with the razored crown combo, then posting the results in the site "madradhair". this influenced the scene to do the same; making the trend absolutely boom in popularity. blame javier for colorful raccoon tails and peacock hair.

and even though as i mentioned previously that fashion is really important, its really hard to pin-point one UNIVERSAL scene style, since trends varied from place to place and time to time; with plus certain little fads and quirks that came and went within the community. 

a few common traits shared by the community are: long razored hair, facial piercings, tattoos, tight skinny jeans, studded belts, retro patterns, plastic jewelry like diamond and brassknuckle necklaces, kandi, bracelets and others, band t-shirts, thrift shopping and DIYing, large sunglasses and heavy eye makeup (aka the raccoon eyeshadow or just plain thick black eyepencil around your waterline.)

together with the fashion and music taste, lifestyle is also SUPER IMPORTANT. not only tied to those two mentioned earlier, its also involved with certain interests. many scenesters were drawn to art, poetry, photography, body modification, animal rights, partying, etc and held very strong beliefs related to those areas, poser-calling those who only adopted the look without pursuing the lifestyle.

MYSPACE. oh without myspace there wouldnt be scene. in the next few years, scene kids would start using different social networks like stickydrama, hi5, buzznet and MYSPACE MOST NOTABLY. the next generation of scene cemented itself as a subculture exactly here in 2003, now almost disconnected from hardcore and leaning more towards metalcore and electronic music (which ended up popularizing electronicore... aka THE BEST GENRE OF MUSIC EVER) cough. anyway, myspace wasnt just any social media platform, it was EVERYTHING: giving people of the time the possibility to share interests, music, show their outfits off, meet new people; and there some of the first ever online influencers came to light.

myspace was the go-to place to discover new bands, since they could upload their songs directly to their pages, and users could add them to their profiles; making myspace one of the first ever music streaming sites. many notable bands gained their initial popularity on myspace, like i see stars, bring me the horizon, attack attack!, brokencyde and millionaires. the site helped launching the careers of many scene artists, giving them insane exposure even while not being label backed still. genres like electronicore and crunkcore were loved by scene kids and extremely popular on myspace.

scenesters heavily customized their myspace profiles with glittery graphics and gifs, neon colors, stamps and html coded layouts (exactly like here on spacehey!!!). the "myspace top 8" feature caused major drama and intrigues between people LOLOL, but also helped shaping online cliques and friendships inside the subculture.

and its also in myspace that some of the very first online influencers, our scene queens and kings, come to life! jeffree star (i know, cant believe that fossil firstly became famous through myspace.) and audrey kitching gained their popularity through the platform and accumulated over THOUSANDS of people following them and keeping up with their blog posts weekly. its because of this crazy popularity that jeffree became an artist and performed multiple times with... tw blood on the dancefloor... during warped tours, which were gigantic in the scene. warped tours were the natural habitat of scenesters basically, since most myspace famous bands and artists would participate in the average warped tour of the 2000s. 

sigh... still on the topic of myspace, we should also talk about how harmful myspace culture was at the time. scene kids LOVED offensive humor and being as trashy as a human being could possibly be. since they werent the butt of the joke (considering the bullying scene people would suffer in a historical pov), that meant TO THEM they could say basically anything out there. edgy behavior, gestures and phrases were super common and encouraged in the scene, and a literal example of that is the fact jeffree star literally had a site called LIPSTICK NOTZEE BRO. WHAT.

besides the very horrible humor, we also had the normalization of self-harming issues and eating disorders in the scene. a lot of scene queens of the time would glorify cutting and starving themselves as part of their aesthetic, and im sure you already have a clue of how harmful that was. not only that, but also considering scenes culture of raving and partying, it brought a lot of underage people into spaces they shouldnt be in. an incredibly sad example of this happening was jessi slaughter's, now going by damien leonhardt, case of extreme cyberbullying after meeting dahvie vanity in person (aka one of the most disgusting men on earth and blood on the dancefloors vocalist).

sadly, myspace would shut down in 2012 after the rise of facebook, security issues and the lack of updates in the platform. rip, we all miss you dearly </3.

after its fall, scenesters would all migrate to platforms inspired by myspace: tumblr and instagram (of course facebook as well), created respectively in 2007 and 2010; continuing their online activity and legacy in those networks.

lets get back to a lighter topic: MUSIC!! yes i already talked about it being important, a few styles that were popular in the scene here and there; but lets get fully specific now. scene music is not just one genre, not its not hyperpop and NO 6ARELYHUMAN IS NOT SCENE, NOR REBZYYX, ODETARI OR WHATEVER SCENECORE CHILDREN LISTEN TO. scene music is basically what scene kids listened to at the time, and it includes a variety of styles! some examples (many already previously mentioned) are:

post-hardcore: alesana;

metalcore: the devil wears prada;

deathcore: suicide silence;

electronicore: asking alexandria;

crunkcore: dot dot curve;

happy hardcore: s3rl;

sasscore: seeyouspacecowboy;

swancore: dance gavin dance;

indie rock: never shout never;

pop punk: panic! at the disco;

neon pop punk: cash cash;

electropowerpop: breathe carolina;

dubstep: skrillex.

these r js a FEW. (pls also check out i see stars' work... pls.....)

unfortunately the scene began losing popularity up to the mid-2010s, but has recently started to grow back again since 2020!! thats good, right? 

kinda. scene has been TIKTOKIFIED, FAST-FASHIONED AND WATERED DOWN, creating scenecore.

gir this, domo that, nyan cat rawr xd... people managed to water down an entire subculture from the 2000s into neon rainbows, glitchcore for some reason and excessive kandi; predominantly enjoyed by literal 10 year olds. plus, scenecore artists... (abominations.)

its okay if you enjoy hyperpop of course! there are many incredible hyperpop artists out there, but artists like 6arelyhuman and rebzyyx show themselves to be incredibly problematic; bringing the same normalization of self-harm and eating disorders that myspace suffered with BACK INTO THE SCENE. WHY. why are we committing the same mistakes? im not we! but scenecore actively endorses that kind of music. this is why most scenesters nowadays are actively against both the scenecore aesthetic and music; since the aesthetic promotes fast-fashion, which is terrible for the environment and involves slave labor, and the music promotes self-destructive behavior through the lyrics (genuine garbage).

so please, if you firstly got interested in the scene subculture because of scenecore, educate yourself properly. do your research, read out some blog posts of the time period, videos about the scene; theres a lot out there for you to discover about our community. but since youre still reading, that shows youre already doing the right thing!!

IM DONE. thank you SO MUCH for reading this blogpost. i know this has been a long read, basically bigger than the linguistics essay i have to assign in 3 months, but i want you to know i really appreciate your attention. ive taken a lot of information from multiple reddit entries, 2000s blog posts, popmatters' essay about scene and simplified lore videos by brassknucklewhore, keepscenescene and theimpactofreason on tiktok. i have to thank them all THOROUGHLY, they have some really amazing videos about scene if you want some extra stuff and recommendations! again, thank you for dedicating your time to read all of this. i hope this was helpful to you in any way! if you want even longer blogposts about scenemo lore please let me know. i love you all, stay safe out there!! <3