Scene music is an umbrella term that has been used by several publications to describe the styles of musical artists associated with the scene subculture. Scene music originally had its stylistic roots in punk rock and its offshoots, such as hardcore punk, emo, pop-punk and indie rock. By the mid 2000s, these styles of music had become more accessible to outsiders due to the rise of social media sites such as MySpace, and the "scene" variants of these styles became the "dominant" forms. Despite having roots in punk and hardcore, scene music is its own "all-encompassing" genre that is focused on "showcas[ing] the creativity of any artist or band who chose to break from the norm," according to Alternative Press.^[1][2][3][4] OC Weekly stated that the metalcore band Eighteen Visions were the inventors of this style.^[5]

Many musical artists who began promoting their music on Myspace went on to enjoy sustained commercial success, though by 2011, the initial music scene associated with the platform no longer existed.^[6] Loudwire stated that bands that continued to produce music past the scene's peak period eventually "ditched the emo combovers and excessive guyliner" later in their careers.^[7] Most of these bands would ultimately change their sounds as well.^[8] Some acts associated with the scene subculture include Cute Is What We Aim For,^[9] Blood on the Dance Floor,^[10] Asking Alexandria,^[11] We Came As Romans,^[11] The Devil Wears Prada,^[11] Paramore,^[9] Breathe Carolina,^[9][11] and Taking Back Sunday.^[12][13]

Invisible Oranges expressed the opinion that scene music is a distinct musical "subgenre", while using the term "scenecore" to describe metalcore bands such as Attack Attack!;^[14] PopMatters called this style scene metalcore.^[15] Loudwire described "scenecore" as being among the "bizarre metalcore subgenres", along with electronicore and crabcore. The publication stated that these sorts of bands "hyper-saturat[ed]" the metalcore scene midway through the decade in a way similar to the inudation of glam metal bands in the 1980s.^[16]

Many bands described as "scene" gained popularity through the use of Myspace for promotion, and consequently, many of them may also be considered "Myspace bands", a term that has been used by publications such as Stereogum, Kerrang! and Metal Hammer.^[17][18][19] Writing for Red Bull, Eli Enis used the term "Myspace metalcore" to refer to artists like Bring Me the Horizon.^[20] Alternative Press also stated that the terms "neon punk" and "Myspace-core" have been used interchangeably to label this style.^[21] Loudwire stated that bands in genres ranging from deathcore to screamo were grouped together under these labels due to their mutual popularity with "the scene kids of MySpace," as well as goers of the Warped Tour and Mayhem Fest music festivals. The publication cited Bullet for My Valentine, Carnifex, From First to Last, Hollywood Undead, Ice Nine Kills, Panic! at the Disco, Protest the Hero and the Black Dahila Murder as examples of bands commonly categorized this way.^[7] In 2007, Village Voice Media also used the term "Myspace emo" to describe a purported offshoot of pop-punk characterized by "bratty, charged-up enthusiasm."^[22] American Songwriter, Vice and Paste have also used this term.^[23][24][25] Buzzfeed used this term to refer to fans of the style themselves.^[26] These terms were originally pejoritives, intended to mock the use of the suffix "-core", which has been used to describe genres related to the scene subculture.^[27] According to Exclaim!, the term "fashioncore" was originally coined by the post-hardcore band From Autumn to Ashes when they printed it on merchandise, and was also subsequently used to ridicule the style by its critics.^[28] OC Weekly stated that "fashioncore" was a "subgenre of metalcore".^[5] Loudwire argued against the designation of "fashioncore" as an actual subgenre of hardcore, instead saying "it was coined as an insult to hardcore kids who started caring more about how they dyed their hair than the actual music."^[29] Ultimate Guitar used the term "mallcore" to refer to this style, including bands such as Escape the Fate and Enter Shikari as examples.^[30]

According to Loudwire, the Used and My Chemical Romance represent the "vulnerable" side of scene music, while acts like Poison the Well and Alexisonfire "delivered a heavier edge" to the style.^[31]

According to Invisible Oranges, many scene bands ignore conventional song structure and instead "blast through different genres at a neck-breaking pace." Songs that employ this compositional style may borrow various elements from styles like metalcore, pop-punk, pop music, hip-hop and dubstep.^[16] Other elements that may be fused together include electropop, dance music, trance, pop metal and heavy metal. Music journalist Eli Enis stated that modern availability of digital audio workstations like GarageBand made it easier for young musicians to experiment with fusing different styles of music, for example, tracking screams over a dance beat.^[32]

One musical subgenre of scene music is crunkcore,^[33] characterized by the combination of cultural and musical elements from crunk, screamo, pop, electronic and dance music,^[34][35][36] Notable groups in the genre included Brokencyde, Hollywood Undead,^[15] 3OH!3 and Millionaires.^[34] Another style associated with the culture is neon pop-punk, which emerged in the late 2000s as a style that blended elements of power pop and electronic music with the upbeat, catchy sound of pop-punk.^[37] Bands in this genre embraced bright, glistening aesthetics and often featured neon colors in their merch and music videos. Notable groups from that era include All Time Low, the Maine, the Cab, Metro Station, We the Kings, Marianas Trench, Boys Like Girls, The Summer Set, Cobra Starship, Hey Monday, the Academy Is... and Forever the Sickest Kids.^[38][39][15]

Another apparent hallmark of bands under the scene umbrella is excessively long song titles. Alternative Press stated that some of these titles "could barely fit on the back covers of CDs." The precise origin of this trend is unknown.^[40]

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".^[34] Deathcore has been criticized by members of the heavy metal community for its use of breakdowns.^[41]

Michael Siebert of Invisible Oranges gave the assessment that the tendency of bands under the scene music umbrella to juxtapose highly dissimilar styles in their songwriting prevented many from achieving critical success:

"The lesson nu-metal should have taught aspiring young musicians is that the combination of disparate genres can be a tricky thing to balance. The best successes of that era found ways to combine their varied interests into moments of rebellious brilliance. What scene music did, though, was go further in a different direction. The often-inspired synthesis of hip-hop and metal from early Slipknot and Korn efforts was traded for extreme variance. Songs blast through different genres at a neck-breaking pace. One moment, it’s pop punk. The next, a breakdown; then, suddenly, dubstep. It rarely ever works, which is why it’s quite difficult to find an album from that era that was met with true critical acclaim."^[42]

Despite this, numerous albums considered to be "scene" have achieved platinum-selling status.^[43]