Hardcore punk (commonly abbreviated tohardcore orhXc) is apunk rock subgenre andsubculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock.[8] Its roots can be traced to earlier punk scenes inSan Francisco andSouthern California which arose as a reaction against the still predominanthippie cultural climate of the time. It was also inspired byWashington, D.C., andNew York punk rock and earlyproto-punk.[1] Hardcore punk generally eschewscommercialism, the establishedmusic industry and "anything similar to the characteristics ofmainstream rock"[14] and often addresses social and political topics with "confrontational, politically charged lyrics".[15]
Hardcore sprouted underground scenes across the United States in the early 1980s, particularly inLos Angeles,San Francisco,Washington, D.C.,Boston, andNew York, as well as in Canada and the United Kingdom. Hardcore has spawned thestraight edge movement and its associated sub-movements,hardline andyouth crew. Hardcore was heavily involved in the rise of theindependent record labels in the 1980s and with theDIY ethics in underground music scenes. It has also influenced various music genres that have experienced widespread commercial success, includinggrunge andthrash metal.
Although the music genre started in English-speaking Western countries, notable hardcore scenes have existed inItaly,Japan andBrazil.
Hardcore historianSteven Blush creditsMinor Threat'sIan MacKaye with starting a "die-hard mindset that begat almost everything we now call Hardcore", which was virulently anti-music industry and anti-rock star.[16] An article inDrowned in Sound argues that late 1970s/early 1980s-era hardcore is the true spirit of punk, because "all theposeurs and fashionistas fucked off to the next trend ofskinny pink ties withNew Romantic haircuts, singing wimpy lyrics" and the punk scene now consisted of people like Minor Threat,Bad Brains,Black Flag, andCircle Jerks, dedicated to the DIY ethics.[17]Other writers have also attributed hardcore to a reaction against artsy and mellower sub-genres that punk grew into, such aspost-punk andnew wave.[2][18] Hardcore punk additionally broke with original punk rock song patterns and visuals, favoring lower-key aesthetics.[19]
One definition of the genre is "a form of exceptionally harsh punk rock".[20] Hardcore has been called a faster, meaner genre of punk rock, that was a stern refutation against it,[21] being more primal and immediate, with speed and aggression as the starting point.[16]
In the vein of earlier punk rock, most hardcore punk bands have followed the traditional singer/guitar/bass/drum format. The song-writing has more emphasis onrhythm rather thanmelody. Blush writes "TheSex Pistols were still rock'n'roll...like the craziest version ofChuck Berry. Hardcore was a radical departure from that. It wasn't verse-chorus rock. It dispelled any notion of what songwriting is supposed to be. It's its own form."[22] According toAllMusic, the overall blueprint for hardcore was playing louder, harder and faster.[23] Hardcore was a reaction to the "cosmopolitan art-school" style ofnew wave music.[24] Hardcore "eschew[ed] nuance, technique, [and] theavant-garde", and instead emphasized "speed and rhythmic intensity" using unpredictable song forms and abrupt tempo changes.[24]
The impact of powerful volume is important in hardcore.Noisey magazine describes one hardcore band as "an all-encompassing, full-volume assault" in which "[e]very instrument sounds like it's competing for the most power and highest volume".[25] Scott Wilson states that the hardcore of theBad Brains emphasized two elements: "off-the-charts" loudness which reached a level of threatening, powerful "uncompromising noise" and rhythm, in place of the typically focused-on elements in mainstream rock music, harmony and pitch (i.e.,melody).[26]
Hardcore vocalists often shout,[23]scream orchant along with the music, using "vocal intensity"[27] and an abrasive tone.[24] The shouting of hardcore vocalists is often accompanied by audience members who are singing along, making the hardcore vocalist like the "leader of a mob" commonly known as "gang vocals".[27] Steven Blush describes one early Minor Threat show where the crowd was singing the lyrics so loud they could be heard over the PA system.[28] Hardcore vocal lines are often based on minor scales[29] and songs may include shoutedbackground vocals from the other band members. Hardcore lyrics expressed the "frustration and political disillusionment" of youth who were against 1980s-eraaffluence,consumerism, greed, Reagan politics and authority.[24] The polarizing sociopolitical messages in hardcore lyrics (and outrageous on-stage behaviour) meant that the genre garnered no mainstream popularity.[24]
In hardcore, guitarists frequently play fastpower chords with a heavilydistorted and amplified tone, creating what has been called a "buzzsaw" sound.[30] Guitar parts can sometimes be complex, technically versatile, and rhythmically challenging.[31] Guitar melody lines usually use the same minor scales used by vocalists (although some solos usepentatonic scales).[31] Hardcore guitarists sometimes playsolos,octave leads andgrooves, as well as tapping into the variousfeedback andharmonic noises available to them. There are generally fewer guitar solos in hardcore than in mainstream rock, because solos were viewed as representing the "excess and superficiality" of mainstream commercial rock.[24]
Hardcorebassists use varied rhythms in theirbasslines, ranging from longer held notes (whole notes and half notes) to quarter notes, to rapid eighth note or sixteenth note runs. To play rapid bass lines that would be hard to play with the fingers, some bassists use a pick.[31] Some bassists playfuzz bass byoverdriving their bass tone.[32]
Hardcore drumming, typically played fast and aggressively, has been called the "engine" and most essential element of the genre's aggressive sound of "unrelenting anger".[33] Two other key elements for hardcore drummers are playing "tight" with the other musicians, especially the bassist (this does not mean metronomic time; indeed, coordinated tempo shifts are used in many important hardcore albums) and the drummer should have listened to a lot of hardcore, so that they can understand the "raw emotions" it expresses.[33]Lucky Lehrer, the drummer and co-founder of theCircle Jerks in 1979, was an early developer of hardcore drumming; he has been called the "Godfather of hardcore drumming" andFlipside zine calls him the best punk drummer.[34] According to Tobias Hurwitz, "[h]ardcore drumming falls somewhere between the straight-ahead rock styles of old-school punk and the frantic, warp-speed bashing of thrash."[35] Some hardcore punk drummers play fastD-beat one moment and then drop tempo into elaborate musicalbreakdowns in the next. Drummers typically play eighth notes on the cymbals, because at the tempos used in hardcore, it would be difficult to play a smaller subdivision of the beat.[31]
The early 1980s hardcore punk scene developedslam dancing (also called moshing), a style ofdance in which participants push or slam into each other, andstage diving. Moshing works as a vehicle for expressing anger by "represent[ing] a way of playing at violence or roughness that allowed participants to mark their difference from the banal niceties of middle-class culture".[36] Moshing is in another way a "parody of violence",[37][38] that nevertheless leaves participants bruised and sometimes bleeding.[37] The termmosh came into use in the early 1980s American hardcore scene in Washington, D.C. A performance byFear on the 1981Halloween episode ofSaturday Night Live was cut short when moshers, includingJohn Belushi and members of a few hardcore punk bands, invaded the stage, damaged studio equipment and used profanity.[39][40]
Many North American hardcore punk fans adopted a dressed-down style ofT-shirts,jeans or workchinos,combat boots orsneakers, andcrew cut-style haircuts.[41] Women in the hardcore scene typically wore army pants, band T-shirts and hooded sweatshirts.[42] The clothing style was a reflection of hardcore ideology, which included dissatisfaction with suburban America and the hypocrisy of American culture. It was essentially a deconstruction of American fashion staples—ripped jeans, holey T-shirts, torn stockings for women, and work boots.[43]
The style of the 1980s hardcore scene contrasted with the more provocative fashion styles of late 1970s punk rockers. Siri C. Brockmeier writes that "hardcore kids do not look like punks", since hardcore scene members wore basic clothing and short haircuts, in contrast to the "embellished leather jackets and pants" worn in the punk scene.[44] Lauraine Leblanc, however, claims that the standard hardcore punk clothing and styles included torn jeans, leather jackets, spiked armbands, dog collars,mohawk hairstyles, DIY ornamentation of clothes with studs, painted band names, political statements, and patches.[45] Tiffini A. Travis and Perry Hardy describe the look that was common in the San Francisco hardcore scene as consisting of biker-style leather jackets, chains, studded wristbands, multiple piercings, painted or tattooed statements (e.g., an anarchy symbol) and hairstyles ranging from military-style haircuts dyed black or blonde to mohawks and shaved heads.[46]
Circle Jerks frontmanKeith Morris wrote: "[Punk] was basically based on English fashion. But we had nothing to do with that. Black Flag and the Circle Jerks were so far from that. We looked like the kid who worked at the gas station or sub. shop."[47]Henry Rollins stated that for him, getting dressed up meant putting on a black shirt and some dark pants; taking an interest in fashion as being a distraction.[48]Jimmy Gestapo fromMurphy's Law describes his own transition from dressing in a punk style (spiked hair and a bondage belt) to adopting a hardcore style (shaved head and boots) as being based on needing more functional clothing.[42]
Skateboard culture, streetwear, and workwear are also major influences on clothing worn by participants in both past and present eras of hardcore.[49][50]
Certain hardcore punk bands have conveyed messages sometimes deemed "politically incorrect" by placing offensive content in their lyrics and relying on stage antics to shock listeners and people in their audience. Boston bandThe F.U.'s generated controversy with their 1983 album,My America, whose lyrics contained what appeared to be conservative and patriotic views. Its messages were sometimes taken literally, when they were actually intended as a parody of conservative bands.[56] Another act from Massachusetts, Vile, were known to insult women, minorities and gay people in their lyrics and would even go as far as putting their albums on the windshields of people's cars.[57] On the other hand,Tim Yohannan and the influential punk rock fanzineMaximumrocknroll were criticized by some punks for acting as the "politically correct scene police",[58] having what was perceived to be "a very narrow definition of what fits into Punk", apparently being "authoritarian and trying to dominate the scene" with their views.[59]
Several documentaries, including 2003'sAfro-Punk and 2016'sLos Punks, chronicle these subcultures within American punk and hardcore.[84][85]
As of 2019, the genre is still overwhelmingly represented by white males.[86] However, as sonic diversity has increased in the genre, so too has its fanbase.[87] This has helped bring greater attention to inclusivity within the scene.[88]Bands likeWar On Women,Limp Wrist,Gouge Away, andG.L.O.S.S. have helped bring attention to subjects like women's rights, transphobia,[89] rape,[90] mental health,[91] queer rights,[92][93] and misogyny.[94]
Record labels in hardcore are often DIY endeavors, run by musicians or participants within the community. Largely inspired by early labels likeDischord Records,Alternative Tentacles,Epitaph Records,SST Records,Revelation Records, andTouch & Go Records, record labels are usually run on DIY ethic, collaboration, financial trust, and an emphasis on creative control.[95] Labels within hardcore are seldom large, profit-making operations, but rather collaborative music partners with the intent to document and release music for the underground community.
Ian Mackaye, co-founder ofDischord Records claimed, "We don't use contracts, lawyers, any of those kinds of things. We are partners – they make the music, and we make the records. From the beginning of this label, people have said that the way we do things is unsustainable, unrealistic, idealistic, and we were just dreaming", he said. "Well, the dream is now 35 years old, so they can go fuck themselves."[96]
During the early 1980s, the genre was popularly referred to using the name "thrash", as shown on the 1982 hardcore compilation albumNew York Thrash.[97] In the following years, "thrash metal" began being used to refer to the fusion of the genre andheavy metal music. By the middle of the decade, "thrash" had instead evolved to become a shortened name for the thrash metal fusion genre, becoming increasingly less common as a descriptor for hardcore.[98]
Steven Blush states that theVancouver-based bandD.O.A.'s 1981 album,Hardcore '81, "was where the genre got its name".[16] This album also helped to make people aware of the term "hardcore".[99][100] Konstantin Butz states that while the origin of the expression "hardcore" "cannot be ascribed to a specific place or time", the term is "usually associated with the further evolution of California's L.A. Punk Rock scene", which included young skateboarders.[51] A September 1981 article byTim Sommer shows the author applying the term to the "15 or so" punk bands gigging around the city at that time, which he considered a belated development relative to Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.[101] Blush said that the term "hardcore" is also a reference to the sense of being "fed up" with the existing punk andnew wave music.[102] Blush also states that the term refers to "an extreme: the absolute most Punk".[103] Kelefa Sanneh states that the term "hardcore" referred to an attitude of "turning inwards" towards the scene and "ignoring broader society", all with the goal of achieving a sense of "shared purpose" and being part of a community.[21] Sanneh citesAgnostic Front's band member selection approach as an example of hardcore's emphasis on "scene citizenship"; prospective members of the band were chosen based on being part of the local hardcore scene and being regularly in themoshing pit at shows, rather than based on a musicalaudition.[21]
Hardcore punk drew a line in the sand between older andavant-garde rock fans and a new bunch of kids who were coming up. On one side there were those who considered the music (and its fans) loud, ugly and incoherent: to the folks on the other side, hardcore was the only music that mattered. A rare generational divide in rock music had arisen. And that's when exciting things happen.
Michael Azerrad states that "[by] 1979 the original punk scene [in Southern California] had almost completely died out" and was replaced by punk music boiled down to its essence, but with faster tempos, which became known as "hardcore".[105] Steven Blush states that the first hardcore record to come out of the West Coast wasOut of Vogue by the Santa Ana bandMiddle Class.[106] The band pioneered a shouted, fast version of punk rock which would shape the hardcore sound that would soon emerge. In terms of impact upon the hardcore scene, Black Flag has been deemed the most influential group. Azerrad calls Black Flag the "godfathers" of hardcore punk and states that even "...more than the flagship band of American hardcore", they were "...required listening for anyone who was interested in underground music."[107] Blush states that Black Flag were to hardcore what theSex Pistols andRamones were to punk.[108] Formed inHermosa Beach, California byguitarist and primary songwriterGreg Ginn, they played their first show in December 1977. Originally called Panic, they changed their name to Black Flag in 1978.[109] In 2002, during an interview withNardwuar,Dead Kennedys singerJello Biafra was asked what he believed to be the first hardcore record, he remarked: "Sound Of ImkerTrain of Doomsday single in the late '60s in Holland. The only true '60s hardcore record I know."[110]
Whilst popular traditional punk bands such asthe Clash, Ramones, and Sex Pistols were signed to major record labels, the hardcore punk bands were generally not. Black Flag, however, was briefly signed toMCA subsidiary Unicorn Records but were dropped because an executive considered their music to be "anti-parent".[115] Instead of trying to be courted by the major labels, hardcore bands started their ownindependent record labels and distributed their records themselves. Ginn startedSST Records, which released Black Flag's debut EPNervous Breakdown in 1979. SST went on to release a number of albums by other hardcore artists, and was described by Azerrad as "easily the most influential and popular underground indie of the Eighties."[107] SST was followed by a number of other successful artist-run labels—includingBYO Records (started by Shawn and Mark Stern of Youth Brigade),[116]Epitaph Records (started byBrett Gurewitz of Bad Religion),[117]New Alliance Records (started by the Minutemen'sD. Boon andMike Watt),[118] as well as fan-run labels likeFrontier Records andSlash Records.
Bands also funded and organized their own tours. Black Flag's tours in 1980 and 1981 brought them in contact with developing hardcore scenes in many parts of North America, and blazed trails that were followed by other touring bands.[119][120][121] Concerts in the early Los Angeles hardcore scene increasingly became sites of violent battles between police and concertgoers. Another source of violence in L.A. was tension created by what one writer calls the invasion of "antagonistic suburbanposeurs" into hardcore venues.[122] Violence at hardcore concerts was portrayed in episodes of the popular television showsCHiPs andQuincy, M.E..[123]
In the pre-Internet era, fanzines, commonly calledzines, enabled hardcore scene members to learn about bands, clubs, and record labels. Zines typically included reviews of shows and records, interviews with bands, letters, ads for records and labels, and were DIY products, "proudly amateur, usually handmade. A zine calledWe Got Power described the Los Angeles scene from 1981 to 1984, and it included show reviews and band interviews with groups including D.O.A., the Misfits, Black Flag, Suicidal Tendencies and the Circle Jerks.[124]
Shortly after Black Flag debuted in Los Angeles,Dead Kennedys were formed in San Francisco. While the band's early releases were played in a style closer to traditional punk rock,In God We Trust, Inc. (1981) marked a shift into hardcore. Similar to Black Flag and Youth Brigade, Dead Kennedys released their albums on their own label, which in DK's case wasAlternative Tentacles. The scene was helped in particular by the San Francisco clubMabuhay Gardens, whose promoter,Dirk Dirksen, became known as "The Pope of Punk".[125] Another important local institution wasTim Yohannan'sMaximumrocknroll, which started as a radio show in 1977, but branched out into afanzine in 1982.[126]
The first hardcore punk band to form on the East Coast of the United States was Washington, D.C.'sBad Brains. Initially formed in 1977 as a jazz fusion ensemble called Mind Power, and consisting of allAfrican-American members, their early foray into hardcore featured some of the fastest tempos inrock music.[130] The band released its debut single, "Pay to Cum", in 1980, and were influential in establishing the D.C. hardcore scene. Hardcore historian Steven Blush calls the single the first East Coast hardcore record.[131]
Ian MacKaye andJeff Nelson, influenced byBad Brains, formed the bandTeen Idles in 1979. The group broke up in 1980, and MacKaye and Nelson went on to formMinor Threat, a band which, apart fromBad Brains, has arguably had the biggest influence on the hardcore punk genre, and whose contributions to the music, ethics, aesthetic, and ethos are still widely acknowledged by hardcore bands of the 2020s.[132] The band used faster rhythms and more aggressive, less melodic riffs than was common at the time. Minor Threat popularized thestraight edge movement with its song "Straight Edge", which spoke out against alcohol, drugs and promiscuity.[133][134] MacKaye and Nelson ran their own record label,Dischord Records, which released records by D.C. hardcore bands, includingthe Faith,Iron Cross,Scream,State of Alert,Government Issue,Void, and D.C.'sYouth Brigade. TheFlex Your Head compilation was a seminal document of the early 1980s D.C. hardcore scene. The record label was run out of the Dischord House, a Washington, D.C.,punk house.Henry Rollins, who would come to prominence as the lead singer of the California-based Black Flag, as well as his own laterRollins Band, grew up in Washington, D.C., singing for the State of Alert, and was influenced by the music of Bad Brains and the bands of his childhood friend Ian MacKaye.[135]
The tradition of holding all-ages shows at small DIY spaces, has roots in the early Washington, D.C., straight edge movement. It emerged from the idea that people of all ages should have access to music, regardless of if they're old enough to drink alcohol.[136]
Seminal Boston-area hardcore bands includedthe F.U.'s,the Freeze,Gang Green,Jerry's Kids,Siege,DYS,Negative FX, andSS Decontrol. Members of the latter three bands were influenced by D.C.'sstraight edge scene, and were part of "the Boston Crew", a mostly straight edge group of friends known to physically fight people who used alcohol or drugs.[137] Members of the Boston Crew would later go on to form the bandSlapshot,[137] and also included futureMighty Mighty Bosstones singerDicky Barrett, who was then a member of the band Impact Unit,[138] and drew the artwork for the DYS albumBrotherhood.[139]
Further outside of Boston wereWestern Massachusetts bandsDeep Wound (which featured futureDinosaur Jr. membersJ Mascis andLou Barlow) and theOutpatients, both of whom would come to Boston to play shows.[141] From nearbyManchester, New Hampshire, wasG.G. Allin, a solo singer who, contrary to straight edge, used large amounts of drugs and alcohol, eventually dying of a heroin overdose.[142] Allin's stage show included defecating on stage and then throwing his feces at the audience.[143]
TheNew York City hardcore scene emerged in 1981 whenBad Brains moved to the city fromWashington, D.C.[144][145] Starting in 1981, there was an influx of new hardcore bands in the city includingAgnostic Front,Beastie Boys,Cro-Mags, Cause for Alarm,the Mob,Murphy's Law,Reagan Youth, andWarzone. A number of other bands associated with New York hardcore scene came fromNew Jersey, including theMisfits,Adrenalin OD andHogan's Heroes.[146][147] Steven Blush calls the Misfits "crucial to the rise of hardcore."[148] New York hardcore had more emphasis on rhythm, in part due to the use ofpalm-muted guitar chords, an approach called the NY hardcore "chug".[21] The New York scene was known for its tough ethos, its "thuggery", and club shows that were a chaotic "proving ground" or even a "battleground".[21]
In the early 1980s, the New York hardcore scene centered around squats and clubhouses.[21] After these were closed down, the scene was emanating in a small after-hours bar,A7, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and later around the famous barCBGB. For several years, CBGB held weekly hardcore matinées on Sundays, but they stopped in 1990 when violence led Kristal to ban hardcore shows at the club.[149]
Early radio support in New York's surroundingTri-State area came from Pat Duncan, who had hosted live punk and hardcore bands weekly onWFMU since 1979.[150]Bridgeport, Connecticut'sWPKN had a radio show featuring hardcore called Capital Radio, hosted by Brad Morrison, beginning in February 1979 and continuing weekly until late 1983. InNew York City, Tim Sommer hostedNoise The Show onWNYU.[151]
By 1984, theRamones, one of the original New York punk bands, were experimenting with hardcore, with two songs, "Wart Hog" and "Endless Vacation" on their albumToo Tough To Die.[152]
D.O.A. formed inVancouver, British Columbia in 1978 and were one of the first bands to refer to its style as "hardcore", with the release of their albumHardcore '81. Other early hardcore bands from British Columbia includedDayglo Abortions who formed in 1979, theSubhumans andthe Skulls.
In theUnited Kingdom, a fertile hardcore scene took root early on. Referred to under a number of names including "U.K. Hardcore", "UK 82", "second wave punk",[158] "real punk",[159] and "No Future punk",[160] it took the previous punk sound and added the incessant, heavy drumbeats and heavily distorted guitar sound ofnew wave of British heavy metal bands, especiallyMotörhead.[161] Formed in 1977 inStoke-on-Trent,Discharge played a large role in influencing other European hardcore bands. AllMusic calls the band's sound a "high-speed noise overload" characterized by "ferocious noise blasts."[162] Their style of hardcore punk was coined asD-beat, a term referring to a distinctive drum beat that a number of 1980s imitators of Discharge are associated with.[163]
Another UK band,the Varukers, were one of the original D-beat bands,[164] Scottish bandthe Exploited were also influential, with the term "UK 82" (used to refer to UK hardcore in the early 1980s) being taken from one of their songs. They contrasted with early American hardcore bands by placing an emphasis on appearance. Frontman Walter "Wattie" Buchan had a giant redmohawk and the band continued to wearswastikas, an approach influenced by the wearing of this symbol by 1970s punks such asSid Vicious. Because of this, the Exploited were labeled by others in the scene as "cartoon punks".[165] Other influential UK hardcore bands from this period includedGBH,Anti-Establishment,Antisect,Broken Bones,Chaos UK,Conflict,Dogsflesh,English Dogs, andgrindcore innovatorsNapalm Death.
There was an Italian hardcore punk scene in the 1980s that included groups likeWretched,Raw Power, andNegazione. Sweden developed several influential hardcore bands, includingAnti Cimex,Disfear, andMob 47. Finland produced some influential hardcore bands, includingTerveet Kädet, one of the first hardcore groups to emerge in the country. In Eastern Europe, notable hardcore bands included Hungary'sGalloping Coroners from 1975, Yugoslavia's 1980s-eraNiet from Ljubljana,Patareni from Zagreb andKBO! from Kragujevac.
The mid-1980s were a time of transition for the hardcore scene, with a number of influential bands from earlier in the decade changing their sound or breaking up. For instance, Black Flag's 1984 albumMy War, which coincided with the band members growing their hair long, were criticized for having "goneheavy metal".[168] The album's second side was called a road map forsludge metal, as well as being influenced bydoom metal bands.[168][169] Black Flag's eventual breakup in 1986 would coincide with the breakup of one of the other most influential hardcore bands, theDead Kennedys.[170][171]
By 1985, Boston bands SS Decontrol and DYS became metal bands, while the F.U.'s did the same, but changed their name to "Straw Dogs".[172] By the end of the year, both SSD and DYS had broken up.[173][174] Other bands in the mid-'80s that went from being strictly hardcore to adding more metal riffs developed an even heavier sound, with Corrosion of Conformity, Cro-Mags and D.R.I., becoming known ascrossover thrash bands.[175] Bands like Cro-Mags looked to early Bad Brains songs such asSupertouch/Shitfit as inspiration for heavy breakdowns in hardcore punk music.[176]
Bad Religion briefly broke up in 1984, after making theprogressive rock albumInto the Unknown. They returned to their roots on the 1985Back to the Known EP, and then began their embrace of more melodic straightforward punk rock, starting with 1988'sSuffer.[177] In 1986, Los Angeles'sYouth Brigade changed their name to The Brigade, and changed their sound to a style thatThe Los Angeles Times compared to mainstream bands likeU2,R.E.M., andBig Country.[178] They broke up the following year.[179]
Bands such asMinutemen,Meat Puppets,Hüsker Dü andthe Replacements, changed their style, becomingalternative rock.[180] Around the same time, a social movement within the influential hardcore punk scene of Washington, D.C., occurred during the summer of 1985, dubbedRevolution Summer. The movement challenged the initial wave of hardcore music, the attitudes of fans and bands before them and also the image mainstream media portrayed of punks. The bands that spawned out of Revolution Summer often took a stand against violence, especially at shows in the form of slam dancing, as well as standing up against the sexism of the scene. Bands associated with the movement, such asRites of Spring,Embrace, andDag Nasty, are notable for having inspired the emotional hardcore and the originalemo genre of the late 1980s and 1990s.[181][182] The subsequentpost-hardcore music genre, spearheaded by bands likeFugazi, is an evolution of hardcore which was created by participants of the Revolution Summer movement.[183] T.S.O.L., who had already embracedgoth rock, became ahard rock band with 1986'sRevenge, being compared toPoison andFaster Pussycat, and touring withGuns N' Roses.[184]Red Kross's second album, 1987'sNeurotica, was described as a blend ofpop rock andart rock.[185] TheBeastie Boys gained fame by playinghip hop, andBad Brains incorporated morereggae into their music, such as in their 1989 albumQuickness.[186]
Starting in 1986, theyouth crew movement, became prominent in New York hardcore. Inspired by early hardcore bands such as 7 Seconds, Minor Threat and SSD, whose members were all straight edge and lyrical concerns included brotherhood and community values, youth crew was a reaction against the prevailing metal influence in hardcore at the time. The movement was based aroundYouth of Today, and fleshed out by bands signed to Youth of Today vocalistRay Cappo's record labelRevelation Records, includingGorilla Biscuits,Bold and Side by Side.[187] Following the release of their second albumBreak Down the Walls (1986), Youth of Today toured extensively across the United States and internationally, leading to youth crew ideals spreading and the formation of many subsequent bands. Youth crew took a particular hold in Southern California,[188] whereChain of Strength became one of the style's premier bands.[187] As the style progressed, it too became influenced by the metal it originally opposed, seen in the musical style ofJudge.[189]
In the late 1980s, a more militant subculture ofstraight edge calledhardline emerged through members of theanarcho punk scene and embracedveganism andradical environmentalism.Vegan Reich began as a crew ofAnimal Liberationists before becoming a band in order to promote their views in 1986; however, the group split from the widerU.S. anarchist movement in 1988 due to backlash from the community for their anti-carnist views.[190] Vegan Reich vocalist Sean Muttaqi andRaid vocalist Steve Lovett created hardline philosophy and pioneered its musical movement alongside the English band Statement. Although hardline was overtly a political, anarchist school of thought rather than a hardcore subculture, hardline activists began to push their views specifically towards those in the mid to late 1980s straight edge scene due to the scene's wider appeal.[191] The movement quickly gained popularity in Memphis and Indianapolis, before then spreading to Salt Lake City and Syracuse.[192]
The early 1990s saw the pioneering of metalcore. One of the earliest metalcore scenes was that ofCleveland,Ohio, fronted byIntegrity andRingworm.[193] Integrity's debut albumThose Who Fear Tomorrow (1991) merged hardcore with apocalyptic lyrics and metal's guitar solos and chugging riffs to create one of the primeval albums in the genre.[194]Revolver magazine writer Elis Enis stated that the album "influenced practically every breakdown that's been recorded since".[195] Philadelphia'sStarkweather and New Jersey'sRorschach were also early bands in the genre.[196][197] In 1993,Earth Crisis released "Firestorm", one of the most influential songs in the genre.[198] which ultimately popularised the militantveganstraight edge ethic and chug riffs.[199] Soon after, the sound spread to Boston withOvercast andConverge[200] and New York City withAll Out War andMerauder.[201]
During this era in mainstream music, punk rock became a success in 1994 with popular bands likeGreen Day,the Offspring, andRancid.[202] While typically playingpop punk, Green Day's 1997 albumNimrod contained two songs ("Platypus [I Hate You]" and "Take Back") that were described as hardcore;[203][204][205][206] meanwhile, Rancid would record a hardcore album with 2000'sRancid.[207] The same year, punk became popular again in 1994,Sick of It All released the major label albumScratch the Surface. According to lead singerLou Koller, people thought that they would go from a hardcore band to sounding like Green Day, so they intentionally made an album heavier than anything they'd done before. The album became a surprise success, with the single "Step Down" becoming a staple onMTV, thanks to a tongue-in-cheek music video featuring a roving reporter "exposing" the world of hardcore, and showing how to do various hardcore dance moves.[208] The decade also saw a rise in pop-punk bands likeNew Found Glory andSaves the Day, which garnered attention from fans of hardcore due to band member connections to the contemporary hardcore scene.[209][210]
In the late 1990s, a number of movements that attempted to rebel against the hypermasculinity that hardcore had come to embrace. One of these wasfashioncore, which originated fromOrange County, California metalcore bands, particularlyEighteen Visions. The movement placed emphasis on the fashion style of the musicians and saw many in hardcore begin to wear skinny jeans, collared shirts and white belts and adopting dyed, straightened and swooping fringed hairstyles.Sass music began with this same intention, doing so by incorporating elements such as homoerotic lyrics, lisped vocals, dance parts and sometimes synths.[223]
By 1999 and 2000, the youth crew revival was in decline, with Ten Yard Fight, In My Eyes and Floorpunch all disbanding. As a reaction against the homogeneity and simplicity that scene had developed, Ten Yard Fight guitarist Tim Cossar and the band's roadieWesley Eisold formedAmerican Nightmare.[226] Although still musically rooted in the youth crew revival, the band's negative, poetic lyrics of self-loathing were inspired by groups likethe Smiths.[212][227] American Nightmare's influence was apparent promptly in their home of Boston,[226] then expanded nationally with the release of their 2001 debut albumBackground Music,[212] being followed by a wave bands includingCeremony,Ruiner,Modern Life Is War,the Hope Conspiracy andKilling the Dream.[228][229] A reaction against this movement also took place, which began with Mental, who were quickly followed byHave Heart.[230] Have Heart's success led to the rise in popularity of otherpositive hardcore groups likeChampion,Verse andSinking Ships, and the rise in prominence ofBridge 9 Records.[231][232] In anAllMusic review, Greg Prato wrote about the label's bandEnergy that "While you wouldn't go quite as far as calling Energy "a hardcoreboy band," the group's leanings toward the mainstream are undeniable throughoutInvasions of the Mind.[233] Friends Stand United (FSU) formed in Boston in the 1980s in an attempt to expelneo-Nazis from the scene.[234] By the early 2000s, there were FSU chapters in Philadelphia, Chicago, Arizona, Los Angeles, Seattle,upstate New York and New Jersey, and they were considered to have about 200 members.[235] TheFederal Bureau of Investigation eventually classified FSU as a street gang, which used violent methods and repeatedly assault people at hardcore shows and on Boston streets. In conjunction with the gang activities, James eventually did time in jail for extortion.[236]
With the increased popularity of punk rock in the mid-1990s and the 2000s, additional hardcore bands signed with major record labels. In 2001, New York'sH2O released the albumGo onMCA, but it failed at bringing the band big success, and fell flat with longtime fans.[237] In 2002,AFI signed toDreamWorks Records but changed their sound considerably for its successful major label debutSing the Sorrow. Chicago'sRise Against were signed byGeffen Records, and three of its releases on the label were certified platinum by theRIAA.[238] Like AFI, Rise Against gradually removed elements of hardcore from their music, culminating with 2008'sAppeal to Reason, which lacked the intensity found in their earlier albums.[239] United Kingdom bandGallows were signed toWarner Bros. Records for £1 million.[240] Their major label debutGrey Britain was more aggressive than their previous material, and the band was subsequently dropped from the label.[241] The success of the band led to other British hardcore acts of the time gain notability likethe Ghost of a Thousand andHeights.[242] Los Angeles bandthe Bronx briefly appeared onIsland Def Jam Music Group for the release of their2006 self-titled album, which was named one of the top 40 albums of the year bySpin magazine.[243] They appeared in theDarby CrashbiopicWhat We Do Is Secret, playing members of Black Flag. In 2007,Toronto'sFucked Up appeared onMTV Live Canada, where they were introduced as "Effed Up".[244] During the performance of its song "Baiting the Public", the majority of the audience wasmoshing, which caused $2000 in damages to the set.[245]Fucked Up went on to win the2009 Polaris Music Prize for the albumThe Chemistry of Common Life.[246]
Turnstile have been one of the most prominent bands in the hardcore scene since their 2010 formation.
With many bands breaking up in the late 2000s, accompanied by a general sense of sonic homogeny in the hardcore genre, the 2010s became a decade of experimentation and fusion in hardcore music that was fueled by access to streaming.[248] Drawing from and collaborating with elements of other eras and genres, hardcore grew as music styles intersected. For instance, bands likeTrash Talk began collaborating with artists likeTyler, the Creator and his hip hop collectiveOdd Future.[249] Meanwhile, bands likeFury,[250]Fiddlehead,[251] and Give[252] garnered a great deal of attention on an underground level for their lyricism and diverse sounds.[253][254][255] Other prominent bands, likeTitle Fight andBasement brought elements ofshoegaze and '90snoise rock into the hardcore genre.[256][257]
Trapped Under Ice were one of the most prominent bands in hardcore in the early 2010s. The band's second albumBig Kiss Goodnight (2011) changing the sonic landscape of hardcore at the time,[258] withStereogum writer Tom Breiham stating in a 2023 article that "it's been years since we've gotten a new Trapped Under Ice song, but that band's influence looms large over the entire hardcore landscape today."[259] However, in 2013, the band suddenly disbanded, disheartened by the amount of interest in them by the music industry. In the meantime, its members focused on their other projectsAngel Dust,Diamond Youth,Down to Nothing andTurnstile.[258] Angel Dust's embrace of styles likeindie pop, and Turnstile's of 1960ssurf music and 1990s alternative rock led to them, too, becoming formidable in the follow decade.[260]
In the early to mid-2010s, a number of British hardcore punk bands began being represented as members of a new musical movement dubbed theNew Wave of British Hardcore, a term coined by Adam Malik from the Essence Records.[261] Bands who are part of the movement generally take influence from '80s Boston and New York hardcore bands.[262] Bands associated with the movement includeArms Race,[263][262]Violent Reaction,[264]Big Cheese,[265]Higher Power, Perspex Flesh, Mob Rules,the Flex and Blind Authority.[261] Some bands such as Rapture,[266] Violent Reaction[261] and Payday[267] are straight edge.
During this time, Muslim hardcore bands have emerged in the U.S., Canada, Pakistan, and Indonesia. The development of Muslim hardcore has been traced to the impact of a 2010 filmTaqwacore, a documentary about the Muslim hardcore scene. Bands includethe Kominas from Boston, the all-girlSecret Trial Five from Toronto,Al Thawra (The Power) from Chicago "and even a few bands out in Pakistan and Indonesia."[268] Partly due to developments in digital communications, there was a rise in interaction between hardcore scenes in different places and subgenres, particularly in Europe. In September 2017,Bandcamp Daily wrote thatFluff Fest, which has been held in the Czech Republic since 2000 and features an international lineup of independent bands ranging in style fromcrust punk toscreamo, "has established itself as the main DIY hardcore punk event in Europe".[269]
During the decade, many hardcore bands also had considerable chart recognition. Turnstile signed toRoadrunner Records in 2017 and released their sophomore albumTime & Space in 2018, which reached number one on theBillboard Heatseekers chart.[270]Gouge Away, formed in 2012 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, saw their recordBurnt Sugar peak at 46 on Billboard Independent Albums.[271]Code Orange, who formed in Pittsburgh in 2008, their 2014 sophomore albumI Am King reached number 96 on theBillboard 200, and its follow up, 2017'sForever peaked and number 62.[272] Kentucky hardcore bandKnocked Loose formed in 2013 and released their debut albumLaugh Tracks in 2016, which peaked at number 163 on the Billboard 200. Its follow-upA Different Shade of Blue was released in 2019 and peaked at number 26.[273] Many of these bands were a part of wave of bands gaining recognition for harkening back to the metallic hardcore sound of bands from the 1990s, which includedVein.fm,[274] Code Orange, Knocked Loose,Varials,Jesus Piece,Counterparts andKublai Khan.[citation needed]
Hardcore in the late 2010s saw a significant growth of the scene to involve bands taking influence from styles generally disassociated with it, such asindustrial,heavy metal,post-punk andnu metal.[275] Around this time, mainstream rappers began to associate themselves with the hardcore scene.Playboi Carti included a performance from a hardcore show as the front cover for his 2018 albumDie Lit,Denzel Curry collaborated with Bad Brains and Fucked Up in 2019[275] and rap groupsSuicideboys andCity Morgue were joined on tour by hardcore bands Turnstile and Trash Talk.[276] RappersWicca Phase Springs Eternal andGhostemane even began playing music by performing in hardcore bands.[275] In September 2019, rap groupInjury Reserve released a collaborative track withCode Orange andJPEGMafia.[277]
In 2019, the highly influential 2000s Boston hardcore bandHave Heart reunited for performances in four different locations after a ten-year breakup. One of these performances was outside theWorcester Palladium inMassachusetts, which drew around 10,000 attendees, making it the largest standalone hardcore show in history.[278]
The 2020COVID-19 pandemic made the prospect of playing live music difficult.[279] This brought about a heavy digital shift in independent music, where many bands began performing livestream shows for fans until physical shows could occur.[280] Withsocial distancing limiting the availability of physical interactions, the hardcore community relied on social media activity, podcasting, zines, and video content to stay connected virtually.[281][282] During this period, a number of hardcore releases gained attention from the media and online that surpassed the genre's usual scope, namely Code Orange'sUnderneath (2020), Higher Power's27 Miles Underwater (2021) and Turnstile'sGlow On (2021).[283]Underneath topped theUK Rock & Metal Albums,[284] reached number two on the US Top Tastemaker Albums chart,[285] and received universal critical acclaim.[286] Higher Power were hailed byMetal Hammer as "the band redefining hardcore for a new generation",[287] and voted the most likely UK band to break into the mainstream in aRevolver fan poll.[288] However,Glow On triggered an international explosion in popularity of the genre, and allowed for the subsequent success of bands includingZulu,High Vis andSpeed.[289]Glow On also received universal critical acclaim,[290] peaked at number two on the UK Rock & Metal Albums,[291] and number thirty on the mainlineBillboard 200 chart.[292] A podcast published theNew York Times credited a number of viral videos of live performances by hardcore bands as contributing to the popularity, includingSunami's live debut in San Jose on October 26, 2019,Hate5six's July 03, 2021 video of Mindforce performing at Underground Arts in Philadelphia and Turnstile's performance in Oxnard on August 29, 2021.[293]
The southernSan Francisco Bay Area scene gained particular prevalence in the 2020s, based inSanta Cruz andSan Jose. The first of these bands wasGulch, who formed in 2016, and were later followed byScowl,Drain and Sunami.[294] As lockdowns began to ease, many of the bands in this scene began to put on "guerilla shows", such as one that took place on June 19, 2021, in San Jose featuring Sunami, Gulch, Drain, Scowl,Xibalba and Maya Over Eyes, which had an attendance of around 2,000.[295] Gulch performed their final live performance at Sound and Fury Festival on July 31, 2022, at the peak of their popularity.[296]
This period also saw a number of groups garner attention while experimenting with hardcore's sound. TheFinancial Times named London'sChubby and the Gang and Detroit'sthe Armed as two of the most commercially successful groups of this wave,[297] whileSpin magazine citedMilitarie Gun, High Vis and Scowl as bands "help[ing] to breathe life back into both" alternative rock and hardcore.[298]
Metallica andSlayer, pioneers of the heavy metal subgenrethrash metal, were influenced by a number of hardcore bands. Metallica's cover albumGarage Inc. included covers of twoDischarge and threeMisfits songs, while Slayer's cover albumUndisputed Attitude consisted of covers of predominately hardcore punk bands.
D-beat (also known as discore or kängpunk) is a hardcore punk subgenre, developed in the early 1980s by imitators of the bandDischarge, after whom the genre is named, as well as adrum beat characteristic of this subgenre. The bands Discharge[311] andthe Varukers[312] are pioneers of the D-beat genre. Robbie Mackey ofPitchfork Media described D-beat as "hardcore drumming set against breakneck riffage and unintelligible howls about anarchy, working-stiffs-as-rats, and banding together to, you know, fight."[313]
The 1980s saw the development ofpost-hardcore, which took the hardcore style in a more complex and dynamic direction, with a focus on singing rather than screaming. The post-hardcore style first took shape in Chicago, with bands such asBig Black,the Effigies andNaked Raygun.[314] It later developed in Washington, D.C., within the community of bands onIan MacKaye'sDischord Records, with bands such asFugazi,the Nation of Ulysses, andJawbox.[315] The style extended until the late 2000s.[315] The mid-'80s Washington, D.C.,Revolution Summer movement and post-hardcore scene would also see the birth ofemo.Guy Picciotto formedRites of Spring in 1984, breaking free of hardcore's self-imposed boundaries in favor of melodic guitars, varied rhythms, and deeply personal, impassioned lyrics dealing with nostalgia, romantic bitterness, and poetic desperation.[316] Other D.C. bands such asGray Matter,Beefeater,Fire Party,Dag Nasty, also became connected to this movement.[317][318] The style was dubbed "emo", "emo-core",[319] or "post-harDCore"[320] (in reference to one of the names given to the Washington, D.C. hardcore scene).[321]
Often confused withcrossover thrash and sometimesthrash metal isthrashcore.[322] Thrashcore (also known as fastcore[323]) is a subgenre of hardcore punk that emerged in the early 1980s.[324] It is essentially sped-up hardcore punk, with bands often usingblast beats.[323] Just as hardcore punk groups distinguished themselves from their punk rock predecessors by their greater intensity and aggression, thrashcore groups (often identified simply as "thrash") sought to play at breakneck tempos that would radicalize the innovations of hardcore. Early American thrashcore groups includedCryptic Slaughter (Santa Monica),D.R.I. (Houston),Ludichrist,[325] (Long Island),Septic Death (Boise) andSiege (Weymouth, Massachusetts). Thrashcore spun off intopowerviolence, another raw and dissonant subgenre of hardcore punk.[322] Other notable powerviolence bands include earlyCeremony,Man is the Bastard andSpazz.[326][327]
Grindcore is an extreme genre of music that began the early to mid-1980s. Grindcore music relies on heavy metal instrumentation and eventually changed into a genre similar todeath metal. Grindcore vocals, according toAllMusic, range "from high-pitched shrieks to low, throat-shredding growls and barks".[328] Grindcore also features blast beats;[329] according to Adam MacGregor ofDusted, "the blast-beat generally comprises a repeated, sixteenth-note figure played at a very fast tempo, and divided uniformly among the kick drum, snare and ride, crash, or hi-hat cymbal."[329] The bandNapalm Death invented the grindcore genre; their debut albumScum was described byAllMusic as "perhaps the most representative example of" grindcore.[330]
Metalcore is a fusion genre that merges hardcore punk withextreme metal. Metalcore has screaming,growling, heavy guitar riffs, breakdowns, and double bass drumming.[337] Heavy metal–hardcore punk hybrids arose in the mid-1980s and would also radicalize the innovations of hardcore as the two genres and their ideologies intertwined noticeably.[338] The term has been used to refer to bands that were not purely hardcore nor purely metal such asEarth Crisis,Integrity andHogan's Heroes.[339] During the 2000s, there was a metalcore explosion[340] and bands likeBullet for My Valentine,Killswitch Engage,Atreyu,Shadows Fall, andAs I Lay Dying all had some popularity.[337]
In the mid-1980s, bands such asMelvins,Flipper andGreen River developed asludgy, "aggressive sound that melded the slower tempos of heavy metal with the intensity of hardcore," creating an alternative rock subgenre known asgrunge.[341] Grunge evolved from the local Seattle punk rock scene, and it was inspired by bands such asthe Fartz,10 Minute Warning andthe Accüsed.[342] Grunge fuses elements of hardcore and heavy metal, although some bands performed with more emphasis on one or the other. Grunge's key guitar influences included Black Flag and the Melvins.[343] Black Flag's 1984 recordMy War, on which the band combined heavy metal with their traditional sound, made a strong impact in Seattle.[344]
Eyehategod formed inHarvey, Louisiana in 1988 and is credited with originating a new style—New Orleans hardcore-edged sludge.[348] Another viewpoint is that New Orleans was the birthplace of the sludgecore movement, withEyehategod being given the most credit for it.[349] Sludgecore combines sludge metal with hardcore punk, and possesses a slow pace,[349][350] alow guitar tuning,[349][350] and a grinding dirge-like feel.[350] Bands regarded as sludgecore includeAcid Bath,Eyehategod, andSoilent Green,[351] and all three formed in Louisiana. Crowbar formed in 1991 and mixed "detuned, lethargic sludged-out metal with hardcore andsouthern elements".[352] According to rock journalist Steve Huey writing inAllMusic, Eyehategod was a sludge metal band that became part of the "Southern sludgecore scene". This scene also included Crowbar andDown, with all three bands being influenced by Black Flag, Black Sabbath, and theMelvins.[353] Some of these bands incorporatedSouthern rock influences.[354][355][356]
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^Waksman, Steve (January 5, 2009).This Ain't the Summer of Love: Conflict and Crossover in Heavy Metal and Punk. University of California Press. p. 210.ISBN978-0520943889.
^abcdefWilliams, Sarah. "Hardcore". InContinuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music Volume 8: North America. Edited by John Shepherd and David Horn. p. 257-260
^ab"Archived copy"(PDF).Archived(PDF) from the original on November 2, 2013. RetrievedMay 20, 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Brockmeier, Siri C.,"Not Just Boys' Fun?": The Gendered Experience of American Hardcore, MA Thesis in American Studies Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages ILOS (Universitet I Oslo, 2009) p. 12
^Thompson, William Forde (August 12, 2014).Music in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: An Encyclopedia. SAGE Publications. p. 500.ISBN9781452283029.
^"Archived copy"(PDF).Archived(PDF) from the original on November 2, 2013. RetrievedMay 20, 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) p. 11
^Leblanc, Lauraine,Pretty in Punk: Girls' Gender Resistance in a Boys' Subculture. (Rutgers University Press, 1999), p. 52
^Travis, Tiffini A. and Perry Hardy,Skinheads: A Guide to an American Subculture (ABC-CLIO, 2012), p. 123 (section entitled "From San Francisco Hardcore Punks to Skinheads")
^Cullen, Shaun. White Skin, Black Flag: Hardcore Punk, Racialization, and the Politics of Sound in Southern California. Wayne State University Press, April 3, 2017,Cullen, Shaun (2016)."Project MUSE".Criticism.58 (1):59–85.doi:10.13110/criticism.58.1.0059.S2CID157837607.
^Tatangelo, Wade. "Queens of the Stone Age Is the Alt-Metal Super Group."Sarasota Herald-Tribune, March 14, 2003, www.heraldtribune.com/article/LK/20030314/News/605245591/SH.
^Elizabeth. "The Women of Crass: Eve Libertine and Joy De Vivre." Hear She Roars, February 1, 2019,"Post | HEAR SHE ROARS". Archived fromthe original on September 22, 2020.
^McPadden, Mike. "All About Her Bass: Top 10 Female Hard Rock + Heavy Metal Bassists." VH1 News, June 12, 2015,"vh1".Archived from the original on August 12, 2022.
^Enis, Eli (December 9, 2019)."Is Hardcore Punk's Current Boom at Odds With Its Outsider Ethos?".Billboard. RetrievedMarch 12, 2021.many people took the genre's overwhelmingly white male makeup to task. However, while hardcore's violent live shows and majority masculine fanbase
^Enis, Eli (December 9, 2019)."Is Hardcore Punk's Current Boom at Odds With Its Outsider Ethos?".Billboard. RetrievedMarch 12, 2021.However, while hardcore's violent live shows and majority masculine fanbase make it look unwelcoming on its surface, some of the scene's marginalized members think it's already more inclusive and diverse than it gets credit for.
^"D.O.A."punknews.org.Archived from the original on February 27, 2007. RetrievedDecember 22, 2006.
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^Azerrad, Michael.Our Band Could Be Your Life. 2001. Little Brown Books. pp. 14.
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^Prato, Greg. "GG Allin: the Gruesome Life and Tragic Death of the Most Shocking Man in Music."Loudersound, Louder, October 8, 2018, www.loudersound.com/features/gg-allin-the-gruesome-life-and-tragic-death-of-the-most-shocking-man-in-music.
^Dean McFarlane (July 9, 2002)."Discharge – Discharge".AllMusic.Archived from the original on July 26, 2015. RetrievedAugust 20, 2014.
^"I just wanna be remembered for coming up with that f-ckin' D-beat in the first place! And inspiring all those f-ckin' great Discore bands around the world!" – Terry "Tez" Roberts, Glasper 2004, p. 175.
^Pattison, Louis (November 27, 2012). "Rites of Spring and the summer that changed punk rock".The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved January 29, 2016.
^Radin, Andy. Untitled (draft text about history of emo). What the heck *is* emo, anyway? Retrieved June 8, 2017.
^Andersen, Mark (July 3, 2015). "Revolution Summer lives on – 30 years later". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved January 29, 2016.
^Rettman, Tony.Straight Edge A Clear-Headed Hardcore Punk History.John Porcelly: The period right afterBreak Down the Walls came out in 1986 was super weird for us. We'd roll into some town and there would be dozens of kids dressed like us... Billy Rubin:When Richie Birkenhead was in the band, andBreak Down the Walls had already come out, Youth of Today more or less moved to Southern California for a while, living in the home of Dan O'Mahony. This whole crew of people spent a lot of time at the beach totally fascinated by the fact there were actually girls walking around in bikinis. After that people who came later into the Orange County scene, like Joe Nelson and the guys who formed the Sloth Crew, really latched onto that East Coast character that Youth of Today brought with them.
^Rettman, Tony.Straight Edge A Clear-Headed Hardcore Punk History.Sean Muttaqi: I can definitely say that the process of physically forming the "hardline" movement from a lifetime of influences and experiences began at the 1986 anarchist gathering... Two years later, the excessive behavior we witnessed at the 1988 Toronto anarchist gathering was the nail in the coffin. We realized that we needed to form some new construct. Within the next few months, hardline was born. Vegan Reich began as an idea and as a crew, before becoming a band. As militant animal-lib activists within the anarchist community, where the majority were carnivores, our ideas were constantly derided as being fascist. The label was applied albeit somewhat jokingly by those who felt we wanted to take away their rights to eat meat... At a certain point, we decided to further promote our ideas via music and Vegan Reich recorded our first song in 1986... Steve Lovett: Hardline was essentially militant straight edge with an emphasis on radical veganism and environmentalism.
^Rettman, Tony.Straight Edge A Clear-Headed Hardcore Punk History.Sean Muttaqi: At that stage, the straight edge scene was more vibrant than anarcho-punk. Anarcho-punk had seen better days even by mid-'80s. Clearly, the latter part of that decade belonged to the straight edge scene. We started talking to these straight edge kids about veganism, and they were really receptive. In the beginning we used "vegan straight edge" when talking to the straight kids as a way to introduced them to hardline. Steve Lovett: Basically, Sean of Vegan Reich and I created the philosophy of the movement. As far as I'm concerned, the movement did not exist before the first three Hardline Records releases by Vegan Reich, Statement and Raid.
^Rettman, Tony.Straight Edge A Clear-Headed Hardcore Punk History.Sean Muttaqi: We were immediately getting from all over the world [after being published in Maximum Rocknroll]. From that initial seed, hardline started sprouting up around the country, notably in areas like Memphis and Indianapolis, followed later by Syracuse and Salt Lake City.
^Fossum, Melissa (September 28, 2011). "New Found Glory's Steve Klein on New Album, Changes in Pop Punk, and the Fate of International Superheroes of Hardcore". The Phoenix New Times (Village Voice Media). Retrieved October 3, 2011.
^"Saves The Day > Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved March 13, 2009.
^Rettman, Tony.Straight Edge A Clear-Headed Hardcore Punk History.The early '90s was full of bands who promoted a straight edge lifestyle, but sounded more metal and played slower. Then the mid'90s brought bands made up of older guys from the late '80s who wanted that more traditional sound. There were younger guys who wanted that as well. So around 1996 or 1997, a full Youth Crew revival happened.
^Sfetcu, Nicolae (May 7, 2014).The Music Sound.While death metal and hardcore had always intermingled to an extent, the first clearly identifiable instances of melodic Swedish metal being combined with hardcore seem to have sprung almost simultaneously, with Undying's This Day All Gods Die, Darkest Hour's The Prophecy Fulfilled, Prayer for Cleansing's The Rain in Endless Fall, Shadows Fall's With Somber Eyes to the Sky, and Unearth's Above the Fall of Man all being released within a year of each other (1998-99). It is unclear who first got the idea to combine the two styles. Darkest Hour had released an EP called The Misanthrope in 1996 which arguably contained elements of their later sound but was for the most part aggro-hardcore in the vein of Damnation a.d. On the other hand, Day of Suffering's 1997 album The Eternal Jihad is cited as an influence for many of the North Carolina bands that followed, such as Undying and Overcast is seen as having started the genre in Massachusetts.
^Delia, Anthony (July 7, 2003)."CMJ Magazine". No. 821. RetrievedApril 27, 2018.Poison The Well designed the template for most of today's melodic metalcore acts, spawning countless copycats in the process. The band's last two efforts, 1999's The Opposite Of December...A Season Of Separation and 2002's Tear From The Red, are genre essentials, but no one is going to argue that those albums were constructed of memorable parts, rather than complete, efficiently executed songs; you knew when to rock out and when to sing along.
^abRettman, Tony.Straight Edge A Clear-Headed Hardcore Punk History.Chris Wrenn: By 1999, Ten Yard Fight broke up, and In My Eyes and Floorpunch broke up soon after. That was the time for the next shift. Tim Cossar from Ten Yard Fight was my roommate, and when that band was breaking up, he started putting together American Nightmare. American Nightmare weren't really a crazy departure from Ten Yard Fight, but it was definitely darker. All of a sudden, all the bands that had red T-shirts or royal-blue T-shirts only sold black T-shirts. Greg W: In Boston, Ten Yard Fight and In My Eyes had been the bands that were setting the tone for kids my age. Then American Nightmare got really big in Boston. I think that was a reaction to Ten Yard Fight and In My Eyes going on for so long. Kids didn't want to be the clean-cut straight edge; they wanted something darker. Bands like Hope Conspiracy and Converge were more metal. Trust me, we were into American Nightmare, but it reached a point where every band was an American Nightmare junior. I was just so sick of seeing T-shirts with scratchy fonts and all that.
^"Charts", Billboard. August 23, 2008, pp. 40–41. Retrieved December 25, 2011.
^Hughes, Josiah. "American Nightmare Announce New Album, Share "The World Is Blue"". Retrieved November 25, 2019.
^Rettman, Tony.Straight Edge A Clear-Headed Hardcore Punk History.Greg W: When we formed the band Mental, it was a reaction to bands in our area like American Nightmare and Panic. We wanted to do something that was different to what was going on at the time. Luckily, the older people who got me into hardcore as a kid put me onto classic New York hard-core. I could never connect to any of that baggy-pants Victory Records stuff too much. The guys in Mental and I wereso into old New York and D.C. hardcore. We worshipped it, and we wanted to bring that style of music back... Chris Wrenn: I saw Have Heart picking up the straight edge torch afte Mental. Bands like American Nightmare and No Warning only had black T-shirts. When Bridge Nine Records started working with Have Heart, Pat's only concern was that we didn't make black T-shirts for the band, and I don't think we ever did; red and royal blue definitely, but not black.
^"Have Heart announce final show with Bane, Shipwreck a.d." punknews.org. August 22, 2009. Retrieved May 13, 2010.
^Break-ups: Verse (2003–2009) Punknews.org, February 9, 2009. Retrieved February 13, 2009.
^"Angel Du$t - Pretty Buff | Punknews.org". March 14, 2019.|quote=A younger crop of artists now has access to a wide spectrum of music to take influence from in a way that just a few years ago was unthinkable. In the punk scene, the genre that took this evolution most to heart was hardcore.
^Horowitz, Steven J. (May 30, 2012). "Trash Talk Signs To Odd Future Records | Get The Latest Hip Hop News, Rap News & Hip Hop Album Sales". HipHop DX. Retrieved July 24, 2013.
^Sanjiv Bhattacharya. "How Islamic punk went from fiction to reality."The Guardian, Thursday August 4, 2011. Available online at:"How Islamic punk went from fiction to reality".TheGuardian.com. August 4, 2011.Archived from the original on December 21, 2016. RetrievedDecember 19, 2016. Accessed on July 28, 2014.
^Kochhar, Nazuk. "hate5six Is the Internet's Hardcore Goldmine." The FADER, The FADER, September 19, 2018,"The FADER". Archived fromthe original on September 20, 2018.
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^Prown, Pete and Newquist, Harvey P.Legends of Rock Guitar: The Essential Reference of Rock's Greatest Guitarists. Hal Leonard Corporation, 1997. p. 242-243
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