Hardcore punk
Template:Hardcorepunkbox Hardcore punk (or hardcore) is a faster and heavier version of Punk Rock usually characterized by short, loud, and often passionate songs with exceptionally fast tempos and chord changes.
Overview
Hardcore originated in the late 1970s and early '80s in North America, primarily in and around Los Angeles and Washington, DC, but also in around New York City, Vancouver, Boston, and other cities. Former DC club promoter Steven Blush claimed, in his book, American Hardcore: A Tribal History, that hardcore was punk rock adapted for suburban teens. Hardcore lyrics often express righteous indignation at society, usually from a politically left perspective.
The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. One story is that the term was coined by New York City producer and manager Bob Sallese while promoting a show by the band The Mob, circa 1981, at a Bayside, Queens club. (The common New York term for fast punk, at the time, was "thrash.") Another possibility is that it comes from the Hardcore '81 album by Vancouver's D.O.A.
Nevertheless, the term was used in the California fanzine Flipside in the early 1980s, although not in the sense of a particular musical style, but in a sociological sense, to positively describe acts which were in the "in crowd" of the Los Angeles punk scene.
Until roughly 1983, the term "hardcore" was used fairly sparingly, mainly as an adjective, not as the name of a defined musical genre: American teenagers who were into hardcore considered themselves into "punk" -- as opposed to "punk rock" or "77 punk," the earlier, slower style of the Sex Pistols et al., which they generally considered hopelessly dated and passé.
"Hardcore"' was initially an in-group term, meaning "music by people like us," and included a surprisingly wide range of sounds, from hyper-speed punk to sludgy dirge-rock, and often including art/experimental bands such as Mission of Burma, The Stickmen, and Flipper. Today (and for the purpose of this article), it refers more or less exclusively to what used to be known as 'thrash.'
The Big 3
Michael Azerrad’s Our Band Could Be Your Life traces hardcore back to three bands: He calls LA’s Black Flag (formed in 1976) the music’s “godfathers”; he credits the Bad Brains, formed in Washington, D.C. in 1978, with introducing their often astonishingly fast “light speed” tempos; and calls Minor Threat, another Washington, D.C. group formed in 1980, the “definitive” hardcore punk band.
The Bad Brains were a young African-American band from Washington, DC, with a background in soul and funk, but also an interest in bands such as Black Sabbath and the Sex Pistols. Their eponymous first album (originally a cassette-only release on ROIR, in 1981), has been called the “holy grail” of hardcore. A similarly esteemed single, “Pay to Cum” b/w “Stay Close to Me” preceded it in 1980.
Black Flag has been called "for all intents and purposes, America’s first hardcore band". It has also been said that "the group played an essential role in the development and popularization of American punk." The band had a major impact on the scene with their complex, confrontational sound and DIY ethical stance. They were mostly notable for featuring future Circle Jerks singer Keith Morris, and former State of Alert singer Henry Rollins.
Often cited as the definitive hardcore band Minor Threat formed out of short-lived The Teen Idles, in Washington, D.C. Carry-over members of The Teen Idles were Ian Mackaye and Jeff Nelson, who also founded Dischord Records. The band played an aggressive, fast form of punk that was already being described as "hardcore". The band was also responsible for jump-starting the straight edge movement through their use of the X as a symbol for clean living. After the The Teen Idles broke up, Mackaye gathered their tour money and founded Dischord Records initially to their recordings on vinyl, Minor Disturbance EP.
Other early notable bands
Rhino 39’s 1979 “Xerox” b/w “No Compromise”/“Prolixin Stomp” single has also been noted as a hardcore landmark. The Germs’ 1979 GI LP is essentially a hardcore record, not only for its quick tempos but especially for its notably fast chord changes, while the Circle Jerks’ first album, from 1980, features both blinding chord changes and tempos. The Germs had actually been called "hardcore" early in their career.
Several bands in the Los Angeles area in the late 1970s released records whose style has been cited as functionally identical to what would later be called "hardcore." The most striking is the Middle Class’s thrashing Out of Vogue EP from 1978.
The Misfits, from northern New Jersey, were a ’77 punk band involved in New York’s Max's Kansas City scene, whose ironic horror-movie aesthetic was hugely popular among early hardcore aficionados. In 1981, the Misfits responded by integrating high-speed thrash songs into their set. Hüsker Dü was formed in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1978, as a thrash band, releasing their first recordings in 1981. Their early recorded output has been called a “breakneck force like no other… Not for the faint of heart.” [1] Soon after, though, the band morphed into one of the top rated indie rock bands of the era.
By 1981 and 82, hardcore bands were cropping up all over North America, including The Neos, from Victoria, British Columbia; Zeroption, from Toronto; The Fix, from Detroit; The Necros, from Maumee, Ohio; Strike Under, The Effigies, Naked Raygun and Articles of Faith from Chicago; The Dicks and Big Boys, from Austin, Texas.
Important records of the period include The Adolescents’ first eponymous LP, the NYC compilation The Big Apple Rotten To The Core, the Boston-area This Is Boston, Not L.A. compilation, the Zero Boys' LP, the Detroit-area Process of Elimination compilation EP, Negative Approach's eponymous EP, The Necros’ IQ 32, SS Decontrol’s Kids Will Have Their Say, the New York Thrash cassette compilation, the DC-area Flex Your Head compilation, the Northern California Not So Quiet on the Western Front double-LP compilation, the Chicago-area Busted at OZ compilation, and the Fartz’s Because This Fuckin’ World Stinks LP.
Early support
Hardcore was like most punk rock in that many of the bands specifically sought not to become famous pop stars. The concept of hit singles was nonexistant, as 7 inch records were used as EPs and not singles. The bands also were probably too poor or too apathetic to make videos for their songs. Complicating the matter further is the fact that many bands did not record at length, or released only self-made records, often with extremely low production values.
Therefore the early bands genuinely got zero support from MTV and commercial radio. However, independent and college stations all around the country usually had at least one person eager to get his favorite punk bands out on the radio, leading to many localized hardcore spots on the radio.
One of the most influential shows was Rodney on the ROQ on Los Angeles’ commercial station KROQ. DJ Rodney Bingenheimer played many styles of music, and helped popularize what was, circa 1979–80, called "Beach Punk"—a rowdy suburban style played by mostly teenage bands in and around Huntington Beach, and in heavily conservative Orange County.
The San Francisco-area public station KPFA featured the Maximum Rock ’n’ Roll radio show with DJs Tim Yohannon and Jeff Bale, who played the younger Northern California bands. A wave of zines also helped spread the new, younger punk style, including Guillotine, Ripper, Flipside, and in late 1981, Yohannon and Bale’s Maximum RocknRoll zine—modeled on Tim Tonooka's Ripper, but with a national circulation and 'scene reports' from around the country. A strong infrastructure of indie labels, linked with already-existing radio outlets and both old and new zines (Slash, Option, Flipside, and others had already covered alternative music for several years), helped to create a functioning, nationwide subculture, if not always one that was appreciated by older indie-music fans.
Negative publicity
Unfortunately, the hardcore scene became associated with violence, in large part due to an episode of the currently popular TV drama Quincy, ME (starring Jack Klugman), in which Los Angeles hardcore punks were depicted as being involved in a murder. Newly minted "Quincy Punks" (where the punk band Quincy Punx got their name) soon began to turn up at formerly insular punk shows on the East Coast, while Los Angeles hardcore shows increasingly became sites of violent battles between police and concertgoers. Many clubs were trashed on both coasts, despite frantic pleas from the fanzines of the time.
Slam Dancing
The hardcore scene was responsible for intensifying the circle pit. Early New York and London punk gigs gave birth to the practice, but soon after hardcore came to prominence, its fans turned it into an artform. One notable innovation came from Huntington Beach. The circle pit began life as the H.B. Strut, a violent dance that involved participants strutting in a circle around the rim of the pit, swinging their limbs into onlookers. A somewhat accurate representation of the dance can be seen as the Circle Jerks popular logo, a walking punk rocker with a raised fist.
Later in the 1980's hardcore fans took to what is known as hardcore dancing.
Influence
Hardcore had a huge influence on other forms of rock music, especially in America. The San-Francisco-based heavy metal band Metallica were among the first crossover artists (circa 1982-83), incorporating the compositional structure and technical proficiency of metal with the speed and aggression of hardcore (Metallica would eventually cover three Misfits songs). Venom were another very early crossover band, as were Hellhammer and Slayer (formed in 1982, Huntington Beach, CA) a largely influential "thrash metal" band who , put out an album in 1996, Undisputed Attitude, which portrayed their hardcore influences by covering hardcore songs on the album by bands such as Minor Threat (formed in 1980, Washington, DC) and Verbal Abuse (early 80's to current, Texas). The new style became known as "Thrash metal" -- or, later, "Speed metal" (another transitional term was "Speedcore"'), and soon became a trend which still exists today, including other bands such as Megadeth and Anthrax, with Slayer in the well known ranks.
The rising influence of heavy metal in the hardcore scene ---the Boston scene had gone over en masse, circa 1984, while other bands such as Corrosion of Conformity, from Raleigh, North Carolina, gained prominence through popularity among metal fans--dismayed some hardcore punks, especially veterans, who felt that the hardcore bands who were crossing over to metal styles were selling out to some of the very sensibilities that hardcore had organized against. Long-time hardcore punks, who remembered only a couple of years earlier fighting in streets with hostile metalheads, now felt that those same people were attempting to co-opt hardcore. These die-hard hardcore punks argued that the new long-haired interpreters of hardcore were merely mimicking emotions, such as raw anger, that they did not truly feel.
A 1986 concert by the U.K. band Discharge in New York City generated brief international notoriety when a crowd of roughly 1,500 paid $10 admission and pelted the band with garbage, an apparent response to the band's recent turn to a more metallic sound.
In 1985, New York's Stormtroopers of Death, an Anthrax side project, released the extremely popular album Speak English or Die. Though it bore similarities to Thrash metal, such as a characteristic bass-heavy guitar sound, and fast tempos and chord changes, the album was distinguished from Thrash metal by its lack of guitar solos and heavy use of crunchy chord breakdowns (a New York hardcore technique) known as "mosh parts". Other bands, most notably Suicidal Tendencies (from Los Angeles) and DRI (from Austin, Texas) played music similar to that of Stormtroopers of Death. The music, dubbed Crossover in the 1980s, is today often called punk metal.
Many hardcore bands branched out and began experimenting with other styles, moods and concerns as their careers progressed in the 1980s; the music of many of these bands are some of the earliest examples of what became known as alternative rock. Hüsker Dü's artistic growth from Land Speed Record to their final album Warehouse: Songs and Stories is a chief example of this development. Grunge was especially heavily influenced by hardcore. The sense of liberation that many of the grunge bands got--that you didn't have to be the world's greatest musician to form a band--was at least as important as the music. Even though the early grunge sound was more influenced by Black Sabbath and Black Flag's My War album than hardcore punk rock, bands like Mudhoney and Nirvana would instill a traditional hardcore influence as well as take the sound into more conventional pop-oriented territory. (Kurt Cobain once described Nirvana's sound as "The Knack and The Bay City Rollers being molested by Black Flag and Black Sabbath.") The popularity of grunge ultimately resulted in renewed interest in American hardcore in the '90s.
In the early '90s, bands like NOFX and Bad Religion, both of which had been around since the early '80s, achieved varying levels of mainstream success. They added catchy melodies and anthemic choruses to the hardcore template whilst removing much of the aggression and anger that had been the genre's trademark. While NOFX and Bad Religion are usually accepted as authentic by fans of hardcore punk, other Pop punk bands that had a poppier sound, such as Green Day and blink-182, were often accused of being "sellouts" or "posers."
Bands that retained the aggression of '80s Hardcore into the '90s include Agnostic Front , The Dwarves, The Distillers and Zero Bullshit (although debatably The Dwarves and The Distillers took just as much from influences outside of the hardcore genre as inside it). Many early hardcore bands have regrouped.
The hardcore punk scene had an influence that spread far beyond music. The straight edge philosophy was rooted in a faction of hardcore particularly popular on the East Coast. Hardcore also put a great emphasis on the DIY punk ethic, with many bands making their own records, flyers, and other items, and booking their own tours through an informal network of like-minded people. Radical environmentalism and veganism found popular expressions in the hardcore scene.
Early history in Europe and the UK
Outside of North America, the influence of Hardcore has been less universal. The Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, and Germany had, and continue to have, notably active and prolific scenes, but in the United Kingdom, more traditional punk bands like The Exploited, GBH, Discharge, and The Anti-Nowhere League occupied the cultural space that hardcore did elsewhere. These UK bands at times showed a superficial similarity to American hardcore, often including quick tempos and chord changes, and generally had similar political and social sensibilities -- but they represented a case of parallel evolution, having been musically inspired by the earlier London street-punk band, Sham 69, and/or the proto-speed-metal band, Motörhead.
Additionally, Discharge played a huge role in influencing the Swedish hardcore scene with bands such as Anti Cimex and other European bands. To this day. many hardcore bands from that region still have a strong Discharge and even Motörhead influence, which is considered by many to be the standard Swedish hardcore sound. The band Entombed is also cited as a huge influence of the sound, songwriting and production of Swedish hardcore bands from the early '90s onward.
In much the same way, Anarcho-punk bands like Crass, Oi Polloi, Icons Of Filth, Flux Of The Pink Indians and Rudimentary Peni had little in common with American hardcore other than an uncompromising political philosophy and an abrasive aesthetic. American hardcore punks listened to and supported many of these British bands (shows by bands such as GBH were considered special events in America and drew large crowds), even while upholding a strict regionalism, deriding them as "rock stars" and anyone too fond of them as "poseurs." (Expressive fans of the influential UK anarcho-punk collective Crass, were called "crassholes.")
American hardcore bands who visited the UK (such as Black Flag, in 1981) encountered equally ambivalent attitudes. Visiting European hardcore bands suffered no such prejudice in the U.S., with Italian bands Raw Power and Negazione, and the Dutch BGK, enjoying widespread popularity.
It should also be mentioned that there in the more underground part of the UK scene, around the same time and a little later than the already mentioned bands existed, grew a hardcore sound and scene, inspired by continental European/Scandinavian, Japanese and U.S. bands. It was started by bands like (and the people in) Asylum, Genocide Association and Plasmid, that from their material and inspiration -- only heard at live shows, and released on demo tapes and compilations in the mid '80s -- would evolve into bands like Heresy, Ripcord, early Napalm Death, Hellbastard, Doom, Satanic Malfunctions and Extreme Noise Terror.
The most important influences among late '80s UK bands was, among others, GISM, Confuse, Siege and Septic Death, as well as Discard, Anti Cimex and more metallic bands like Celtic Frost and Metallica. They also had a solid background in the Anarcho-punk sound, scene and way of thinking, as well.
About the continental European hardcore sound and scene(s), there was a huge number of bands that could be described as something in between the dominating UK bands and US bands. The band that had the biggest influence among them all was Discharge, which spawned an entire D-beat sub-genre. Circle Jerks, Bad Brains and Black Flag also left their mark on European hardcore (especially in Italy). Other key influences were Dead Kennedys, Disorder and Millions Of Dead Cops(also known as MDC). Some notable bands from that era and these countries were Wretched, Raw Power, Declino, Negazione, Indigesti (Italy), H.H.H., MG-15, Eskorbuto (Spain), Inferno, Vorkriegsjugend, Scapegoats (Germany), U.B.R. (Slovenia), Kafka Process, Barn Av Regnbuen (Norway), Heimat-Los (France), Lärm, BGK (Holland), Dezerter, Armia, Moskwa, Siekiera (Poland), Kaaos, Rutto, Kansan Uutiset, Terveet Kädet, Appendix (Finland), Anti-cimex, Headcleaners, Asocial, Missbrukarna, Sound Of Disaster, Avskum (Sweden), Vi, Enola Gay and O.H.M.
Examples of bands who continued to play that style of hardcore in the '90s include: Seein Red, Uutuus, Kirous, Health Hazard, Detestation, Los Crudos, Sin Dios, and Totalitär. It also become popular in Asia in the late '80s and early '90s with bands such as Disaster Funhouse, Chronic Mass, Basic Righs, Noisemonger and Cramp Mind from Malaysia, 4-Sides, Stomping Ground from Singapore, Agony of Destruction, Death from Above, Mutual Assured Destruction, and Biofeedback from Philippines and Spitfire and Gnats Sucker from Japan.
Hardcore in the 1990s
Even though American Hardcore is often thought of solely as a product of 1980s Reaganism, many bands have continued to play an aggressive form of punk rock similar to hardcore well into the 1990s and even into the early 2000s.
Many of the '90s/'00s hardcore bands began to include new sounds into hardcore while retaining hardcore's aggression. Seattle's Zeke incorporated the heavier guitar sound and ranted vocals similar to Stormtroopers of Death into hardcore and, eventually, evolved into a thrash metal band. Other bands to follow a similar, hardcore metal, path include Pennywise and The Dwarves.
Heavy Hardcore
Being a chiefly urban phenomenon, hardcore often reflected the life of its players and fans. The incorporation of heavy metal (both musically and mentality-wise) led to a sect of hardcore bands branching off into heavier, more brutal directions. Sheer Terror from New York put out a demo in 1985 called No Grounds For Pity. The music within contained a brutal mixture of punk rock, Motörhead style speed, and Discharge's intense vocal delivery that was a great deal heavier than most hardcore in the scene. Sheer Terror's music, along with elements such as Biohazard's mixture of metal and hip hop beats, Madball and Cold As Life's brutal and unforgiving depictions of urban life, and Judge's syncopated musical breaks gave birth to what is variously called heavy hardcore, brutal hardcore, and toughguy. Other notable bands who helped spur the genre on in early years include Killing Time, Maximum Penalty, and the infamous Carnivore.
Early in the 1990s, Earth Crisis fused hardcore's ethic and simplistic aggression with brutal metallic syncopation to create an unforgivingly heavy sound. This, combined with the band's near-militant stance on veganism, animal rights, and the straight edge movement (inspired heavily by the band Vegan Reich) ensured them popularity, if not notoriety in the scene for years.
Though certainly not representative of all listeners, this particular scene of hardcore is known for (and sometimes looked down upon for) its stereotypical image and attitude of inner city street thugs with fake gangster mentalities. Again, it must be noted that much of hardcore's fanbase has always revolved around inner city youth. With the popularity of inner city fashion and image, and the similarities of some of the heavier bands' music to hip hop, it is not surprising that the two would end up crossing over. Of course actual hardcore/hip hop crossovers were most likely the catalyst of much of the image, such as Biohazard's general sound and collaborations with Onyx, KRS-One's appearance on a Sick Of It All song, Madball's streetwise attitude, and New Jersey's E Town Concrete, a brutally heavy Biohazard-influenced band.
Other sources of negative connotations in heavy hardcore come the tendency in various scenes for fans to be part of "crews" that, also stereotypically, lie somewhere in between a group of close-knit friends and a full out gang. Typically these crews will give themselves 3 or 4 letter acronyms for names and refer to (and defend) each other and their close friends like a family. Madball and H2O's involvement in New York's DMS (Doc Martin Skin) crew is probably the most famous example. Despite the image and bad publicity this sort of thing can bring, most crews simply are just a group of close knit friends.
Essentially the "heavy hardcore" sound is an amalgamation of deep, hoarse vocals (though rarely as deep or guttural as death metal), downtuned guitars, thrashy drum rhythms inspired directly from earlier hardcore bands, and slow, staccato low-end musical breaks, known colloquially as "breakdowns". Some bands tend to focus more on breakdowns than others (such as New Jersey's Redline), and others tend not to rely on them too much, letting the overall songwriting and feel drive the music (Troy, New York's Stigmata is a prime example). Elements such as thrash metal and hip hop are also common. Sworn Enemy and Boxcutter are two respective examples of such.
Though probably impossible to pin down the first band to truly represent this style, the most popular, and best representative band of the genre is most likely Hatebreed. Hatebreed was formed in the middle of Connecticut's strong hardcore scene in 1995 and quickly made a name for themselves. After releasing a split EP, a 7 Inch, and a 7 song EP called Under The Knife, they signed to Victory Records and released 1997's Satisfaction Is The Death Of Desire. The album placed the group squarely in the spotlight of the hardcore scene, and can be found on many diehard fans' top ten lists. From there Hatebreed managed to cross over into the heavy metal scene through tours with Slayer and Slipknot, and later signed to Universal Records.
Throughout the following couple decades the newer style became just as predominant as its faster cousin. Prominent bands include 25 ta Life, Vision Of Disorder, 100 Demons, All Out War, Neglect, Shattered Realm, Death Threat, Next Step Up, E Town Concrete, Hoods, Subzero, Sworn Enemy, Breakdown, Knuckledust, Mushmouth, Settle The Score, Angel Crew, and The Bad Luck 13 Riot Extravaganza who became infamous for their unpredictable and chaotic live sets.
Progression and experimentation
In the late '80s bands like No Means No (British Columbia, Canada) and Victims Family (Northern California) created a new style of powerful music by blending aggressive elements from hardcore with other influences such as psychedelic or progressive rock, noise, jazz, or math rock. (The term jazzcore has sometimes been used to describe this style.) This path was followed in the early 90s by Mr Bungle and lesser known bands such as Deep Turtle (Finland), Ruins (Japan) and Tear of a Doll (France). The noisecore played by Melt Banana (Tokyo) is probably a separate evolution. To be mentioned also in that category: The avant-garde band Naked City formed by saxophonist John Zorn recorded extreme music based on hardcore. Also Neurosis, which started as a hardcore band, quickly created a style on their own with slower tempos and dark atmosphere.
There were also many bands who started to incorporate emotional and personal aspects into their music, influenced by the sounds coming out of Washington, D.C. and Dischord Records which grew and fused with more traditional punk to create emo (a contraction of the description 'emotional hardcore') by the late 90s. The Nation Of Ulysses was one of the most influential bands to come out of D.C. They combined dissonant guitars, similar to Black Flag, combined with elements of Jazz, and a seemingly absurdist political ideology. Their sound and fashion sense would be of particular influence, on the San Diego scene.
Ebullition Records, from Santa Barbara, California, was a record label that tended to feature and distribute this type of music. These bands remained political, but tended to focus more on personal politics. Examples of these bands would be Endpoint, Groundwork, Split Lip and others. Born Against, from both New York and Baltimore, Maryland, played politically aware hardcore.
The San Diego Band Heroin splintered into many new bands, most notably, Antioch Arrow, and Clikatat Ikatowi. Antioch Arrow, were brutal and spastic, combined with a goth aesthetic, while Clikatat Ikatowi, combined pounding tribal drums, and dissonant guitar, with a post-punk aesthetic, and become one of the most unique bands of the '90s hardcore scene. The Locust, who started out as a fairly conventional hardcore band would develop their own sound; which is fast, brutal, and spastic. Some have described the Locust as Free Jazz meets hardcore. The Locust and their distinct sound would later be classified as power violence.
Today, another common, heavier sound is represented by bands such as From Ashes Rise and Tragedy who play a brand of melodic sound influenced by crustcore.
Gravity Records was an important record label of the '90s hardcore scene, releasing bands like Antioch Arrow, Clikatat Ikatowi, and The Locust; the label was later associated with the power violence genre.
Straight edge also became more prominent in the 1990s with bands like Earth Crisis fusing metal and hardcore with militant vegan and straight edge lyrics. In the late 1990s there was surge of 80 revival bands which copied the sound of Youth of Today and Gorilla Biscuits, updating the sound with slightly faster tempos and metal breakdowns.
A recent subgenre is Gaelic punk which first gained media attention in Scotland in 2005 with veteren anarcho-punks Oi Polloi starting to record in Scots Gaelic. They have been joined by Seattle's Mill a h-Uile Rud who play tuneful hardcore but sing entirely in Gaelic. Their repetoire includes a Gaelic version of 'Sheena is a Punk Rocker'.
Hardcore today
There are still many bands today that follow the lines of original hardcore. It has evolved somewhat since the '80s but still follows many of the ideals.
There are also many contemporary bands who play hardcore in an original, purist sense while attempting to add even more intensity to the music. These bands often adhere to a specific local flavor of hardcore. Another common trend is to try to capture the sound of influential bands from an earlier era. One example of this would be D-beat bands who emulate the early music of Discharge, like Deathcharge, Dischange and the Japanese band Disclose.
Additionally, the name "Hardcore" has been applied with increasing frequency to what most would consider heavy metal. Groups like Bleeding Through, Inner Surge and Poison the Well have fused the aggression of traditional hardcore with the intensity of metal. Typical of this "metalcore" genre are heavy breakdown parts and harshly delivered vocals, sometimes verging on death metal growl. As this new kind of music has evolved, so has the sub-culture associated with it; for example, fashioncore (such as the music of Bleeding Through). In the 1990s the name "hardcore" even came to be applied to a genre of electronica having nothing in common with hardcore punk.
Although the term "Hardcore" has come to be attached to this kind of music, some fans of traditional Hardcore deride its use. Today, some reserve the term "Hardcore" for the style of the early 1980s, referring to today's genre as "Street Punk." A good example is the California band Final Conflict.
The "-core" suffix has also been applied to musical genres which have little in common with "traditional" hardcore, such as Sadcore, and Slowcore. The term "Emocore", however, does have links to Hardcore, because Emo is a abbreviation of Emotional Hardcore.
Hardcore bands
See also List of Early New Jersey Hardcore Bands
References
- American Hardcore: A Tribal History (Steven Blush, Feral House publishing, 2001, ISBN 0-922915-717-7)
- Smash the State: A Discography of Canadian Punk, 1977-92 (Frank Manley, No Exit, 1993)
External links
- Hardcore Punk News, reviews, interviews, and more
- BlankTV - The Net's largest free, D.I.Y. hardcore punk music video channel
- Hardcore Punk News
- Flex Discography of USHC
- Kill From The Heart
- Euthanasie Discography of French Punk (French)
- noise:theory Australian alternative music community
Current punk community websites
- PunkNetwork
- PunkGigs
- PunkAustralia
- HXC News - News on current/modern Hardcore Bands
- Link Collection to Punk and Hardcore Bands