Queercore

Queercore (or alternatively Gaycore) is a cultural and social movement which arose in the mid 1980s. It is distinguished by discontent with society in general and a disavowal of the mainstream gay and lesbian community in particular, expressing itself through zines, music, art and film.

The early years

J.D.s, created by G.B. Jones and Bruce LaBruce, is widely acknowledged as being the zine which launched the movement. At first the editors of J.D.s had chosen the appellation "homocore" to describe the movement but replaced the word homo with queer to better reflect the diversity of the scene as well as to position themselves firmly outside of gay and lesbian orthodoxy. The first issue was released in 1985, with a manifesto entitled "Don't Be Gay" published in the fanzine Maximum RocknRoll following soon after; inspiring, among many other zines, Holy Titclamps, edited by Larrybob, Homocore by Deke Nihilson and Tom Jennings, Donna Dresch's Chainsaw, and Outpunk by Matt Wobensmith, these last two later functioning as music labels. These zines, and the movement, are characterized by sexual and gender diversity; dissatisfaction with a consumerist culture, proposing a DIY ethos in its place; and opposition to religious and political repression.

1990s

In 1990, the J.D.s editors released the first queercore compilation, J.D.s Top Ten Homocore Hit Parade Tape, a cassette which included bands from Canada, such as Fifth Column; Nikki Parasite and Bomb from the U.S.; from England, The Apostles, Academy 23 and No Brain Cells; and, from New Zealand, Gorse. During this early period of queercore, during the late 1980s to the 1990s, many of the punk bands involved were not necessarily queer but their political ideals included support for this cause. Other bands, such as Los Crudos, had one queer and outspoken member. The sexuality of band members has never been an issue in the choice to align oneself with the Queercore movement or not. The earliest groups considered queercore were bands like Anti-Scrunti Faction, who appeared in J.D.s and Comrades In Arms, Homocore editor Deke Nihilson's band. Shortly after the release of the tape J.D.s ceased publication and a new crop of zines arose, such as Jane and Frankie by Klaus and Jena von Brücker, Shrimp by Vaginal Creme Davis and Fucktooth by Jen Angel. At this same time, new queercore bands began emerging.

Among the better known bands from the 1990s are Fifth Column, God Is My Co-Pilot, Pansy Division, Sister George, Team Dresch, Tribe 8 and Mukilteo Fairies. During this time, there were dozens of zines being produced as awareness of the movement grew worldwide; The Burning Times from Australia, Speed Demon from Italy, and Brazilian e-zine Queercore, to offer just a few examples.

In Chicago, Mark Freitas and Joanna Brown organized a monthly "Homocore" night that featured queercore bands performing live, offering a stable venue for the scene to proliferate; most of the bands mentioned played at Homocore Chicago.

It was in the early 1990s that Matt Wobensmith's zine became Outpunk Records, and began to release its own queercore compilations and singles, and was crucial to the development of queercore. Some of the bands appearing later in the 1990s on the label include Sta-Prest, Cypher In The Snow and Behead The Prophet, No Lord Shall Live.

As a musical genre, it may be distinguished by lyrics exploring themes of prejudice and dealing with issues such as sexual identity, gender identity and the rights of the individual; more generally bands offer a critique of society endemic to their position within it, sometimes in a light-hearted way, sometimes seriously. Musically, many queercore bands originated in the punk scene but the industrial music culture has been influential as well. Queercore groups encompass many genres such as hardcore punk, synthpunk, indie rock, power pop, no wave, noise, experimental, industrial and others.

2000s

In the 2000s, Queercore club nights and events began to take place throughout Europe and North America, such as the festival held each summer in Olympia, Washington called Homo-a-go-go, which features queer films, zines, performance and musical groups during the week-long event. Queeruption, which takes place in a different city each year, has been hosted by Berlin, Rome, New York and London in the past. In 2004 and 2005, a group of queercore bands toured throughout the U.S.; the tour was called Queercore Blitz and was yet another way to connect the like-minded.

Queer Groups that are flourishing now in the UK are Queers Without Borders, Queer Mutiny North and Cardiff Queer Mutiny.

Independent record labels such as Alternative Tentacles, Lookout! Records, Kill Rock Stars and K Records supported and released material by queercore artists but early in the 2000s, after Outpunk Records had ceased, many other small labels sprung up solely devoted to queercore. Chainsaw Records, for instance, which had begun in the mid 90's, now began to release many recordings of newer bands, such as The Third Sex, The Need and Excuse 17.Heartcore Records is another label, whose bands have included Addicted2Fiction, The Little Deaths, Crowns On 45, and Ninja Death Squad. 16 records has also been releasing queercore albums by such Pacific Northwest bands as Shemo, The Haggard, and Swan Island, as well as the Brazilian band Dominatrix.

Representing a more contemporary breed of hardcore punk are the straight edge band Limp Wrist from the United States. From Germany come Low End Models, an all-women band. Beyond Pink are from Sweden and Kids Like Us out of Norway. Three Dollar Bill from Chicago are more eclectic, ranging from punk to indie rock to metal. Kids On TV, from Toronto, with an industrial background, offer a new, more electronic direction for queercore as do Lesbians On Ecstasy, from Montreal. ASSACRE, from Texas, is a one-man metal/noise improvisational project. The Hidden Cameras are a neo-folk band from Toronto. With each new band the range of musical genres expands the definition of Queercore.

Influences

Influences vary for each musician, zine editor and filmmaker involved, but it is doubtful that queercore would have come into existence without the atmosphere surrounding the early punk years. Performers at that time either conspicuously played with concepts of gender, such as Wayne County of Wayne County & the Electric Chairs and Phranc from the aptly named Nervous Gender or, like, Pete Shelley of Buzzcocks, Darby Crash of The Germs, members of The Screamers, The Leather Nun and other bands, were not interested in hiding their sexuality. In 1979, members of Nervous Gender told Slash magazine,"...people think we're weird cause we're queer." The early punk scene with its connections to artists had an inherent diversity of sexualities; Vivienne Westwood used homoerotic Tom of Finland imagery for her now iconic punk t-shirts and punk style incorporated fetish wear that, while employed to shock, also signalled acceptance to those in the know. Many artists who later came to be known as industrial such as Throbbing Gristle and Coil also had queer members and employed similar shock tactics. In the seminal punk film Jubilee, Derek Jarman captured the ambivalent sexuality of punk's early years. Later, when the Hardcore punk scene arose, The Dicks' Gary Floyd was writing queer-themed songs, as were many hardcore bands, except that he, along with Randy Turner of Big Boys were both open about being homosexuals. More politically motivated bands such as MDC were also introducing anti-homophobia messages into their songs at this time. However, it was the confrontational attitude and shock tactics of the punk and industrial scenes that Queercore employed, rather than activism, or politics, or the mainstream approval and major label deals that gay and lesbian musicians of that time courted, since those involved in the queercore scene weren't seeking the acceptance of society, be it homosexual or heterosexual, but rather to condemn it.

Filmmakers such as Kenneth Anger, Jack Smith, early Andy Warhol and John Waters, and the aforementioned Derek Jarman were influential also, with their depictions of queer subcultures. In 1990 the editors of J.D.s began presenting J.D.s movie nights in various cities and, after the demise of J.D.s, each made films exploring the queercore mileau; Bruce LaBruce released No Skin Off My Ass in 1991; G.B. Jones The Troublemakers was released in 1990 followed by The Yo-Yo Gang in 1992. In 1996, J.D.s contributor Anonymous Boy completed the first animated queercore film, Green Pubes. Documentary films about Queercore include Lucy Thane's She's Real, Worse Than Queer, Queercore: A Punk-u-mentary by Scott Treleaven and Gay Shame '98 by Scott Berry. All these films impacted the scene and broadened the scope of Queercore to include film as another of its mediums of expression.

As with punk, queercore culture existed outside of the mainstream so zines were crucial to its development. Hundreds of zines formed an intercontinental network that enabled queercore to spread and allow those in smaller, more repressive communities to participate. The DIY attitude of punk was integral to queercore as well. In the 1990s, as the availability of the internet increased, many queercore zines, such as Noise Queen could be found online as well as in print. Even zine distributors such as Xerox Revolutionaries can be found on the internet, making queercore zines easy to find.

All these developments allowed queercore to become a self-sustaining and self-determined subculture, expressing itself through a variety of mediums independent from the straight and gay establishment.

See also

• List of musicians of Queercore
• Queeruption

External links

• Queercore 101
• SPEW - The Queer Punk Convention
• A history of queer zines in Canada
• Holy Titclamps Zine On-line
• Brazilian e-zine "Queercore (em Portugues)"
• Noise Queen Zine On-line
• The Homo-A-Go-Go Website
• The Queeruption Website
• Queercore: the movie by Scott Treleaven
• Heartcore Records
• 16 Records
• Kids On TV

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