Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 06:23, 8 October 2006

Template:Hardcorepunkbox Hardcore punk is a subgenre of punk rock which originated in North America in the early 1980s. The sound is thicker, heavier, and faster than 1970s-style punk rock. It is characterized by short, loud, and passionate songs.

Origins

Hardcore originated in North America, primarily in and around California, Texas, and Washington, DC, although Chicago, Detroit, New York City, Vancouver, and Boston were also important. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain, and the musical style it denotes evolved, if not simultaneously then very quickly, in different areas in late 1980 and early 1981.

The Vancouver-based band D.O.A. is widely credited with making the term "official" with the title of their 1981 album, Hardcore '81. While the term that was common in New York City for the faster, newer subgenre of punk at that time was thrash, writer Scott Eisner used the term 'hardcore punk' in the Queens College publication, Newsbeat, in a review of the band, The Mob, in 1981.(Newsbeat, Sept. 21, 1981) The term was also used by Wayne Mayotte, owner of the Los Angeles, California venue Club 88, in the documentary Decline of Western Civilization, filmed in 1979 and 1980 and released in 1981.

However, until about 1983, hardcore was used fairly sparingly and mainly as a descriptive term. I.e., a band would be called 'a hardcore band' and a show would be 'a hardcore show', but American teenagers who were fans of hardcore considered themselves fans of punk -- although they were not necessarily interested in the original punk rock which had developed in the late 1970s (e.g. the Sex Pistols, the Ramones, Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers).

In many circles, hardcore was an in-group term, meaning 'music by people like us,' and it included a wide range of sounds, from hyper-speed punk rock to sludgy dirge-rock, and often including arty experimental bands, such as Mission of Burma, The Stickmen, and Flipper.

Even more than the original punk movement, hardcore was noted for its do-it-yourself approach. Hardcore brought a dressed-down T-shirt, jeans, and crewcut aesthetic to punk, and in most places (California being the exception) relied entirely on DIY recording, fanzines, radio, and concerts.

The big three

Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life traces hardcore back to three bands. He calls Black Flag (formed in Los Angeles in 1976) the music’s "godfathers." Azerrad credits the Bad Brains (formed in Washington, D.C. in 1977), with introducing "light speed" tempos, and he calls Minor Threat (formed in Washington, D.C. in 1980) the "definitive" hardcore punk band. Azzerad's thesis might be simplistic, but each of these three bands was highly influential in its own way.

Some have called Black Flag the United States' first hardcore band. The band formed in 1978, and had a major impact on the Los Angeles scene -- and later the wider North American scene -- with their raw, confrontational sound and DIY ethical stance. The original lineup featured Keith Morris, later of the Circle Jerks, while the final lineup featured former State of Alert singer Henry Rollins. While their musical influence was limited (few contemporary bands ever stylistically resembled Black Flag), their tireless work in promoting their own shows and releasing self-financed records inspired other bands in exploring the possibilities of total independence from the established music scene. Tours in 1980 and 1981 brought Black Flag in contact with developing hardcore scenes in many parts of North America.

The Bad Brains were a young African-American band in Washington, DC with a background in soul music, funk, and jazz, and an interest in rock bands such as Black Sabbath and the Sex Pistols. The band formed in 1978, and soon developed a very loud, fast style. Their first album (originally a cassette-only release on Reachout International Records, in 1981), included three reggae tracks, in sharp contrast with the rest of the band's music. The single, "Pay to Cum" b/w "Stay Close to Me" preceded it in 1980.

Minor Threat, also from Washington, DC, formed in 1980 from the short-lived Teen Idles. Carry-over members of The Teen Idles were Ian MacKaye (who would go on to co-found post-hardcore group Fugazi and emo band Embrace) and Jeff Nelson. Minor Threat played an aggressive, fast form of punk, influenced by the Bad Brains. The band was responsible for founding the straight edge movement. After the Teen Idles broke up, MacKaye and Nelson put the band's gig money toward founding Dischord Records, initially to release their Minor Disturbance EP on vinyl, but soon releasing EPs by Minor Threat and many other early DC bands.

Other early notable bands

Several bands in the Los Angeles area in the late 1970s released records whose style is very similar to what would later be called "hardcore." One of the most striking is the Middle Class’ thrashing Out of Vogue EP of 1978. Rhino 39’s 1979 Xerox b/w No Compromise/Prolixin Stomp single is similarly fast and thrashing. It is unclear the extent to which these early records (and the inclusion of songs from each of them on the 1979 compilation LP, Tooth & Nail) directly inspired hardcore: Citations of them are very sparse in contemporary zines, and little notice appears to have been taken of them outside the Los Angeles Area. It appears likely that they were influential only within younger punk circles in the LA area, inspiring better-known bands.

A more influential record was The Germs’ 1979 GI LP -- essentially a hardcore record, not only for its quick tempos but also for its fast chord changes.

San Francisco's Dead Kennedys, formed in 1978 and released their first single, California Über Alles, in 1979. By 1981's "In God We Trust, Inc." EP, the Dead Kennedys were playing at very fast tempos with fast chord changes.

The Misfits, of northern New Jersey, were a 1977-style punk band involved in New York’s Max's Kansas City scene. Their horror movie aesthetic was popular among early hardcore fans. In 1981, the Misfits integrated high-speed thrash songs into their set.

Hüsker Dü was formed in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1978 as a postpunk/new wave band, but soon became a loud and fast outfit. Their first recordings were released in 1981, and their early recordings have been called a "breakneck force like no other… Not for the faint of heart." By 1985, the band morphed into one of the seminal alternative rock bands of the era.

The Circle Jerks’ first album (recorded in late 1979, released 1980) features several songs with very fast chord changes and tempos.

By 1981 and 1982, regional hardcore bands began to dominate North America, including such notables as the Neos, of Victoria, British Columbia; The Fix, of Lansing, Michigan; The Necros, of Maumee, Ohio; The Effigies and Articles of Faith of Chicago; Boston's SS Decontrol, Jerry's Kids, and Gang Green, and the Big Boys and The Dicks of Austin, Texas.

Many important early hardcore bands did not release records during their lifetime, and were known only through live shows and demo tapes, or through tracks on multi-band compilations. One example is the 1980-1982 New York hardcore scene, discographies of which feature many records from the suburbs (including bands such as Heart Attack, from Whitestone, Queens; The Nihilistics, from Great Neck, Long Island; and The Misguided, also from Queens), while popular Manhattan-oriented bands such as The Whorelords, Ultraviolence, Killer Instinct, and the Crypt Crashers generally appear (somewhat misleadingly) as footnotes due to their very small vinyl presence.

Similar situations obtained in other cities, one notable example being Boston's Negative FX -- arguably the most popular band in Boston, circa early 1982 -- who did not appear on record and were unknown outside their own area until a posthumous album was released in 1984.

Important records of the period include The Angry Samoans’ first LP, the Boston-area compilation This Is Boston, Not L.A., first LP, the New York-area compilation The Big Apple Rotten To The Core, the Zero Boys' LP, the Detroit-area compilation EP Process of Elimination, Negative Approach's eponymous EP, the New York Thrash cassette compilation, the DC-area compilation Flex Your Head, and many others.

Early support

An influential radio show in the Los Angeles area was Rodney on the ROQ, on the 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.

WLIR,a commercial-alternative station in New York, featured a half-hour punk show, "Midnight Riot", that included some local hardcore bands. This was hosted by DJ Ben Manilla and suggested by promoter Bob Sallese.

In Boston, the commercial station WBCN occasionally played local hardcore bands. In 1982-1983, MTV put the hardcore band Kraut on mild rotation. College radio was, however, the main outlet for hardcore punk in most of North America.

In the New York area, an important early hardcore radio show was WNYU's 'Noise: The Show,' hosted by future MTV exec Tim Sommer. Pat Duncan, on WFMU in New Jersey, has hosted a show since 1979 including many live-in-studio performances. WFDU was another important college radio station out of New Jersey which shared the same frequency with WNYU in the evenings.

The San Francisco-area public radio 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 helped spread the new punk style, including Guillotine, Ripper, Flipside. In late 1981, Yohannon and Bale’s Maximum RocknRoll zine, modeled on Tim Tonooka's Ripper,, had a national circulation and featured scene reports from around the country. A strong infrastructure of independent labels, linked with radio outlets and zines helped to create a nationwide subculture.

Negative publicity

The early hardcore scene became associated with violence, especially in Los Angeles. Hardcore concerts increasingly became sites of violent battles between police and concertgoers. Many concert venues were trashed on both coasts of the United States, despite frantic pleas from zine writers. Henry Rollins argued that in his experience, the police caused far more problems than they solved at punk performances.

Reputed violence at punk concerts was featured in episodes of the popular television shows CHiPs and Quincy, M.E., in which Los Angeles hardcore punks were depicted as being involved in murder and mayhem. Contemporary 'zine writers claimed that these media portrayals attracted new, violent people to the concerts, acting at least partially as a cause of the problem.

Slam dancing

The hardcore punk scene was responsible for creating slam dancing and stage diving. The energetic sound of the music was perfectly suited to this, as were the concert venues, which were usually small, with easy access to the stage. Early Chicago and London, England punk gigs gave birth to the practice, but later hardcore fans turned it into an artform.

The circle pit began in Huntington Beach as the H.B. Strut or "H.B. Skank," a violent dance involving strutting in a circle, swinging limbs into onlookers. A representation of the dance can be seen in the Circle Jerks logo; a walking punk rocker with a raised fist.

The 1980s thrash metal scene and the later college rock band audience imitated this form of dancing. Sometime in the early to mid 1990s, modern hardcore fans took to what is now known as hardcore dancing.

Influence

Hardcore had a huge influence on other forms of rock music in North America. The San-Francisco-based heavy metal band Metallica were among the first crossover artists, incorporating the compositional structure and technical proficiency of metal with the speed and aggression of hardcore. The new style became known as thrash metal, and later speed metal. Other early bands in this genre include Megadeth and Anthrax. Slayer are also well known for their hardcore punk roots, and have released an album formed entirely of hardcore covers.

The rising influence of heavy metal in the hardcore scene, circa 1984-1985, dismayed some hardcore punks who felt that the hardcore bands who were crossing over to metal styles were selling out to some of the sensibilities that hardcore had organized against. Long-time hardcore punks, who remembered only a couple of years earlier fighting 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 UK 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 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 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, such as Suicidal Tendencies and DRI, switched from hardcore to a similar metallic style, which came to be known as crossover.

Many hardcore bands began experimenting with other styles, moods and concerns as their careers progressed in the 1980s, becoming 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 music was especially heavily influenced by hardcore. The sense of liberation that many of the grunge bands got — that you don't have to be the greatest musicians 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 instilled 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 resulted in renewed interest in American hardcore in the '90s.

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 of the United States. 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

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 scenes, but in the United Kingdom, more traditional punk bands like The Exploited, Charged GBH, Discharge, and The Anti-Nowhere League occupied the cultural space that hardcore did elsewhere. These UK bands at times showed a musical similarity to American hardcore, often including quick tempos and chord changes, and generally had similar political and social sensibilities. However, they represented a case of parallel evolution, having been musically inspired by earlier London streetpunk bands such as Sham 69, and the proto-speed metal band Motörhead.

Discharge played a huge role in influencing the early Swedish hardcore bands, such as Anti Cimex. Many hardcore bands from that region still have a strong Discharge and Motörhead influence. The band Entombed is also cited as a huge influence on Swedish hardcore bands from the early 1990s onward.

In much the same way, Anarcho-punk bands like Crass, 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. Many American hardcore punks listened to British bands, but some upheld a strict regionalism, deriding the UK bands as rock stars, and their fans as poseurs. Expressive fans of Crass, were called crassholes.

American hardcore bands who visited the UK (such as Black Flag, in 1981) encountered equally ambivalent attitudes. 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.

In the more underground part of the UK scene, a hardcore sound and scene developed, inspired by continental European, Scandinavian, Japanese and American bands. It was started by bands like Asylum and Plasmid, and their sound — only heard at live shows and on demo tapes and compilations in the mid 1980s — evolved into bands like Heresy, Ripcord, Napalm Death, Hellbastard, Doom and Extreme Noise Terror.

The most important influences among late-1980s UK bands included the Japanese band GISM; Siege, from Boston; Septic Death, from Idaho; and Sweden's Anti Cimex, as well as more metallic bands such as Celtic Frost and Metallica.

There were many 1980s bands that could be described as sounding like something in between the styles of the dominating UK and US bands. While the bands that had the most significant influence were parallel-evolved bands such as Discharge and Charged: GBH, others such as The Stupids, a UK band influenced by US hardcore, gained brief but widespread college-radio airplay in the US.

Some notable bands from that era in Europe were Wretched, Raw Power, Declino, Negazione, Indigesti (Italy), H.H.H., MG-15, Eskorbuto (Spain), Inferno, Vorkriegsjugend, Scapegoats (Germany), U.B.R. (Former Yugoslavia), Kafka Process, Barn Av Regnbuen (Norway), Heimat-Los (France), Lärm, BGK (Holland), Vi, Enola Gay, O.H.M. (Denmark), Dezerter, Armia, Moskwa, Siekiera (Poland), Kaaos, Rattus, Rutto, Kansan Uutiset, Terveet Kädet, Appendix (Finland), Headcleaners, Asocial, Missbrukarna, Sound Of Disaster and Anti-cimex (Sweden).

Examples of bands who continued to play that style of hardcore in the 1990s include: Seein Red, Uutuus, Kirous, Health Hazard, Slapshot, Totalitär, Los Crudos, Sin Dios, and Detestation. It also become popular in Asia in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with bands such as Disaster Funhouse, Chronic Mass, Noisemonger and Cramp Mind from Malaysia; 4-Sides and Stomping Ground from Singapore; Agony of Destruction, Death from Above, Mutual Assured Destruction and Biofeedback from the Philippines; and both Disclose and Death Side from Japan.

Hardcore in the 1990s

In the 1980s, hardcore was strictly a style of North American punk rock. By the end of the 1980s and into the 1990s, hardcore became much more diverse, branching off mainly into two sounds: one traditionally punk-based, the other metal-based. The punk-focussed sound retains much of the style and feel of the original hardcore bands, while the metal-based sound, now known as metalcore, tends to be more innovative. Many fans of traditional hardcore do not consider metalcore a form of hardcore punk.

Metalcore

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 directions. The mixture of metal and hip hop beats, brutal and unforgiving depictions of urban life, and syncopated musical breaks gave birth to what is variously called heavy hardcore, new school, metalcore, and tough guy. Notable bands who developed the genre in early years include Madball, Biohazard, Judge, Edgewise, Raw Deal, Maximum Penalty and Carnivore. Today, one of the most well-known representatives of the genre is Hatebreed.

The sound is an amalgamation of deep, hoarse vocals (though rarely as deep or guttural as death metal), downtuned guitars, thrashy drum rhythms inspired by earlier hardcore bands, and slow, staccato low-end musical breaks, known as breakdowns. Thrash metal and hip hop elements are also common. Sworn Enemy and Boxcutter are two current examples.

Some of the bands that helped pioneer the mixture of hardcore with death metal in the 1990s were Brooklyn, NY's Merauder and Confusion; Jackson Heights, NY's Dmize. They have been described as a cross between bands like Kreator and Obituary with New York hardcore. Darkside NYC, formed by Alan Blake of Sheer Terror was often described as Celtic Frost meets Sheer Terror musically, and Negative Approach meets Crumbsuckers vocally. They were known for incorporating blastbeats, which was a direct death metal/grindcore influence.

Dmize, Confusion, and Darkside NYC managed to achieve cult status in the U.S., Europe, and Japan while only playing shows in the Northeast US during their short existences. Merauder signed with Century Media and toured the world, still performing today. In upstate NY, All Out War, formed with ex-Merauder members, gained an extremely violent reputation because their audience members would pummel each other. Many concerts ended in a full scale riot. As a result, many clubs were loathe to have these kinds of bands perform.

This particular scene is known for its stereotypical image and attitude of inner city street thugs. 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. 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.

Progression and experimentation

In the late 1980s, bands like NoMeansNo (British Columbia, Canada) and Victim's Family (Northern California) created a new style of music by blending aggressive elements from hardcore with influences such as psychedelic, progressive rock, noise, jazz, or math rock (a development sometimes termed jazzcore).

This path was followed in the early 1990s by Mr Bungle, Candiria and lesser-known bands such as Deep Turtle (Finland), Ruins (Japan), and Tear of a Doll (France). The noisecore played by Melt-Banana (Tokyo) was probably a separate evolution. Other important hardcore-influenced bands in this genre include the avant-garde Naked City, formed by saxophonist John Zorn, and Neurosis, who started as a hardcore band before exploring slower tempos and dark ambiance to evolve a style of their own.

Many bands started to incorporate emotional and personal aspects into their music, influenced by the sounds coming out of Washington, D.C. and Dischord Records, which by the late 1990s had evolved into emo music (a contraction of 'emotional hardcore'). The Nation of Ulysses was one of the most influential bands to come out of D.C., combining dissonant guitars similar to those of Black Flag, elements of jazz, and a seemingly absurdist (or situationist) political ideology. Their sound and fashion sense influenced the San Diego (or 'Chula Vista') hardcore scene. Perhaps in response to this emotional hardcore, bands with a heavy political bent began to appear, such as Struggle, also from San Diego.

Ebullition Records, founded in 1990 by Kent McLard in Santa Barbara, California, was a record label with bands that often presented a critique of the American political and economic system — frequently straying into the arena of outright hostility — and giving far less attention to personal issues. Their sound featured screeching vocals, heavy distortion with thick chord progressions, and busy drums. It contained few, if any, guitar solos. Examples of these bands include Manumission, Downcast, and Nation of Lepers. East coast bands, such as Rorschach and Born Against, from New Jersey and New York respectively, also played a similar left-wing, almost Marxist political hardcore.

The San Diego Band Heroin splintered into many new bands, most notably, Antioch Arrow and Clikatat Ikatowi. Antioch Arrow, were brutal and spastic, with a goth aesthetic. Clikatat Ikatowi combined pounding tribal drums and dissonant guitar with a post-punk aesthetic, and became one of the most unique bands of the 1990s hardcore scene. The Locust, who started out as a fairly conventional hardcore band, developed their own sound, which is fast, brutal, and spastic. Some have described the Locust as free jazz meets hardcore. Gravity Records was an important record label of the 1990s hardcore scene, releasing bands like Antioch Arrow, Clikatat Ikatowi, and The Locust; the label was later associated with the power violence genre.

Today, another heavier sound is represented by bands such as Mosquitos Can Kill, From Ashes Rise, and Tragedy who play a brand of melodic crustcore.

Straight edge also became prominent in the 1990s, with the youth crew revival and hardline.

Hardcore today

There are many bands today that stick to the roots of original hardcore. The scene has evolved somewhat since the 1980s, but still follows many of the ideals. There are also many contemporary bands who play hardcore in an original style while attempting to add even more intensity to the music.

One 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.

Many hardcore record labels continue to keep the tradition of the music alive. Among these are Bridge 9 Records, *Sonic Wave International, Deranged Records, and Revelation Records. Revelation has, however, been considered by many to be a "sell-out" label due to the fact that they've signed indie rock and emo bands like Elliot and Texas Is The Reason.

The term hardcore has also been applied to what many would consider death metal, nu metal or thrash metal. Groups such as Inside Recess and Poison the Well have fused the aggression of traditional hardcore with the musical stylings of metal. Typical of this new genre are breakdowns and harshly delivered vocals, sometimes verging on death metal growls. As this music has evolved, so has the subculture associated with it (i.e.fashioncore). In the 1990s, the label hardcore also came to be applied to a specific subgenre of electronica, with no connection to hardcore punk.

There is also the world-fusion super heavy genre of Tribal Hardcore featuring such bands as *Anand Clique and modern day Sepultura.

References

• American Hardcore: A Tribal History (Steven Blush, Feral House publishing, 2001, ISBN 0-922915-717-7)
• Going Underground: American Punk 1979-1992 (George Hurchalla, Zuo Press, 2005)
• Smash the State: A Discography of Canadian Punk, 1977-92 (Frank Manley, No Exit, 1993), ISBN 0-9696631-0-2

External links

• The Punk Vault History of punk and hardcore
• Bitch and Moan article Interview with Henry Rollins

• Hardcore punk
• Hardcore punk groups
• Punk genres