Hardcore "eschew nuance, technique, the avant-garde", and instead emphasized "speed and rhythmic intensity" using unpredictable song forms and abrupt tempo changes. Hardcore was a reaction to the "cosmopolitan art-school" style of new wave music. It's its own form." According to AllMusic, the overall blueprint for hardcore was playing louder, harder and faster.
It dispelled any notion of what songwriting is supposed to be. Hardcore was a radical departure from that. Blush writes "The Sex Pistols were still rock'n'roll.like the craziest version of Chuck Berry. The songwriting has more emphasis on rhythm rather than melody. In the vein of earlier punk rock, most hardcore punk bands have followed the traditional singer/guitar/bass/drum format.
One definition of the genre is "a form of exceptionally harsh punk rock." Hardcore has been called a faster meaner genre of punk rock, that was a stern refutation against it, being more primal and immediate, with speed and aggression as the starting point." According to Eli Enis of Billboard magazine, hardcore shows are known to be violent. Hardcore punk additionally broke with original punk rock song patterns and visuals, favoring lower key aesthetics. Other writers have also attributed hardcore to a reaction against artsy and mellower sub-genres that punk grew into, such as post-punk and new wave. An article in Drowned in Sound argues that late 1970s/early 1980s-era hardcore is the true spirit of punk, because "all the poseurs and fashionistas fucked off to the next trend of skinny pink ties with New Romantic haircuts, singing wimpy lyrics" and the punk scene now consisted of people like Minor Threat, Bad Brains, Black Flag, and Circle Jerks, dedicated to DIY ethics. Hardcore historian Steven Blush credits Minor Threat's Ian 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. It has also influenced various music genres that have experienced widespread commercial success, including grunge and thrash metal.Īlthough the music genre started in English-speaking western countries, notable hardcore scenes have existed in Italy and Japan.īad Brains at 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C., 1983 Hardcore was heavily involved in the rise of the independent record labels in the 1980s and with the DIY ethics in underground music scenes. Hardcore has spawned the straight edge movement and its associated sub-movements, hardline and youth crew.
Hardcore sprouted underground scenes across the United States in the early 1980s, particularly in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Boston, and New York, as well as in Canada and the United Kingdom. Hardcore punk generally disavows commercialism, the established music industry and "anything similar to the characteristics of mainstream rock" and often addresses social and political topics with "confrontational, politically-charged lyrics." and New York punk rock and early proto-punk. Its roots can be traced to earlier punk scenes in San Francisco and Southern California which arose as a reaction against the still predominant hippie cultural climate of the time. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Hardcore punk (also known as simply hardcore) is a punk rock music genre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s.