What is Hardcore?
1.
A branch of underground/indie music influenced by faster abrasive punk rock. Originating in the early 80’s as a variant of punk rock, hardcore evolved to a modern sound that can be compared to non commercial metal. The constant themes range from Straight Edge, to Politics, to Positive and Negative.
Bands range from Minor Threat from the 80’s to One Fifth, or Unearth of today.
Bad Brains is hardcore.
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2.
Intense. Relentless.
This girl just spend a year train-hopping around the country surving only on dumpster-dived food and clothing. She was pretty damn hardcore.
3.
There was a time when hardcore was more than music, it was a movement. Anyone, regardless of how well they could play an instrument could express themselves musically in ways too agressive, too brutal and in most circumstances too honest for even edgy mainstream music. It was a time when bands were willing to push the envelope while breaking all the rules, and didn't let the fact that they had to do it all by themselves stop them. True hardcore is an unstopable messege, totally seperate from the countless trends (from Bleached hair to Girl Jeans) that have come and gone. It's going to a show with 9 kids or 1000 kids who are perfect strangers or your best friends, and knowing that everyone in the room with a soul is compelled with the same unmatched intensity, to "think how they want to think", to "do what they know is right" to "be what they want to be" and never let anyone even think they can stop them.
I think over the years we've all gotten spoiled to the point where we don't care about much more than what we have, how many "babes we can slay" (if you're a dude) and above all else, our social status. People get so caught up in that shit that they can't undertand the value of something that doesn't provide any material benefit or make them appear special in whatever way, yet it has the capacity to empower every kid to live life to the fullest, be his/herself and have a shit-ton of fun in the process.
I think it's unfortunate that people these days pick out all the trappings of hardcore, the fashion trends, the image (there are tons of images) and limit hardcore to just that, since it suits their superficial way that they approach the world. It makes about as much sense as taking the pickles off of a big mac and calling them hamburgers (i mean if you really like pickles.) I hope this definition helps people reexamine the way they think about hardcore, and spread the word to people who don't know any better.
Raechel Hutto is Pretty damn Hardcore
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4.
1) Can act as a modifier for a word or phrase, making it more severe.
2) When used alone, used to denote something noteworthy, like saying "awesome" or "rad".
1) That was hardcore wicked, man.
2) Hardcore, bro. Hardcore.
5.
A genre of music that started long ago from the punk movement. Eventually, it died down and now hardcore has become heavily confused with overrated untalented whiny-ass screamo/emo/trendXcore bands such as Atreyu, Norma Jean, and pretty much any other band worshipped by "scenesters"
The birth of REAL hardcore as told by Henry Rollins: That's when that "fuck yeah" guy got a guitar. You know, that guy in the 7-Eleven parking lot who'll look at you and be all like "What the fuck you lookin' at?" That's his band.
FAKE hardcore: Depressing poetry + eyeliner + nail polish + girl's jeans + hair covering one eye + screaming
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6.
A variety of punk rock originating in the US in the early '80s. It involves shouted vocals (as opposed to growled) with a fast, aggressive tempo and a guitar sound featuring quick chord changes. Minor Threat, Bad Brains, SSD, and the Circle Jerks are known for this style. By 1986, a new style of hardcore came out of the New York scene. The NYHC scene added mosh breakdowns to mix, but the music retained its fast aggressive nature. This spawned the youth crew scene, a positive straight edge scene featuring such bands as Youth of Today, Chain of Strength, and the Gorilla Biscuits. Judge is a notable band from this era that added some metal style to their riffs. In the 90s hardcore took many different direction, bands like Lifetime and Turning Point took the late '80s sound (particularly the melodic approach pioneered by the Gorilla Biscuits) and added a softer sung vocals and the lyrical approach of DC bands like the Rites of Spring and Dag Nasty. Other bands like Earth Crisis mixed hardcore with death metal growls and slow brutal guitars. Today many bands continue to play the early '80s fast, thrashy style as well as the so-called '88 or youth crew style, while still others have taken the sound of bands like Earth Crisis farther and mixed in more metal elements such as double bass drumming. Hardcore refers to all of these styles, though metalcore is best used to identify bands like Throwdown or Converge (who don't really sound anything alike but both mix metal and hardcore). Finally, some bands like Bane, With Honor, and Comeback Kid are mixing positive youth crew style hardcore with more complex metal riffing without straying into the beatdown, double bass drumming style of metalcore. People talking about old-school hardcore should be referring to one of the hardcore sounds that developed in the '80s, regardless of when the band formed.
early '80s: Minor Threat, Government Issue, Black Flag, SSD, Jerry's Kids, Youth Brigade, Bad Brains, Agnostic Front, JFA
late '80s/'88 style: Youth of Today, Cro-Mags, Uniform Choice, Chain of Strength, Bold, Gorilla Biscuits, early Turning Point
emo-influenced hardcore: Lifetime, Falling Forward, later Turning Point
early metalcore: Earth Crisis, Strife
modern metalcore: Throwdown, Unearth, Adamantium, Converge
modern youth crew/old-school bands: Ten Yard Fight, In My Eyes, Champion, Give Up the Ghost (formerly called American Nightmare), Black Sheep Squadron, the Spark, Trial
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7.
in the music sense, a form of underground music that takes music to extremes. started in the early 80`s with bands like minor threat and black flag. i like to call this classic hardcore. then in the late 80`s there were many hardline, "positive" straightedge bands like chain of strength and gorilla biscuits. i like to call this oldchool hardcore. then in the early 90`s straigtedge became rediculous, and the bands got more metallic, with bands like Earth Crisis and Strife. I just call this hardcore. Then all throughout the 90s there were those hardcore bands with the scary, grindy sound, like converge, dillenger escape plan, or discordence axis. Then there were some bands like 10 yard fight who tried to re-create the hardcore sound of the late 80`s, a few were ok but most really sucked. This developed into what some people call "posi" hardcore. These days, you have your choice of shitty mosh hardcore, or screamo, or emo-core. Now hardcore is just a melting pot of all the sounds in one. its one big emotional, positive/negative, noisy vomit. its ok i guess. i liked how it was better in the late 90s early 00s.
quality hardcore bands: converge, bane, shai hulud, american nightmare, minor threat, gorilla biscuits, ten yard fight, joshua fit for battle, the now, 18 visions, forstella ford, hot cross, pg.99, discordence axis
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