Post-hardcore is a genre of music that developed from
hardcore punk, itself an offshoot of the broader
punk rock movement. Like
post-punk,
post-hardcore is a term for a broad constellation of groups. Many
emerged from the hardcore punk scene, or took inspiration from hardcore,
while concerning themselves with a wider degree of expression.
The genre took shape in the mid- to late-1980s with releases from
bands from the Midwestern United States, in particular from the scenes
in
Washington, D.C. such as
Fugazi[2] as well as slightly different sounding groups such as
Big Black and
Jawbox that stuck closer to the
noise rock roots of post-hardcore.
[2] The style became commercially prominent in the first decade of the 21st century.
Characteristics
Post-hardcore is derived from
hardcore punk, which had typically featured very fast tempos, loud volume and heavy bass levels,
[3] as well as a
"do-it-yourself" ethic.
[2] Allmusic
states that "these newer bands, termed post-hardcore, often found
complex and dynamic ways of blowing off steam that generally went
outside the strict hardcore realm of 'loud fast rules'. Additionally,
many of these bands' vocalists were just as likely to deliver their
lyrics with a whispered croon as they were a maniacal yelp."
[2]
The music database also says that the bands found creative ways to
build and release tension rather than "airing their dirty laundry in
short, sharp, frenetic bursts".
[2]
Jeff Terich of Treblezine states, "Instead of sticking to hardcore's
rigid constraints, these artists expanded beyond power chords and gang
vocals, incorporating more creative outlets for punk rock energy."
[4] British
post-punk of the late 1970s and early 1980s has been seen as influential on the musical development of many of these bands.
[2] As the genre progressed some of these groups also experimented with a wide array of influences, including
soul,
dub,
funk,
jazz, and
dance-punk.
It has also been noted that since some post-hardcore bands included
members that were rooted in the beginnings of hardcore punk, some of
them were able to expand their sound as they became more skilled
musicians.
[2]
History
1980s
Origins
Ryan Cooper of
About.com states that the genre began with "the actual hardcore bands themselves",
[5] remarking how as acts like
Black Flag "began to bore with the formulaic constraints of hardcore, more experimental sounds began to appear in their music".
[5] Groups such as
Saccharine Trust,
[6] Naked Raygun,
[7][8][9] and
The Effigies,
[9] which were active around the early 1980s, are considered as forerunners to the post-hardcore genre.
Chicago's Naked Raygun, formed in 1981, has been seen as merging
post-punk influences of bands such as
Wire and
Gang of Four with hardcore,
[10] while author Steven Blush notes the band's use of "oblique lyrics and stark post-punk melodies".
[11] Similarly, The Effigies, who also hailed from the Chicago scene, released music influenced by the hardcore of
Minor Threat and the British post-punk of bands like
The Stranglers,
Killing Joke, and
The Ruts.
[9]
During the early-to-mid 1980s, the desire to experiment with
hardcore's basic template expanded to many musicians that had been
associated with the genre or had strong roots in it.
[2] Many of these groups also took inspiration from the '80s
noise rock scene pioneered by
Sonic Youth.
[4] Some bands signed to the independent label
Homestead Records, including
Squirrel Bait[12] (as well as
David Grubbs-related
Bastro and
Bitch Magnet[13]) and
Steve Albini's
Big Black (just as his subsequent projects
Rapeman[8] and
Shellac[8][14]) are also associated with post-hardcore.
[4][9] Big Black, which also featured former Naked Raygun guitarist
Santiago Durango,
[15] made themselves known for their strict
DIY ethic,
[4]
related to practices such as paying for their own recordings, booking
their own shows, handling their own management and publicity, and
remaining "stubbornly independent at a time when many independent bands
were eagerly reaching out for the major-label brass ring".
[15] The band's music, punctuated by the use of a
drum machine, has also been seen as influential to
industrial rock,
[15]
while Blush has also described the Albini-fronted project as "an
angst-ridden response to the rigid English post-punk of Gang of Four".
[11] After the issuing of the "
Il Duce" single (and between the release of their only two studio albums,
Atomizer and
Songs About Fucking), Big Black left Homestead for
Touch and Go Records,
[15]
which would later reissue not only their entire discography, but would
also be responsible for the release of the complete works of
Scratch Acid, an act from
Austin, Texas described as post-hardcore,
[16]
that, according to Stephen Thomas Erlewine, "laid the groundwork for
much of the distorted, grinding alternative punk rockers of the '90s".
[16]
Outside the United States, the genre would take shape in the works of the
Canadian group
Nomeansno,
[17] related with
Jello Biafra and his independently-run label
Alternative Tentacles, and that had been active since 1979. A reviewer noted that the group's 1989's release
Wrong was "one of the most aggressive and powerful opuses in post-hardcore ever made".
[18]
The Washington D.C. scene
During the years 1984 and 1985 in the
Washington, D.C. hardcore scene (also known as "harDCore"
[19]), a new movement appeared and "swept over" the scene.
[20] This movement was led by bands associated with the D.C. independent record label
Dischord Records, home in the early 80s to seminal hardcore bands such as Minor Threat,
State of Alert,
Void and
Government Issue.
[21][22]
According to the Dischord website: "The violence and nihilism that had
become identified with punk rock, largely by the media, had begun to
take hold in DC and many of the older punks suddenly found themselves
repelled and discouraged by their hometown scene",
[20] leading to "a time of redefinition".
[20] During these years, a new wave of bands started to form, these included
Rites of Spring, Lunchmeat (later to become
Soulside),
Gray Matter,
Mission Impossible,
Dag Nasty and
Embrace,
[23] the latter featuring former Minor Threat singer and Dischord co-founder
Ian MacKaye. This movement has been since widely known as the "Revolution Summer".
[20][24] Rites of Spring has been described as the band that "more than led the change",
[20]
challenging the "macho posturing that had become so prevalent within
the punk scene at that point", and "more importantly", defying "musical
and stylistic rule".
[20]
Journalist Steve Huey writes that while the band "strayed from
hardcore's typically external concerns of the time -- namely, social and
political dissent -- their musical attack was no less blistering, and
in fact a good deal more challenging and nuanced than the average
three-chord speed-blur",
[25] a sound that, according to Huey, mapped out "a new direction for hardcore that built on the innovations" brought by
Hüsker Dü's
Zen Arcade.
[25] Other bands have been perceived as taking inspiration from genres such as
funk (as in the case of Beefeater)
[26] and 60s
pop (such as the example of Gray Matter).
[27]
Craig Wedren from
Shudder to Think.
While coming from a hardcore punk background related to their
association with the Dischord label, the band also embraced "pop
influences and a skewed sense of songwriting".
[28]
According to Eric Grubbs, a nickname was developed for the new sound,
with some considering it "post-harDCore", but another name that floated
around the scene was "
emo-core".
[29] The latter, mentioned in skateboarding magazine
Thrasher, would came up in discussions around the D.C. area.
[29] While some of these bands have been considered as contributors to the birth of emo,
[5][30][31] with Rites of Spring sometimes being named as the first or one of the earliest emo acts,
[4][25] musicians such as the band's former frontman
Guy Picciotto and MacKaye himself have voiced their opposition against the term.
[32][33][34] In the nearby state of
Maryland, similar bands that are categorized now as post-hardcore would also emerge, these include
Moss Icon and
The Hated.
[31][35]
The former's music contained, according to Steve Huey, "shifting
dynamics, chiming guitar arpeggios, and screaming, crying vocal
climaxes",
[36] which would prove to be influential to later musicians in spite of the band's unstable existence.
[36] This group has also been considered as one of the earliest emo acts.
[36]
The second half of the 80s saw the formation of several bands in D.C., which included
Shudder to Think,
Jawbox,
The Nation of Ulysses, and
Fugazi, as well as
Baltimore's
Lungfish.
[23] MacKaye described this period as the busiest that the Dischord Records label had ever seen.
[23] Most of these acts, along with earlier ones, would contribute to the 1989 compilation
State of the Union,
[37] a release that documented the new sound of the late 80s D.C. punk scene.
[38] Fugazi gained "an extremely loyal and numerous global following",
[39] with reviewer Andy Kellman summarizing the band's influence with the statement: "To many, Fugazi meant as much to them as
Bob Dylan did to their parents."
[39]
It has also been noted that the group's "ever-evolving" sound would
signal a more experimental turn in hardcore that paved the way for later
Dischord releases.
[22] The band, which included MacKaye, Picciotto, and former Rites of Spring drummer
Brendan Canty along with bassist
Joe Lally, issued in 1989
13 Songs, a compilation of their earlier
self-titled and
Margin Walker EPs, which is now considered as a landmark album.
[40] Similarly, the band's debut studio album, 1990's
Repeater, has also been "generally" regarded as a classic.
[39] The group also garnered recognition for their
activism, cheaply-priced shows and CDs, and their resistance to mainstream outlets.
[39] On the other hand, Jawbox had been influenced by "the tradition of Chicago's thriving early-'80s scene",
[41] while The Nation of Ulysses are "best remembered for lifting the motor-mouthed revolutionary rhetoric of the
MC5" with the incorporation of "elements of
R&B (as filtered through the MC5) and
avant jazz" combined with "exciting, volatile live gigs", and being the inspiration for "a new crop of bands both locally and abroad".
[42]
1990s
Fugazi
during their last pre-hiatus tour, 2002. The band's influence was
summarized by reviewer Andy Kellman with the following statement: "To
many, Fugazi meant as much to them as
Bob Dylan did to their parents."
[39]
Expansion
The late 80s and early 90s saw the formation and rise to prominence
of several bands associated with earlier acts that not only included the
examples of Fugazi and Shellac, but also
Girls Against Boys[43] (originally a side-project of Brendan Canty and
Eli Janney, which would later incorporate members of Soulside),
The Jesus Lizard[4][44][45] (formed by ex-members of Scratch Acid),
Quicksand[46] (fronted by former
Youth of Today and
Gorilla Biscuits member
Walter Schreifels),
Rollins Band[47] (led by former Black Flag singer
Henry Rollins),
Tar (which raised from the ashes of a hardcore outfit named Blatant Dissent),
[45][48] and
Slint[49][50] (containing members of Squirrel Bait). Acts such as Shellac and
Louisville's Slint have been considered as influential to the development of the genre of
math rock,
[51]
with the former featuring "awkward time signatures and trademark
aggression" that has come to characterize "a certain slant" on math
rock,
[51]
while the latter presented "instrumental music seeped in dramatic
tension but set to rigid systems of solid-structured guitar patterns and
percussive repetition".
[51]
According to reviewer Jason Arkeny, Slint's "deft, extremist
manipulations of volume, tempo, and structure cast them as clear
progenitors of the
post-rock movement".
[52]
Allmusic has noted that younger bands "flowered into post-hardcore after cutting their teeth in high school punk bands".
[2] In Washington D.C., new bands such as
Hoover (as well as the related
The Crownhate Ruin),
Circus Lupus,
Bluetip, and
Smart Went Crazy were added to the Dischord roster.
[53] Hoover has been cited by journalist Charles Spano as a band that had "a tremendous impact on post-hardcore music".
[54] In
New York City, in addition to Quicksand, post-hardcore bands such as
Helmet,
[8] Unsane,
[8][45] Chavez[4] and
Texas Is the Reason[55] emerged. Quicksand and Helmet have also been associated with
alternative metal.
[4][56][57] Chicago, which alongside the
Midwestern United States has been important to the progression of math rock,
[51] also saw the birth of post-hardcore acts such as the examples of Shellac, Tar,
Trenchmouth,
[8] and the
Jade Tree-released group
Cap'n Jazz[58] (as well as the subsequent related project
Joan of Arc,
[59]
which also released their work through Jade Tree). Steve Huey argues
that the release of Cap'n Jazz's retrospective compilation album
Analphabetapolothology
helped spread the band's influence "far beyond their original
audience", while also considering the group as influential for the
development of emo in the independent music scene.
[60] Champaign, also in
Illinois, was known for an independent scene that would give way to groups like
Hum,
Braid and
Poster Children.
[4] The
American Northwest saw the creation of acts such as
Karp,
[45] Lync[61] and
Unwound,
[8][45] all hailing from the
Olympia, Washington
area. The latter's music has been considered by critic John Bush as a
combination of "the noise of Sonic Youth's more raucous passages" with a
"rare energetic flair which rivals even that of Fugazi".
[62] Texas saw the formation of groups such as The Jesus Lizard (later to be based in Chicago) and
...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead[63] in
Austin, and
At the Drive-In from
El Paso.
[4]
This last band was known for their energy in both performances and
music, and for their "driving melodic punk riffs, meshed together with
quieter interlocking note-picking".
[64]
The genre also saw representation outside of the United States in
Refused[65] who emerged from the
Umeå,
Sweden music scene. The band, which made itself known earlier in their career for its "massive hardcore sound",
[66] released in 1998
The Shape of Punk to Come, an album that saw the group take inspiration from The Nation of Ulysses
[67][68] while incorporating elements such as "
ambient textures, jazz breakdowns",
[68] metal and
electronica[67] to their hardcore sound.
San Diego
The early-to-mid 90s would see the birth of several bands in the
San Diego,
California music scene, some of which would lead a post-hardcore movement associated with the independent label
Gravity Records.
[31] This movement would eventually became known as the "San Diego sound".
[69] Gravity was founded in 1991 by Matt Anderson, member of the band
Heroin, as a mean to release the music of his band and of other related San Diego groups,
[70] which also included
Antioch Arrow and Clikatat Ikatowi.
[31]
The label's earlier releases are known for the definition of "a new
sound in hardcore rooted in tradition but boasting a chaotic sound that
showcased a new approach" to the genre.
[70]
Heroin were known for being innovators of early 90s hardcore and for
making dynamic landscapes "out of one minute blasts of noisy vitriol".
[71]
These bands were influenced by acts like Fugazi and The Nation of
Ulysses, while also helping propagate an offshoot of hardcore that
"grafted spastic intensity to willfully experimental dissonance and
dynamics".
[72] This movement has been associated to the development of the sub-genre of
screamo, while it also should be noticed that this term has been, as with the case of emo, the subject of controversy.
[72] The label also featured releases by non-San Diego bands that included
Mohinder[69] (from
Cupertino, California), Angel Hair and its subsequent related project
The VSS[69] (from
Boulder, Colorado), groups that have also been associated with this sound.
[72] The VSS was known for their use of
synthesizers "vying with post-hardcore's rabid atonality".
[72]
Out of the Gravity roster, another band that played an important role in the development of the "San Diego sound" was
Drive Like Jehu.
[69] This group, founded by former members of
Pitchfork,
was known, according to Steve Huey, for their lengthy and
multisectioned compositions based on the innovations brought by the
releases on Dischord, incorporating elements such as "odd
time signatures,
orchestrated builds and releases", and "elliptical" melodies, among
others that would result in one of the most "distinctive and ferocious"
sounds to come out of the post-hardcore movement.
[73]
Huey also says that while many critics at the time "lacked the frame of
reference to place their music in a broader context" and the term "emo"
hadn't yet come into wider use, Drive Like Jehu played an important
role on its development in spite of the band's music not resembling the
sound such term would later signify.
[73]
Moderate popularity
According to Ian MacKaye, the sudden interest in underground and independent music brought by the success of
Nirvana's
Nevermind attracted the attention of major labels towards the Dischord imprint and many of its bands.
[53] While the label rejected these offers, two Dischord acts, Jawbox and Shudder to Think, would sign deals with major labels.
[53] The former's signing to
Atlantic Records would alienate some of the band's long-term fanbase,
[41] but it would also help with the development and recording of the 1994 release
For Your Own Special Sweetheart, considered by Andy Kellman as "one of the best releases to come out of the fertile D.C. scene of the '80s and '90s".
[41] The subsequent tour for the album and the
MTV
rotation of some videos would introduce the band to a handful of new
crowds, but ultimately the album would remain "unnoticed outside of the
usual indie community".
[41]
Likewise, out of the Dischord label,
Interscope Records would sign Helmet after a reportedly "ferocious" bidding war between several major record companies,
[74] and while MTV would air some videos by the group, which by the time of the release of
Meantime, their major-label debut, was considered then as "the only band close to the
Seattle grunge sound" on the American East Coast
[75]
and would be hailed as "the next big thing", these expectations would
"never be fully realized" in spite of the record's later influence.
[74] In another notable case, Hum would sign to
RCA in 1994, selling approximately 250,000 copies of their album
You'd Prefer an Astronaut fueled by the success of the album's lead single "Stars",
[76]
and while the band had established by this point a strong underground
fanbase, this would prove to be "the pinnacle of Hum's media attention",
as its follow-up, 1998's
Downward is Heavenward would sell poorly, resulting in the decision of RCA to drop the band from their roster.
[76]
2000s
Record producer
Ross Robinson, who was credited for popularizing
nu metal with bands like
Korn and
Limp Bizkit in the 1990s, helped welcome the post-hardcore genre into the mainstream in the 2000s.
[77][78] Mehan Jayasuriya of
PopMatters
suggested that Robinson's sudden focus on post-hardcore was his "pet
project" designed to redeem himself of "the 'Nu-Metal' scourge of the
late '90s".
[79] Robinson recorded At the Drive-In's
Relationship of Command (2000),
Glassjaw's
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence (2000) and
Worship and Tribute (2002), and
The Blood Brothers'
...Burn, Piano Island, Burn (2003); four albums that are said to "stand as some of the best post-hardcore records produced" during the 2000s.
[79] In John Franck's review of
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence for Allmusic, he stated: "Featuring extraordinary ambidextrous drummer
Sammy Siegler (of
Gorilla Biscuits/
CIV
fame), Glassjaw has paired up with producer/entrepreneur Ross Robinson
(a key catalyst in the reinvention of the aggro rock sound) to take you
on a pummeling ride that would make
Bad Brains and Quicksand proud."
[80]
Other new bands formed who popularized the style formed around this time. These groups include
Thursday,
[81] Thrice[82] and
Finch.
[83] By 2003, post-hardcore had caught the attention of major labels including
Island Records, who signed Thrice and Thursday,
Atlantic Records, who signed
Poison the Well, and
Geffen Records, who had absorbed Finch from their former label
Drive-Thru Records. Post-hardcore also began to do well in sales with Thrice's
The Artist in the Ambulance and Thursday's
War All the Time which charted #16
[84] and #7,
[85] respectively, on the
Billboard 200 in 2003. In the
United Kingdom, the Welsh band
Funeral for a Friend gained success with their debut album
Casually Dressed & Deep in Conversation in 2003, charting at 12 in the UK Charts, and their 2005 sophomore album
Hours charting in the US as well.
[86]
Around this time, a new wave of post-hardcore bands began to emerge onto the scene that incorporated more
pop punk and
alternative rock styles into their music. These bands include:
Scary Kids Scaring Kids,
The Used,
[87] Hawthorne Heights,
[88] Senses Fail,
[89] From First to Last[90] and
Emery[91] in addition to Canadian post-hardcore bands
Silverstein[92] and
Alexisonfire.
[93][dead link] This group of post-hardcore bands gained mainstream recognition with the help of MTV and
Warped Tour. The Used released some minor radio hits and later received gold certifications for their first two studio albums
The Used and
In Love and Death from the
RIAA.
[94] Hawthorne Heights' debut album
The Silence in Black and White was also certified gold.
[94]
Fusion genres
Electronic post-hardcore
Some modern practitioners of post-hardcore have combined their music with
electronica,
[95][96][97] creating what has been called electronicore or synthcore.
[98][99] These groups make use of metalcore-influenced
breakdowns,
synthesizers, electronically produced sounds,
auto-tuned vocals, and
screamed vocals.
[98][99][100] Such groups have been formed in
England,
[101][102] The United States,
[95][97] Canada,
[100] France,
[103] and
Hong Kong.
[104] Sumerian Records notes that "there has been a surplus of 'electronica/hardcore' music as of late".
[96] I See Stars is often recognized as a primary contributor of the style.
[95][96][98][99] The group's debut album,
3-D, was popular "amongst the synthcore scene".
[98] The compilation
Punk Goes Pop 4, one of many albums in the
Punk Goes...
series, "features some of the hottest pop songs in music today being
performed by various metalcore, post-hardcore and electronicore
artists".
[105] Altsounds,
an independent music journal, noted that there has been a "sudden rise
in the amount of bands combining electronic and metal styles of music."
The article noted that many of the bands who created cover songs for
Punk Goes Pop 4 incorporated characteristics of electronicore, specifically referencing
I See Stars,
Woe, Is Me, and Chunk! No, Captain Chunk!
[103] Other notable bands that demonstrate a fusion of post-hardcore or metalcore with electronic music include
Abandon All Ships,
[98][100] Attack Attack!,
[98][106] Asking Alexandria,
[98][101][102] All For A Vision,
[107] Enter Shikari,
[108][109] and
Sky Eats Airplane.
[97]
www.wikipedia.com
