Post-hardcore
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| Post-Hardcore Punk | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins: | Hardcore Punk - Post-Punk - Heavy metal - Experimental Rock |
| Cultural origins: | Late 80's, USA's East Coast |
| Typical instruments: | Electric guitar - Bass guitar - Drum Kit - Synth (occasionally) |
| Mainstream popularity: | Large in the UK,Canada and parts of the US |
| Derivative forms: | Emo - Screamo - Math rock |
Post-hardcore is a musical genre that evolved from hardcore punk, itself an offshoot of the broader punk rock movement.
The earliest appearances of post-hardcore were in Washington, D.C. in the mid- to late-1980s (see the era's releases on Dischord Records, for example), though it was not widely known until the early 1990s.
Post-hardcore is typically characterized by its precise rhythms and loud guitar-based instrumentation accompanied by vocal performances that are often sung as whispers or screams. The genre has developed a unique balance of dissonance and melody, in part channeling the loud and fast hardcore ethos into more measured, subtle forms of tension and release. It shares with its hardcore roots an emotional and performance intensity and social awareness, as well as a DIY ethic.[citation needed] Yet post-hardcore usually eschews much of the unfocused rage and loose, sometimes amateurish musicianship that characterized early hardcore.
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[edit] History
Post-hardcore is rooted hardcore punk, which developed primarily in the U.S. in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and which typically featured very fast tempos, short songs (60 to 90 seconds), and barked or shouted vocals often regarding political issues.
By the mid-1980s, groups classified as hardcore, or with strong roots in the genre, were experimenting with the basic template, creating music that, while still rooted in punk rock, was often increasingly diverse, sophisticated and subtle, with influences from other rock and roll styles, or even from nigger-rock music. The early emo bands, like Rites of Spring, were pivotal in the development of post-hardcore, in part by writing personal, even intimate songs rather than the anti-authority rants typical of early hardcore.
Post-hardcore also includes bands with decidedly art rock leanings such as Fugazi, Drive Like Jehu, Bear vs. Shark, Rapeman, Shellac, Big Black, Quicksand, Alexisonfire, Thrice, Hot Water Music, Glassjaw, Far, After Words, Protest the Hero, At the Drive-In,and Hoover.
The nation-wide influence of Washington, D.C.'s Fugazi in the mid- to late-'80s triggered a second, much broader-based wave of emo bands. Groups like Antioch Arrow generated new, more emotionally intense subgenres like screamo, while Texas Is the Reason and others brought emo closer to indie rock. Bands such as Seattle's Sunny Day Real Estate and Mesa, Arizona's Jimmy Eat World broke out of the underground; attracting national attention, they were soon branded with the "alternative rock" label.
By the turn of the century, emo had arguably surpassed hardcore in popularity and influence as the roots-level standard for U.S. punk, though some underground music fans claim that typical latter-day emo bands barely qualify as punk at all.[1]
The original post-hardcore sound flagged in popularity throughout the 1990s and has nearly vanished from the public eye, though the genre still thrives in more underground circles as well as in new, more radical forms. Related genres include both emo and math rock, which share a common heritage with post-hardcore, though these genres have since diverged and developed into distinct genres themselves.
[edit] Singing Style
The singing of Post-Hardcore is, to some people, what categorizes the genre.
Singing styles can include relativly standard melodic, harmonious rock-style singing; ragged, usually high-pitched screaming; barked shouting, and whispering. These various singing styles can be used by the same band, and often within the same song, and are typically meant to express strong emotions.
This diverse singing style was pioneered by people like Ian MacKaye, who mixed standard singing with monkey yells and screaming, all of which suited the passionate, powerful emotionally-charged songs of Minor Threat and later Fugazi.
[edit] Post-hardcore definition and controversy
In recent times post-hardcore has also been used to refer to bands such as Thursday. All these genres make post-hardcore a genre of its own due to the fact that it incorporates many of these but also adds a different emotion to the music. For example the more modern post-hardcore band The Fall of Troy uses very complex guitar interludes and bass lines. However, the usage of this term does not mark a musical movement but rather a group of bands who draw influences from punk, hardcore, metal, etc. This can also sometimes make post-hardcore similar to the mathcore genre.
The genre has also come under fire from certain sections of various musical fanbases, who have said that the genre is simply being used as somewhere to simply group any band of a remote rock/alternative sound but whom do not seem to categorise to a pre-existing genre.
[edit] See also
| Hardcore punk |
|---|
| Christian hardcore - Crust punk - D-beat - Melodic hardcore - Powerviolence - Queercore - Skate punk - Thrashcore - Youth crew |
| Regional Scenes |
| Australia - Brazil - Canada - Italy - South Wales - Greece - Scandinavia: Umeå - Japan Boston - California - Chicago - Detroit - Minneapolis - New Jersey - New York - North Carolina - Phoenix - DC |
| Other topics |
| DIY punk ethic - Hardcore bands - Hardcore dancing - Straight edge |
