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Breakdown (-core)

Breakdown (-core)

The breakdown is an interlude in a hardcore or metalcore song where the tempo is slowed, typically to a 4/4 rhythm. It is an important element in many songs of these genres and central to many bands, quite a few of which eschew traditional verse-chorus-verse songwriting. Stereotypically, the guitars play a set of rhythmically oriented riffs, usually on open strings so as to achieve the lowest sound the guitars are tuned for. These riffs are often accented by the drummer with double kick bass drums. Breakdowns are usually responded to by an audience by moshing or hardcore dancing. Vocalists also tend to throw in a single, repeated statement throughout the breakdown, giving those who are not moshing an opportunity to sing along. Breakdowns can be categorised as "emotional" or "hardcore" depending on the lyrical content and musical style. Many bands rely on having memorable breakdowns rather than memorable choruses.

Hardcore punk

Hardcore punk (or hardcore) is an intensified version of punk rock usually characterized by short, loud, and often passionate songs with exceptionally fast tempos and chord changes.

Overview

Hardcore originated in the late 1970s and early '80s in North America, primarily in and around Los Angeles and Washington, DC, but also in around New York City, Vancouver, Boston, and other cities. Former DC club promoter Steven Blush claimed, in his book, American Hardcore: A Tribal History, that hardcore was punk rock adapted for suburban teens. Hardcore lyrics often express righteous indignation at society, usually from a politically left perspective. The origin of the term 'hardcore punk' is uncertain. One story is that the term was coined by New York City producer and manager Bob Sallese while promoting a show by the band, The Mob, circa 1981, at a Bayside, Queens club. (The common New York term for fast punk, at the time, was 'thrash.') A less dubious possibility is that it comes from the "Hardcore '81" album by Vancouver's D.O.A.. Until roughly 1983, "hardcore" was used fairly sparingly, in the spirit of an adjective, and not in the sense of a defined musical genre: American teenagers who were into hardcore considered themselves into 'punk' -- as opposed to 'punk rock' or '77 punk,' the earlier, slower style of the Sex Pistols, et al., which they generally considered hopelessly dated and passé. 'Hardcore' was initially an in-group term meaning, in perfect anthropological fashion, "music by people like us," and included a surprisingly wide range of sounds, from hyper-speed punk to sludgy dirge-rock, and often including art/experimental bands such as Mission of Burma, The Stickmen, and Flipper. Today (and for the purpose of this article), it refers more-or-less exclusively to what used to be known as 'thrash.'

History

Like the British punk wave of 1976 to 1978, American hardcore was initially a tight-knit movement that evolved into an enduring genre. The sound borrowed elements from bands such as The Ramones, the UK Subs, and Motörhead (often at second- or third-remove), but quickly became an entity in itself. As with most musical genres, it's difficult to place the exact origins of hardcore; furthermore, the music's creation -- when and where earlier styles transformed into something new -- is subject to debate among fans. Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life traces hardcore, ultimately, to three bands: He calls LA's Black Flag (formed in 1976) the music's "godfathers"; credits the Bad Brains, formed in Washington, D.C. in 1978, with introducing their often astonishingly fast "light speed" tempos; and calls Minor Threat, another Washington, D.C. group formed in 1980, the "definitive" hardcore punk band. The Bad Brains' eponymous first album (originally a cassette-only release, in 1981), has been called the "holy grail" of hardcore. [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:bt98b5p4nsqh~T1]. A similarly-esteemed single, "Pay to Cum" b/w "Stay Close to Me," preceded it in 1980. (See here for sound files of the album: [http://www.mp3.com/albums/210998/summary.html]) Black Flag's reputation--well established during their career--has only grown in the nearly two decades since they disbanded: One critic says that Black Flag was "for all intents and purposes, America's first hardcore band. They emerged from Southern California to gain international prominence, touring enough to become a major attraction in virtually every city where a scene existed and undoubtedly inspiring others to get in the game," and that the group played "an essential role in the development and popularization of American punk." [http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=black_flag] In fact, Black Flag were tremendously important as a tireless DIY outfit, while (like the Dead Kennedys) having a musical style that seems not to have influenced many other bands of the time. They were mainstays, and tremendously respected, but were not necessarily artistic leaders. Also often cited as the definitive hardcore band are The Teen Idles, formed in 1978 in Washington, D.C. (Ian MacKaye, known as singer-guitarist of Fugazi, was a member of both the Teen Idles and, later, Minor Threat; the Teen Idles' EP was posthumously released in 1981.) They were sloppy, off-kilter proto-thrash. However, several bands in the Los Angeles area in the late 1970s released records whose style is functionally identical to what would later be called 'hardcore.' The most striking is the Middle Class's thrashing "Out of Vogue" EP from 1978. Also historically crucial is Rhino 39's 1979 "Xerox" b/w "No Compromise"/"Prolixin Stomp" single (Audio clips here: [http://www.emusic.com/album/10595/10595038.html]). The Germs' 1979 "GI" LP is essentially a hardcore record, not only for its quick tempos but especially for its notably fast chord changes (clips here; choose "What We Do Is Secret" and below for the important (GI) album: [http://www.mp3.com/the-germs/artists/3712/summary.html]), while the Circle Jerks' first album, from 1980, features both blinding chord changes and tempos. The Misfits, from northern New Jersey, were a '77 punk band involved in New York's Max's Kansas City scene, whose ironic horror-movie aesthetic was hugely popular among early hardcore aficionados. In 1981, the Misfits responded by integrating high-speed thrash songs into their set. Hüsker Dü was formed in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1978, as a New Wave ensemble, and became a thrash band, releasing their first recordings in 1981. Their early recorded output has been called a "breakneck force like no other ... Not for the faint of heart." [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:fbfexqw5ldae] During this period, records and bands traveled from the far more organized California scenes to the East Coast, but rarely in the other direction (the Teen Idles played two poorly-attended shows in California in the summer of 1980, and were the first ostensible East Coast hardcore band to do so. Minor Threat's 1981 shows in Los Angeles were also somewhat spottily-attended). Many anomalies, as well, exist; including two other all-Black punk bands, circa 1978: the NY Niggers, from New York, and Philadelphia's Pure Hell -- both of whom released singles. Both sound like a speedy upward ramp toward thrash. For further examples in the difficulty of pinpointing Hardcore's origins (and there are many other such examples), Black Flag's canonical singer, Henry Rollins, first appeared under his given name, Henry Garfield, in the early DC hardcore band, State of Alert -- and joined Black Flag under fairly random circumstances after filling in on vocals -- as a fan -- at a 1981 show at New York's A7 club. In 1981, DC and Los Angeles both featured major bands called Youth Brigade, neither of whom was initially aware of the other. All of the above suggests that despite Azerrad's thesis, hardcore punk arose more or less organically throughout the United States--though especially on both coasts--at roughly the same time. Other notable early hardcore bands (circa 1980-81) include The Neos, from Victoria, British Columbia; The Fix, from Detroit; The Necros, from Maumee, Ohio; Strike Under, The Effigies, and Naked Raygun from Chicago; The Dicks and Big Boys, from Austin, Texas. College radio stations throughout the country played early hardcore, but the most influential single show was Rodney on the ROQ, on Los Angeles' 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 the heavily-conservative Orange County. The San Francisco-area public 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 also helped spread the new, younger punk style, including Guillotine, Ripper, Flipside, and in late 1981, Yohannon and Bale's Maximum RocknRoll zine -- modeled on Tim Tonooka's Ripper, but with a national circulation and 'scene reports' from around the country. A strong infrastructure of indie labels, linked with already-existing radio outlets and both old and new zines (Slash, Option, Flipside, and others had already covered alternative music for several years), helped to create a functioning, nationwide subculture, if not always one that was appreciated by older indie-music fans. Unfortunately, the hardcore scene became associated with violence, and attracted some aggressive elements to hardcore shows. Some clubs were often trashed, and police began to appear at shows, at least in Los Angeles, USA. Skateboarding was also associated with the scene, at a time in which the radical sport known today was practiced underground and almost without official notice. The hardcore scene created slamdancing ('moshing' was a later term borrowed from Jamaican reggae -- the original one was '[doing] the Huntington Beach Strut'), stagediving, and crowd surfing. 1981 saw the release of Black Flag's first album, Damaged (they had released several singles and EPs since 1978). Popular at the time, but not much imitated, two decades later it's often seen as the defining album of the genre. The album would briefly appear on Billboard Magazine's top-200 album chart (at Number 200, for one week). The early hardcore scene was, however, highly regional, and equally important records of the period include The Adolescents' first LP (from Los Angeles), the NYC compilation The Big Apple Rotten To The Core, the Boston-area This Is Boston Not LA compilation LP, the Zero Boys LP (from Indianapolis), the Detroit-area Process of Elimination compilation EP, the Negative Approach EP (from Detroit), The Necros' IQ 32 EP (from Maumee, Ohio), SS Decontrol's Kids Will Have Their Say LP (from Lynn, Massachusetts), the New York Thrash cassette compilation, the DC-area Flex Your Head compilation LP, the Northern California Not So Quiet on the Western Front double-LP compilation, the Chicago-area Busted at OZ compilation LP, and the Fartz's Because This Fuckin' World Stinks LP (from Seattle). Complicating the matter is the fact that many important bands did not record, or released only self-made cassettes. Many regional bands were important through live shows, and do not appear in discographies. The cult-like influence of many of these bands persists to this day.

Influence

Hardcore had a huge influence on other forms of rock music, especially in America. The San-Francisco-based heavy metal band Metallica were among the first crossover artists (circa 1982-83), incorporating the compositional structure and technical proficiency of metal with the speed and aggression of hardcore (Metallica would eventually cover three Misfits songs). Venom were another very early crossover band, as were Hellhammer and Slayer. The new style became known as Thrash metal -- or, alternatively, Speed metal, although this term came later (another transitional term was 'Speedcore'), and soon became a trend, including other bands such as Megadeth and Anthrax. The rising influence of heavy metal in the hardcore scene was much to the dismay of some (especially veteran) hardcore punks, who felt that the hardcore bands who were crossing over to metal styles (the Boston scene had gone over en masse, circa 1984, while other bands such as Corrosion of Conformity, from Raleigh, North Carolina, gained prominence through popularity among metal fans) were selling out to some of the very sensibilities that hardcore had organized against -- as well as taking umbrage at headbangers who, they believed, were making a travesty of something that others had built. Veterans remembered that only a couple of years earlier, they were being attacked on the streets by hostile metalheads. Suddenly, those very people were, veterans thought, attempting to co-opt hardcore. Moreover, it was believed by these die-hard hardcore punks that these new long-haired interpreters of hardcore were merely engaging in contrivance and attempting to mimic emotions, such as raw anger, that they truly did not feel. 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 sound, and fast tempos and chord changes, the album was distinguished from Thrash metal in its lack of guitar solos and heavy use of crunchy chord breakdowns (a New York hardcore technique) known as "mosh parts". Other bands, most notably Suicidal Tendencies (from Los Angeles), and DRI (from Austin, Texas), played music similar to that of Stormtroopers of Death. The music was dubbed Crossover in the 1980's, however today the genre is often called punk metal. Many hardcore bands branched out and began experimenting with other styles, moods and concerns as their careers progressed in the 1980's; the music of many of these bands are some of the earliest examples of what became known as alternative rock. Husker Du's artistic growth from Land Speed Record to their final album Warehouse: Songs and Stories is a chief example of this development. Grunge especially was heavily influenced by hardcore. In this case, the sense of liberation that many of the grunge bands felt, that you didn't have to be the world's greatest musician 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 would instill a traditional hardcore influence as well as take the sound into more conventional pop-oriented territory. In fact, Kurt Cobain once described Nirvana's sound as "The Knack and The Bay City Rollers being molested by Black Flag and Black Sabbath". This ultimately resulted in renewed interest in American hardcore in the '90s. In the early '90s, bands like NOFX and Bad Religion achieved varying levels of mainstream success, though both NOFX and Bad Religion had been around since the early '80s. They added catchy melodies and anthemic choruses to the hardcore template whilst removing much of the aggression and anger that had been the genre's trademark. NOFX and Bad Religion are rarely accepted as authentic by fans of hardcore punk, other bands that towed a poppier line, such as Green Day and blink 182, are almost always regarded as sellouts or being posers, like NOFX. Bands that retained the aggression of '80s Hardcore into the '90s include Agnostic Front , The Dwarves, The Distillers and Zero Bullshit. Many early hardcore bands have regrouped. The hardcore punk scene had an influence that spread far beyond music. The straight edge philosophy was rooted in hardcore and still exists today, though by no means were all hardcore punks straight edgers. (The popularity of straight edge in the hardcore scene was greater in the eastern U.S. than in the west.) 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 and the UK

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 and prolific scenes, but in the United Kingdom, more traditional punk bands like The Exploited, GBH, Discharge, and The Anti-Nowhere League occupied the cultural space that hardcore did elsewhere. These UK bands at times showed a superficial similarity to American hardcore, often including quick tempos and chord changes, and generally had similar political and social sensibilities -- but they represented a case of parallel evolution, having been musically inspired by the earlier London street-punk band, Sham 69, and/or the proto-speed-metal band, Motörhead. Additionally, Discharge played a huge role in influencing the Swedish hardcore scene with bands such as Anti Cimex and other European bands. To this day many hardcore bands from that region still have a strong Discharge and even Motörhead influence, which is considered by many to be the standard Swedish hardcore sound. (It should also be noted, that there among a high percentage of Swedish hardcore bands from the early 90's and on, was a huge influence from the band Entombed in terms of sound, songwriting and production. Some would claim that the Entombed influence was -- or is -- an important part of how characteristic these bands sound; while other would claim that they suffer from a high similarity, because of it.) In much the same way, Anarcho-punk bands like Crass, Conflict, 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. American hardcore punks listened to and supported many of these British bands (shows by bands such as GBH were considered special events in America, and drew large crowds), even while upholding a strict regionalism, deriding them as 'rock stars' and anyone too fond of them as 'poseurs' (expressive fans of the influential UK anarcho-punk collective, Crass, were called 'crassholes'). A 1986 concert by Discharge, in New York, generated brief international infamy when a crowd of roughly 1,500 paid $10 admission and pelted the band with garbage, but it should be noted at the time Discharge were adopting a more metallic sound. American hardcore bands who visited the UK (such as Black Flag, in 1981) encountered equally ambivalent attitudes. Visiting European hardcore bands suffered no such prejudice in the US, with Italian bands Raw Power and Negazione, and the Dutch BGK, enjoying widespread popularity. It should also be mentioned, that there in the more underground part of the UK scene, around the same time and a little later than the already mentioned bands existed, grew a hardcore sound and scene, inspired by continental European/Scandinavian, Japanese and US bands. It was started by bands like (and the people in) Asylum, Genocide Association and Plasmid, that from their material and inspiration -- only heard at live shows, and released on demo tapes and compilations in the mid 80's -- would evolve into bands like Heresy, Ripcord, early Napalm Death, Hellbastard, Doom, Satanic Malfunctions and Extreme Noise Terror. Where hardcore in the US almost had disappeared or evolved into something that (at least in the eyes of certain fans) didn't have much to do with what it was about in the earlier part of the 80's (in terms of production, distribution and what kind of audience it attracted to go to shows and to be members in bands), it was brought back to life in a way that both was like when Hardcore was it its best, and at the same time managed to incorporate metallic/crossover influences, in a way that gave it a relative new sound. The most important influences among late 80's UK bands was, among others, GISM, Confuse, Siege and Septic Death, as well as Discard, Anti Cimex and more metallic bands like Celtic Frost and Metallica. They also had a solid background in the Anarcho-punk sound, scene and way of thinking, as well. About the continental European hardcore sound and scene(s), there was a huge number of bands, that you can say could be described as something that was like (or something in between) the dominating UK bands and US bands -- which in reality was so much more, than using these references sounds like. The band that had the biggest influence among them all, was the already mentioned Discharge, having spawned the entire D-beat sub-genre. But also Circle Jerks, Bad Brains and Black Flag left their "mark" on European hardcore (especially in Italy), in a way that sometimes reached the point of being better than them! Other key-influences was Dead Kennedys, Disorder and Millions Of Dead Cops(also known as MDC). Some of the best bands from that era and these countries, was: Wretched, Raw Power, Declino, Negazione, Indigesti (Italy), H.H.H., MG-15, Eskorbuto (Spain), Inferno, Vorkriegsjugend, Scapegoats (Germany), U.B.R. (Slovenia), Kafka Process, Barn Av Regnbuen (Norway), Heimat-Los (France), Lärm, BGK (Holland), Dezerter, Armia, Moskwa, Siekiera (Poland), Kaaos, Rutto, Kansan Uutiset, Terveet Kädet, Appendix (Finland), Anti-cimex, Headcleaners, Asocial, Missbrukarna, Sound Of Disaster, Avskum (Sweden), Vi, Enola Gay and O.H.M. Examples of bands who continued to play that style of hardcore in the 90's, include: Seein Red, Uutuus, Kirous, Health Hazard, Detestation, Los Crudos, Sin Dios, and Totalitär.

Hardcore in the 1990s

Even though American Hardcore is often thought of solely as a product of 1980s Reaganism, many bands have continued to play an aggressive form of punk rock, similar to that of hardcore, well into the 1990s and even into the early 2000s. Whereas the hardcore movement of the 1980s had gone down a very narrow path, with the exception of Hüsker Dü and other bands who had gone to great lengths to extend the hardcore template beyond basic thrash, many of the '90s/'00s hardcore bands began to include new sounds into hardcore whilst retaining hardcore's aggression. Seattle's Zeke incorporated the heavier guitar sound and ranted vocals similar to Stormtroopers of Death into hardcore and, eventually, evolved into a thrash metal band. Other bands to follow a similar, hardcore metal, path include Pennywise and The Dwarves. In the late 80s bands like No Means No (British Columbia, Canada) and Victims Family (Northern California) created a new style of powerful music by blending aggressive elements from hardcore with other influences such as psychedelic or progressive rock, noise, jazz, or math rock (The term jazzcore has sometimes been used to describe this style). This path was followed in the early 90s by Mr Bungle and lesser known bands such as Deep Turtle (Finland), Ruins (Japan) and Tear of a Doll (France). The noisecore played by Melt Banana (Tokyo) is probably a separate evolution. To be mentioned also in that category: the avant-garde band Naked City formed by saxophonist John Zorn recorded extreme music based on hardcore. Also Neurosis which started as a hardcore band quickly created a style on their own with slower tempos and dark atmosphere. There were also many bands who started to incorporate emotional and personal aspects into their music, influenced by the sounds coming out of Washington, D.C. and Dischord Records which grew and fused with more traditional punk to create emo (sometimes said to be a contraction of the description 'emotional hardcore') by the late 90s. The Nation Of Ulysses was one of the most influential bands to come out of D.C. They combined dissonant guitars, similar to Black Flag, combined with elements of Jazz, and a seemingly absurdist political ideology. Their sound and fashion sense would be of particular influence, on the San Diego scene. Ebullition Records, from Santa Barbara, California, was a record label that tended to feature and distribute this type of music. These bands remained political, but tended to focus more on personal politics. Examples of these bands would be Endpoint, Groundwork, Split Lip and others. Born Against, from both New York and Baltimore, Maryland, played politically-aware hardcore. The San Diego Band Heroin splintered into many new bands, most notably, Antioch Arrow, and Clikatat Ikatowi. Antioch Arrow, were brutal and spastic, combined with a goth aesthetic, while Clikatat Ikatowi, combined pounding tribal drums, and dissonant guitar, with a post-punk aesthetic, and become one of the most unique bands of the 90's hardcore scene. The Locust, who started out as a fairly conventional hardcore band would develop their own sound; which is fast, brutal, and spastic. Some have described the Locust, as Free Jazz meets hardcore. The Locust, and their distinct sound, would later be classified as power violence. Antioch Arrow, Clikatat Ikatowi, and The Locust are just three of many bands who were associated with Gravity Records which was one of the most important record labels of 90's hardcore scene, later Gravity Records would also be associated with power violence. Straight edge also became more prominent in the 1990's with bands like Earth Crisis fusing metal and hardcore with militant vegan and straight edge lyrics. In the late 1990's there was surge of 80 revival bands which copied the sound of Youth of Today and Gorilla Biscuits, updating the sound with slightly faster tempos and metal breakdowns.

Hardcore today

There are still many bands today that follow the lines of original hardcore. It has evolved somewhat since the 80's but still follows many of the ideals like straight edge and hasn't been fused too much with metal. One of the most prominent record label of hardcore music currently is Bridge 9 Records. They represent a current trend in hardcore, putting out records by bands such as Champion, Sick Of It All, Stand And Fight, American Nightmare. Another common, heavier sound is represented by bands such as From Ashes Rise and Tragedy who play a brand of melodic sound influenced by crustcore. There are also many contemporary bands who play hardcore in an original, purist sense while attempting to add even more intensity to the music. Some of these fall under the power violence category, while others who play a brand of hardcore much like their forefathers of the early 80s. Some of these bands include Career Suicide, Spitting blood, Deadfall, and the now defunct Tear it Up. Many bands like this can be found on the 625 thrashcore record label. These bands are often true to a specific local flavor of hardcore. Another 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. The bands whose names comes closest to original, is Deathcharge and Dischange; while the most popular band among fans, is the Japanese band Disclose (at least during the first years of the new millennium). Some people though, consider the hardcore and punk scenes today to be elitist, as well as divided among those whose views vary on issues ranging from politics to DIY ethics. Additionally, the name "Hardcore" has been applied with increasing frequency to what most would consider "metal" music. Groups like Bleeding Through, Inner Surge and Poison the Well have fused the aggression of traditional hardcore with the intensity of metal. Typical of this "metalcore" genre are heavy breakdown parts and harshly delivered vocals, sometimes verging on death metal growl. As this new kind of music has evolved, so has the sub-culture associated with it; for example, fashioncore (such as the music of Bleeding Through). In the 1990s the name "hardcore" even came to be applied to a genre of electronica having nothing in common with hardcore punk. Although the term "Hardcore" has come to be attached to this kind of music, some fans of traditional Hardcore deride its use. Today, people who still refer to "Hardcore" as the style that began in the Early 1980's, sometimes use the term "Street Punk" rather than use the denigrated "Hardcore". A good example is the Californian hardcore punk band Final Conflict. The "-core" suffix has also been applied to musical genres which have little in common with "traditional" hardcore, such as Sadcore, Slowcore, and Emocore.

Hardcore bands

See also List of Early New Jersey Hardcore Bands
References

- American Hardcore: A Tribal History (Steven Blush, Feral House publishing, 2001, ISBN 0-922915-717-7)
- Smash the State: A Discography of Canadian Punk, 1977-92 (Frank Manley, No Exit, 1993)
External links

- [http://www.BlankTV.com/ BlankTV - The Net's largest free, D.I.Y. hardcore punk music video channel]
- [http://www.bandnews.org/genre/Rock/Punk Hardcore Punk News]
- [http://www.fuzzlogic.com/flex/ Flex Discography of USHC]
- [http://homepages.nyu.edu/~cch223/ Kill From The Heart]
- [http://euthanasie.propagande.org/ Euthanasie Discography of French Punk (French)]
- [http://noisetheory.org noise:theory] Australian alternative music community
Current punk community websites

- [http://www.punknetwork.com PunkNetwork]
- [http://www.punkgigs.com PunkGigs]
- [http://www.punk.com.au PunkAustralia]
Articles

- [http://bitchingandmoaning.org/archives/2005/06/women_in_hc.php women in hardcore, interview with Kira Roessler from Black Flag]
- [http://bitchingandmoaning.org/archives/2005/04/hr.php interview with Henry Rollins] Hardcore punk Category:Punk genres ja:ハードコア (音楽)

Metalcore

Metalcore is a musical genre consisting of a mix between heavy metal and hardcore. Although the genre has risen in popularity since the turn of the millennium, it is not a recent genre, as many would believe, since bands such as Integrity have been around since the late 1980s. Defining the metalcore sound is not an easy task as bands have often fused hardcore-influenced sound and attitude with almost any imaginable type of metal. In fact, the earliest signs of this genre before a name could be put to it was called 'crossover'. The band that declared the crossover was Dirty Rotten Imbeciles on their late 1980's album of the same name. Other bands like Nuclear Assault are the bleeding edge pioneers themselves.

The early scene

Nuclear Assault was amongst the first to call their music a Heavy Metal-Hardcore Punk Hybrid. Although not thought of as a metalcore band today, Judge was arguably one of the earliest bands to start fusing heavy metal-influenced riffing with more traditional hardcore sound without being a thrash metal band. This idea obviously spread outwards, and although their first real release ("Those Who Fear Tomorrow") wasn't until 1991, "Integrity" was formed in 1989. Most songwriting by metalcore bands at this time was similar to New York hardcore bands, but differed in their harder sound thanks to use of double bass drums, harder distortion and louder, more gruff vocal shouts. This basic sound of metalcore has received the epithets - which can be used both with and without derision - "tough guy hardcore" due to the lyrical focus, which is often similar to older hardcore in that they call for moral and mental strength and integrity, but may also have a slight focus on violence, or "moshcore" due to the often breakdown-centric, mosh-friendly songwriting that some bands use. During the middle of the 1990s, bands started expanding the metalcore sound, prime examples being All Out War who used straightforward thrash riffing, as well as bands such as Rorschach, Starkweather, Orange County's Adamantium, and Deadguy, who experimented with looser, often discordant songwriting as well as more untraditional rhythm. Converge, although starting out as self-confessed "hardcore kids with leftover Slayer riffs", have since bloomed into a hybrid of hardcore, metal and progressive instrumental and electronic experimentation. Zao is another band that left a mark upon the genre with their Carcass-like vocals and varied songwriting, particularly the Christian bands of the genre.

The later scene

From the late 1990s and particularly after the turn of the millennium, metalcore has grown immensely, to the point where major record companies are taking interest in the genre. Recent (2005) releases, such as As I Lay Dying's "Shadows Are Security" and Norma Jean's "O' God, the Aftermath" have managed to sell well enough to make it onto Billboard charts. One sound that has become immensely popular is to mix Gothenburg melodic death metal, popularized by more traditional metal bands such as At the Gates and In Flames and newer bands such as Children of Bodom, together with a more traditional metalcore sound and occasionally slow, melodic breakdowns. Today, many famous metalcore bands play this style, such as Killswitch Engage, The Agony Scene, As I Lay Dying and Unearth. Poison the Well are given some credit for making this sound popular, even though they do not strictly fit into that sound. Some bands, such as Botch, expanded on the blueprints of Rorschach and Deadguy, bringing forth intense mathematic influenced guitar riffs, as well as songs. This style is popularized by few recent bands. The sounds of metalcore today are so varied, that one can almost use a mix-and-match approach of aural particulars and still arrive at a particular band's sound. For example, on later releases, Shai Hulud were able to mix extremely varied, melodic, near-mathematical songwriting with the more traditional hardcore sound. In recent years, Christian lyrics, or at least Christian band members have grown in numbers. It has known to be a "trend" and an easier way to get the band signed to a record label, although most people call tell which bands are real and which arent. Wheather real or not, many of the known Christian bands include As I Lay Dying, Haste the Day, MyChildren MyBride, Norma Jean, Zao, The Chariot, Underoath, and many others.

The breakdown

Central to many bands of the genre, quite a few of which eschew traditional verse-chorus-verse songwriting, is the breakdown. Stereotypically, a breakdown consists of slowing a song down, giving the guitars room to play a set of rhythmically oriented riffs, usually on open strings so as to achieve the lowest sound for which the guitars are tuned. These riffs are often accented by the drummer through double bass drums. Breakdowns are usually responded to by an audience by hardcore dancing. Vocalists also tend to throw in a single, repeated statement throughout the breakdown, giving those who are not dancing an opportunity to sing along. Many metalcore bands rely on having memorable breakdowns rather than memorable choruses. Songs with breakdowns have become more common, and some bands have used them far more often than was previously the norm, with some songs even resembling one elongated breakdown.

Bands

Tempo

In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for "time") is the speed or pace of a given piece.

Measuring tempo

The tempo of a piece will typically be written at the start of a piece of music, and in modern music is usually indicated in beats per minute (BPM). This means that a particular note value (for example, a quarter note or crotchet) is specified as the beat, and the marking indicates that a certain number of these beats must be played per minute. Mathematical tempo markings of this kind became increasingly popular during the first half of the 19th century, after the metronome had been invented, although early metronomes were somewhat unreliable; Beethoven's metronome markings, in particular, are notoriously unreliable. MIDI files today also use the BPM system to denote tempo. Some 20th century composers (such as Béla Bartók and John Cage) would alternatively give the total execution time of a piece, from which the proper tempo can be roughly derived.

Musical vocabulary for tempo

Whether a music piece has a mathematical time indication or not, in classical music it is customary to describe the tempo of a piece by one or more words. Most of these words are Italian, a result of the fact that many of the most important composers of the 17th century were Italian, and this period was when tempo indications were used extensively for the first time. Before the metronome, words were the only way to describe the tempo of a composition. Yet after the metronome's invention, these words continued to be used, often additionally indicating the mood of the piece, thus blurring the traditional distinction between tempo and mood indicators. For example, "presto" and "allegro" both indicate a speedy execution ("presto" being faster), but "allegro" has more of a connotation of joy (seen its original meaning in Italian), while "presto" rather indicates speed as such (with possibly an additional connotation of virtuosity). (Presto did not acquire this connotation until the late 18th century.) Additional Italian words also indicate tempo and mood. For example, the "agitato" in the Allegro agitato of the last movement of George Gershwin's piano concerto in F has both a tempo indication (undoubtedly faster than a usual "Allegro") and a mood indication ("agitated").

Understood tempos

In some cases (quite often up to the end of the Baroque period), conventions governing musical composition were so strong that no tempo had to be indicated. For example, the first movement of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 has no tempo or mood indication whatsoever. To provide movement names, publishers of recordings resort to ad hoc measures, for instance marking the Brandenburg movement "Allegro", "(Allegro)", "(Without indication)", and so on. In Renaissance music most music was understood to flow at a tempo defined by the tactus, roughly the rate of the human heartbeat. Which note value corresponded to the tactus was indicated by the mensural time signature. Often a particular musical form or genre implies its own tempo, so no further explanation is placed in the score. Thus musicians expect a minuet to be performed as a fairly stately tempo, slower than a Viennese waltz; a Perpetuum Mobile to be quite fast, and so on. The association of tempo with genre means that genres can be used to imply tempos; thus Ludwig van Beethoven wrote "In tempo d'un Menuetto" over the first movement of his Piano Sonata Op. 54, although that movement is not a minuet. Popular music charts use terms such as "bossa nova", "ballad", and "latin rock" in much the same way.

Italian tempo markings

Basic tempo markings

The most common tempo markings in Italian are:
- Largo - slowly and broadly
- Adagio - slowly
- Lento - "slow" but usually only moderately so
- Andante - at a walking pace
- Moderato - at a moderate tempo, neither fast nor slow
- Allegretto - "a little allegro", understood to be not quite as fast as allegro
- Allegro - quickly
- Presto - fast
- Vivace - very fast

Common Qualifiers

- non troppo - not too much; e.g. Allegro non troppo (or Allegro ma non troppo) means "Fast, but not too fast."
- molto - very, as in Allegro molto
- poco - slightly, as in Poco Adagio
- Various diminutive suffixes in Italian have been used, in addition to Allegretto: Andantino, Larghetto, Adagietto, as well as superlatives such as Larghissimo, Prestissimo.

Mood markings with a tempo connotation

Some markings that primarily mark a mood (or character) also have a tempo connotation:
- Vivace - lively (which generally indicates a rather fast movement)
- Maestoso - majestic or stately (which generally indicates a solemn, slow movement)

Terms for change in tempo

There is also a set of terms that are used to designate a change of tempo:
- Accelerando - speeding up (abbreviation: accel.)
- Meno Mosso - less movement or slower
- Più Mosso - more movement or faster
- Rallentando - slowing down (abbreviation: rall.)
- Ritardando - slowing down (abbreviation: rit.)
- Ritenuto - slightly slower These generally designate a gradual change in tempo; for immediate tempo shifts, composers normally just provide the designation for the new tempo. There is also:
- A tempo - return to the previous tempo after change(s); and
- Tempo I - often at the beginning of a new section of a piece, denotes a return to the piece's original tempo. These terms also indicate an immediate, not a gradual, tempo change. Composers typically use these terms for tempo change even if they have written their initial tempo marking in some other language. More complex and less precise (though vital in many composers' music) is:
- Rubato - free adjustment of tempo for expressive purposes

Tempo markings in other languages

Although Italian has been the prevalent language for tempo markings throughout most of classical music history, many composers have written tempo indications in their own language.

French tempo markings

Several French composers have written markings in French, among them baroque composers François Couperin and Jean-Philippe Rameau as well as impressionist composers Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. Common tempo markings in French are:
- Grave - slowly and solemnly
- Lent - slowly
- Modéré - at a moderate tempo
- Vif - lively
- Vite - fast

German tempo markings

Many composers have used German tempo markings. Typical German tempo markings are:
- Langsam - slowly
- Mäßig - moderately
- Lebhaft - lively (mood)
- Rasch - quickly
- Schnell - fast One of the first German composers to use tempo markings in his native language was Ludwig van Beethoven. The one using the most elaborate combined tempo and mood markings was probably Gustav Mahler. For example, the second movement of his Symphony No. 9 is marked Im tempo eines gemächlichen Ländlers, etwas täppisch und sehr derb, indicating a folk-dance–like movement, with some vulgarity in the execution. Mahler would also sometimes combine German tempo markings with traditional Italian markings.

Tempo markings in English

English indications, for example quickly, have also been used, by Benjamin Britten, amongst many others. In jazz and popular music charts, terms like "fast", "laid back", "steady rock", "medium", "medium-up", "ballad", and similar style indications may appear.

Rushing and dragging

popular music popular music When performers unintentionally speed up, they are said to rush. The similar term for unintentionally slowing down is drag. Both of these actions are undesirable; dragging can often indicate a hesitance in the performer due to lack of practise; rushing can likewise destroy the pulse of the music. Because of their negative connotation, neither rush nor drag (nor their equivalents in other languages) are often used as tempo indications in scores, Mahler being a notable exception: as part of a tempo indication he used schleppend ("dragging") in the first movement of his Symphony No. 1, for example.

Can tempo terms be defined with the metronome?

Most musicians would agree that it is not possible to give Beats per minute (BPM) equivalents for these terms; the actual number of beats per minute in a piece marked allegro, for example, will depend on the music itself. A piece consisting mainly of minims (half notes) can be played very much quicker in terms of BPM than a piece consisting mainly of semi-quavers (sixteenth notes) but still be described with the same word. Metronome manufacturers, however, usually do assign BPM values to the traditional terms, but these values are by no means correct for every piece.

Tempo markings as movement names

Generally, composers (or music publishers) will name movements of classical compositions (and in some cases individual compositions) after their tempo (and/or mood) marking, as for instance in Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings.

Usage note: plural

The plural of tempo in Italian is tempi. Some writers employ this plural when writing in English. Others use the native English plural tempos. Standard dictionaries reflect both usages. Unfortunately, neither plural can be used without offending the tastes of at least some readers: inevitably, tempos will strike some readers as incorrect, and tempi will strike other readers as pretentious. Careful writers will assess their context and choose accordingly.

External links

- [http://www.hum.uva.nl/mmm/ Research group specializing in rhythm, timing, and tempo, University of Amsterdam]
- [http://www.mozart-tempi.net Tempo indications in Mozart's music]
- [http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/appendix/tempo/tempo1.html Tempo Terminology, Virginia Tech department of music] category:musical terminology ja:テンポ

Mosh

This article is about the type of dance. For Eminem's song and music video see Mosh (song). For the professional wrestler, see Charles Warrington. Moshing is a type of dance characterized by jumping around and or pushing others to loud punk, hardcore, and heavy metal music. Moshing is popular with many, especially young, fans. Moshing is also gaining popularity in the Rap and Breakcore (a genre of extreme electronic dance music) scenes. Moshing is typically done in a mosh pit or circle pit. Originally this was just a group of people typically directly in front of the stage who were engaged in this form of dancing. It is now more frequent that there are mosh or circle pits throughout the entire audience. Mosh fashion relates to the music genre. Specifically, it began with wearing what one would wear to a concert where there would be a mosh pit.
Origins and History

Origins
The term "mosh" has often been credited to Vinnie Stigma of the hardcore group Agnostic Front as an acronym for "March Of Skin Heads", but most authorities cite Darryl Jennifer, bass guitarist for Bad Brains as the term's originator, from his Jamaican-accented pronunciation of the word "mash", in "Mash down Babylon."
History
Mosh pits (or Circle pits) appeared in 1981, if not earlier, at a number of punk rock concerts. The dance form later spread to the heavy metal music scene, where head banging and crowd surfing were incorporated. By the time of the Woodstock 1999 music festival, moshing had been described as a full-scale riot. To solve these problems, venues that expect moshing now typically provide crowd control, including having concert rules, removing problem-causing audience members, and a "T-barricade" that separates the pit into two halves as well as from the band. Nirvana's successful video "Smells Like Teen Spirit" brought mosh pits to a wide mainstream audience in 1991. In May 1996, the Smashing Pumpkins played a gig in The Point Depot in Dublin, Ireland. The venue was over-crowded and despite the band's repeated requests for moshing to stop, a 17-year-old fan from Cork, Bernadette O'Brien, was crushed to death. The concert ended early and the following night's performance in Belfast was cancelled out of respect for her. Corgan later said that he considered quitting show business for good after the event.

Michael Moore's The Awful Truth

In 2000, Michael Moore's The Awful Truth television show took a portable mosh pit across the United States to Iowa and challenged the candidates in the presidential primaries to dive into it. The premise was that the show would endorse any presidential hopeful crazy enough to do it. At one debate this mosh pit was called "the defining moment of the 2000 election" by New York Times columnist Gail Collins. At a town hall event staged by Ronald Reagan's former ambassador to the United Nations' Economic and Social Council, Alan Keyes, aides went outside to investigate the commotion. When informed that Keyes could get the endorsement of "The Awful Truth with Michael Moore," Keyes' national field director dove into the pit, hoping that his actions would help win the endorsement. He then brought out another one of Keyes supporters, dressed as Uncle Sam, who also jumped in. Another supporter dressed as a shark jumped out off the stage onto a car, damaging it. Alan Keyes, after several minutes of convincing by his daughter, dove into the mosh pit himself. He fell backwards into the screaming crowd of youths to the sound of Rage Against the Machine and surfed the crowd. After a couple of body slams with a young man from Ames High School, he left the pit with the show's endorsement. Michael Moore said of the incident, "We knew Alan Keyes was insane. We just didn't know how insane until that moment." Details about this incident and the adventure of the portable mosh pit can be found on [http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?messageDate=2000-01-28 Mr. Moore's web site].
Types of Moshing
Moshing is a catch-all term for any dance performed in a mosh pit. Certain moves are seen with certain passages of music (for example the "two-step" for floor-tom breakdowns). Moshing can be referred to by several different names, depending upon the subculture in which it is found: hardcore dancing, throwdown, mashing, or most simply, moshing. Slam dancing is characterized by its aggressive nature: the movements consist of violent contact with other dancers - pushing and shoving other dancers and body-slamming, or throwing your body into another dancer are the normal forms of slamdancing. Moshing means different things within different genres of music:
- Breakcore, a genre of extreme electronic dance music, attracts many ex-punkers or metal heads and also their mosh-pits.
- Grindcore also has its own style of dancing, often referred to as the grind (not to be confused with the highly sexual urban dance style), which resembles a blend of skanking and more of a slower mosh.
- Metal performances tend to the have a much larger mosh pit as these shows draw a larger crowd. See also: Speed moshing. Speed pit is a mosh pit that happens during such bands when Iced Earth and Megadeth get up on stage. The faster the metal is, the crazier it will get.
- Punk rock moshing generally involves aimless slamming into one another, the pogo (jumping up and down into other people, invented by Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols according to hearsay), and circle pitting, and is generally much less violent and dramatic than found at hardcore punk shows.
- Hardcore: Hardcore dancing is much faster and formulaic. It also includes people windmilling (rotating their arms in wide circles in time to the music), moves resembling aggressive breakdancing, and solitary martial arts maneuvers. These are often frowned upon by other dancers, especially if attempted at a non-hardcore concert. Another form of hardcore dancing which involves the whole mosh pit is the circle pit, in which people skank at running speed around the circumference of the pit. It can include two-steps, windmills, and swinging the arms and legs violently.
- Hip hop related
- The Gangsta walk, originally called the "buck jump," is circling the dance floor as quick and wild as you possibly can. First commonly seen at rap shows in the Memphis, Tennessee area.
- Skank slam dancing is now seen in ska or ska-core shows.
Risks, criticism and precautions
Most participants consider moshing fun, minor injuries can occur and there is a risk of serious injury. Supporters of moshing agree that there is some physical risk associated with the activity. Supporters argue that slam dancing can establish friendship and camaraderie, that reports of death or serious injury relate to crowd surfing or stage diving, completely different activities. Critics have charged slam dancing with inciting or condoning violence. Violence on the concert floor inevitably leads to some injuries. It is argued that an escalating cycle of violence can be observed. These charges are reflected in media reports. To many, moshing is a kind of extreme sport. Many people in the pit do believe in stimulating friendship and camaraderie. Violence is usually directed against others in the pit, and often only escalates when it is badly received by someone who is outside or not used to the pit. The pit is meant to be fun. There tends to be some conflation between the actual dangers of moshing and the types of behavior which critics say it causes. There are definite risks for those participating in moshing or approaching too close to the mosh pit. Many supporters actually believe that the point of moshing is its physicality and that its risks can be compared to the risks of any physically challenging sport. Some suggest there is a desire to be bruised fulfilled by mosh pits, as a form of basic stress relief. It may be suggested that moshing reflects a modern "rite-of-passage trial" where young people choose to test their courage and strength among friends and/or strangers in an unpredictable situation teetering on the edge of anarchy. In many Western cultures, there are very few outlets for a youth's natural inclination toward violence and the moshpit is an excellent excuse to let off steam. As it is meant to be, it is a sort of battle between consenting adults, and outside the pit there is no battle, often good friendships are struck up between "true hardcores". Violence escalates mainly when this concept is misunderstood whether it is inside or outside the pit.
Precautions
There are some basic precautions (rules) regarding moshing:
- Clothing and footwear should be appropriate for the physicality of the mosh pit.
- Exposed body jewelry (piercings) may get snagged in the pit. Be sure to remove it for your own safety.
- Inebriation (drunkeness) and dehydration pose real risks.
- If someone falls over, stop moshing and immediately help the person get up. This is generally "pit etiquette".
- Remove any spike bands and jackets, joint rings, or similar jewelry before entering the pit as these could result in serious injuries.
- No groping or sexual assault.
- Kicking and punching is generally regarded to be a breach of "pit etiquette", shoving or pushing with the forearms or elbows is preferred. This rule has an exception in hardcore pits.
- Immobilizing people by grabbing their clothing is frowned upon.
- People at the edge of the pit are assumed to willingly shield those outside the pit and to also keep the people inside from falling onto the ground. However this should not include shoving unwitting moshers as that may cause them to fall or shove back, usually much harder.
- Do not wear glasses as they will most likely be smashed within five minutes.
- If you have your glasses with you, a good way to keep them in one piece is to buy a bottle of Gatorade, drink it, and then push your glasses carefully into the bottle. The bottles are very hard and should protect glasses in your pocket. You will have to cut the top off of the bottle later to retreive your glasses.
- Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The pit is just like anywhere else in that respect, except with considerably more latitude in what is acceptable.
- If you are standing at the edge, be aware that someone can hit you. If you want to do quiet activities go away from the mosh! On the other site the mosh should take place on a flat area, because if the area is inclined toward the stage, which can be the case at open air events, the danger of injuries will be increased.
See also

- air guitar
- circle pit
- crowd surfing
- Hardcore dancing
- headbanging
- list of dances
- moshcore
- ninja piting
- pogo (dance)
- stage diving
- Wall of Death [http://www.moshnightclub.com/ Mosh, the Club] Category:Syllabus-free dance Category:Heavy metal Category:Punk Category:Hardcore punk Category:Metalcore Category:Grunge Category:Ska Category:Dance technique

Emo (music)

:This article deals with the genre of music. For other uses, see Emo (disambiguation). Emo is a subgenre of hardcore punk music. Use of the term (and which musicians should be so classified) has been the subject of much debate. In its original incarnation, the term "emo" was used to describe the music of the mid-1980s DC scene and its associated bands. In later years, the term "emocore", short for "emotional hardcore", was also used to describe the DC scene and some of the regional scenes that spawned from it. The term "emo" was derived from the fact that, on occasion, members of a band would become spontaneously and literally emotional during performances. The most recognizable names of the period included Rites of Spring, Embrace, One Last Wish, Beefeater, Grey Matter, Fire Party and slightly later, Moss Icon. The first wave of emo began to fade after the breakups of most of the involved bands in the early 1990s. Starting in the mid-1990s, the term "emo" began to reflect the indie scene that followed the influences of Fugazi, which itself was an offshoot of the first wave of emo. Bands including Sunny Day Real Estate and Texas Is the Reason put forth a more indie rock brand of emo, which was more melodic and less chaotic in nature than its predecessor. The so-called "indie emo" scene survived until the end of the 1990s, as many of the bands either disbanded or shifted their style to the mainstream. As the remaining indie emo bands entered the mainstream, newer bands began to emulate the more mainstream style, creating a style of music that has now earned the moniker "emo" within popular culture. Whereas, even in the past, the term "emo" was used to identify a wide variety of bands, the breadth of bands listed under today's emo is even more vast, leaving the term "emo" as more of a loose identifier than as a specific genre of music.

History

The First Wave (1985–1994)

In 1985 in Washington, D.C., Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto, veterans of the DC hardcore music scene, decided to shift away from what they saw as the constraints of the basic style of hardcore and the escalating violence within the scene. They took their music in a more personal direction with a far greater sense of experimentation, bringing forth MacKaye's Embrace and Picciotto's Rites of Spring. The style of music developed by Embrace and Rites of Spring soon became its own sound. (Hüsker Dü's 1984 album Zen Arcade is often cited as a major influence for the new sound.) As a result of the renewed spirit of experimentation and musical innovation that developed the new scene, the summer of 1985 soon came to be known in the scene as "Revolution Summer". Within a short time, the DC emo sound began to influence other bands such as Moss Icon, Nation of Ulysses, Dag Nasty, Shudder To Think, Fire Party, Marginal Man, and Grey Matter, many of which were released on MacKaye's Dischord Records. The original wave of DC emo finally ended in late 1994 with the collapse of Hoover. Where the term "emo" actually originated is uncertain, but members of Rites of Spring mentioned in a 1985 interview in Flipside Magazine that some of their fans had started using the term to describe their music. By the early 90s, it was not uncommon for the early DC scene to be referred to as "emo-core", though it's unclear when the term shifted. As the DC scene expanded, other scenes began to develop with a similar sound. In San Diego in the early 1990s, Gravity Records released a number of records in the hardcore emo style. Bands of the period included Heroin, Indian Summer, Angel Hair, Antioch Arrow, Universal Order of Armageddon, Swing Kids, and Mohinder. At the same time, in the New York/New Jersey era, bands such as Native Nod, Merel, 1.6 Band, Rye Coalition and Rorschach were feeling the same impulse. Many of these bands were involved with the ABC No Rio club scene in New York, itself a response to the violence and stagnation in the scene and with the bands that played at CBGBs, the only other small venue for hardcore in New York at the time. Much of this wave of emo, particularly the San Diego scene, began to shift towards a more chaotic and aggressive form of emo, nicknamed "screamo". By and large, the more hardcore style of emo began to fade as many of the early era groups disbanded. Even still, a handful of modern bands continue to reflect emo's hardcore origins, including Circle Takes the Square, Hot Cross, City of Caterpillar, Funeral Diner, and A Day in Black and White. Back in DC, following the disbanding of both Rites of Spring and Embrace, MacKaye and Picciotto decided to join forces in a new band, called Fugazi. While Fugazi itself was not categorized as emo, the music it created would soon influence the second major wave of emo.

Early Emo's Influence

In California, particularly in the Bay Area, bands like Jawbreaker and Samiam began to mix the DC influence with pop punk to come up with their own take on the classic DC emo sound. On Jawbreaker's album Bivouac, singer Blake Schwarzenbach evolved from the traditional hardcore vocal sound into a more melodic crooning, which displayed a more emotional feeling of loss than the desperation and frantic nature of MacKaye's voice. Other bands soon reflected the same sense of rough melody, including Still Life and New Jersey's Garden Variety. The style continued to evolve into the 2000s through bands like Avail and Hot Water Music. Also in the early 90s, bands like Lifetime reacted in their own way to the demise of youth crew styled straight-edge hardcore and desired to seek out a new direction. While their music was often classified as emo, it was also considered to be melodic hardcore. In response to the more metal direction their hardcore peers were taking, Lifetime initially decided to slow down and soften their music, adding more personal lyrics. The band later added a blend of speed, aggression, and melody that defined their sound. Lifetime's sound, lyrics, and style were a virtual blueprint for later bands, including Saves The Day and The Movielife. Though rarely mentioned in the same breath as "textbook" emo, Canadian punk rockers No Means No (formed in 1978) have been cited by critic Ned Raggett as an indirect "secret influence on a fair amount of both early-'90s math rock and emo, what with the barely controlled fervor of the singing and the sudden jerks back and forth in the rhythm section."[http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:1jdjvwmva9rk]

The Second Wave (1994–2000)

As Fugazi and the Dischord Records scene became more and more popular in the indie underground of the early 1990s, new bands began to spring up. Combining Fugazi with the post-punk influences of Mission of Burma and Hüsker Dü, a new genre of emo emerged. Perhaps the key moment was the release of the album Diary by Sunny Day Real Estate in 1994. Given Sub Pop's then-recent success with Nirvana and Soundgarden, the label was able to bring much wider attention to the release than the typical indie release, including major advertisements in Rolling Stone. The heavier label support allowed the band to secure performances on TV shows, including The Jon Stewart Show. As a result, the album received widespread national attention. As more and more people learned about the band, particularly via the fledgling Internet, the band was given the tag "emo". Even where Fugazi had not been considered emo, the new generation of fans shifted the tag from the earlier hardcore style to this more indie rock style of emo. It wasn't uncommon for Sunny Day and its peers to be labelled with the full "emo-core". However, when pressed to explain "emo", many fans split the genre into two brands: the "hardcore emo" practiced in the early days and the newer "indie emo". In the years that followed, several major regions of "indie emo" emerged. The most significant appeared in the Midwest in the mid-90s. Many of the bands were influenced by the same sources, but with an even more tempered sound. These bands included Boy's Life, Christie Front Drive, and Cap'n Jazz. This brand of emo was often referred to as "Midwestern emo" given the geographic location of the bands. In ensuing years, bands such as The Promise Ring, Braid, Elliott, and The Get Up Kids emerged from the same scene and gained national attention. The area around Phoenix, Arizona became another major scene for emo. Inspired by Fugazi and Sunny Day Real Estate, former punk rockers Jimmy Eat World began stirring in emo influences into their music, eventually releasing the album Static Prevails in 1996. The album was arguably the first emo record released by a major label, as the band had signed with Capitol Records in 1995. Other bands that followed the "indie emo" model included New York's Texas Is the Reason and Rainer Maria, California's Knapsack and Sense Field, Austin's Mineral, and Boston's Piebald and Jejune. Strangely, as "indie emo" became more widespread, a number of acts who otherwise would not have been considered part of the "indie emo" scene had their albums referred to as "emo" because of their similarity to the sound. The hallmark example was Weezer's 1996 album Pinkerton, which, in later years, was considered one of the defining "emo" records of the 90s. As the wide range of emo bands began to attract notoriety on a national scale, a number of indie labels attempted to document the scene. Many emo bands of the late 90s signed to indie labels including Jade Tree Records, Saddle Creek, and Big Wheel Recreation. California's Crank Records released what many considered the defining compilation of 90s emo in 1997, titled (Don't Forget to) Breathe, which featured tracks by The Promise Ring, Christie Front Drive, Mineral, Knapsack, and Arizona's Seven Storey Mountain. In 1998, Deep Elm Records released the first in a series of compilations called Emo Diaries, which featured tracks from Jimmy Eat World, Samiam, and Jejune. In 1999, famed 70s compilation label K-Tel even released an emo compilation titled Nowcore: The Punk Rock Evolution, which, regardless of its source, was surprisingly comprehensive. (Nowcore included tracks by Texas Is the Reason, Mineral, The Promise Ring, Knapsack, Braid, At the Drive-In, and Jawbox, among others.) With the late-90s emo scene being more national than regional, major labels began to turn their attention toward signing emo bands with the hopes of capitalizing on the genre's popularity. Many bands resisted the lure, citing their loyalty to the independent mentality of the scene. Several bands cited what they saw as mistreatment of bands such as Jawbox and Jawbreaker while they were signed to majors as a reason to stay away. The conflict felt within many of the courted emo bands resulted in their break-ups, including Texas Is the Reason and Mineral. By the end of the decade, the word "emo" cropped up in mainstream circles. In the summer of 1998, Teen People magazine ran an article declaring "emo" the newest "hip" style of music, with The Promise Ring a band worth watching. The independent nature of the emo scene recoiled at mainstream attention, and many emo bands shifted their sound in an attempt to isolate themselves from the genre. In the years that followed, Sunny Day Real Estate opted to shift to a more prog-rock direction, Jejune aimed for happy pop-rock, and The Get Up Kids and The Promise Ring released lite-rock albums. While "indie emo" almost completely ceased to exist by the end of the decade, many bands still subscribe to the Fugazi / Hüsker Dü model, including Thursday, The Juliana Theory, and Sparta.

The Third Wave (2000–Present)

At the end of the 1990s, the underground emo scene had almost entirely disappeared. However, the term "emo" was still being bandied about in mainstream media, almost always attached to the few remaining 90s emo acts, including Jimmy Eat World. However, towards the end of the 1990s, Jimmy Eat World had begun to shift in a more mainstream direction. Where Jimmy Eat World had played emocore-style music early in their career, by the time of the release of their 2001 album Bleed American, the band had almost completely removed its emo influences. As the public had become aware of the word "emo" and knew that Jimmy Eat World was associated with it, the band continued to be referred to as an "emo" band. Newer bands that sounded like Jimmy Eat World (and, in some cases, like the more melodic emo bands of the late 90s) were soon included in the genre. 2003 saw the success of Chris Carrabba and Dashboard Confessional. Carrabba's music featured lyrics founded in deep diary-like outpourings of emotion. Where earlier emo had featured lyrics of a more dark and painful direction, Carrabba's featured a greater focus on love won and lost and the inability to cope. While certainly emotional, the new "emo" had a far greater appeal amongst teenagers experiencing love for the first time, who found insight and solace in Carrabba's words and music. With Dashboard and Jimmy Eat World's success, major labels began seeking out similar sounding bands. Just as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and the other Seattle scene bands of the early 1990s were unwillingly lumped into the genre "grunge", some record labels wanted to be able to market a new sound under the word "emo". Which sound that was didn't particularly matter. In an even more expanded way than in the 90s, the term has come to encompass an extremely wide variety of bands, many of whom have very little in common. The term has become so wide-ranging that it has become nearly impossible to describe what exactly qualifies as "emo". Correctly or not, "emo" has often been used to describe such bands as Funeral for a Friend, Taking Back Sunday, Coheed and Cambria, The Starting Line, Brand New, AFI, Something Corporate, The Used, A Static Lullaby, From First To Last, Matchbook Romance, Finch, Silverstein, From Autumn To Ashes, Hawthorne Heights, and My Chemical Romance. Fans of several of these bands have recoiled at the use of the "emo" tag, and have gone to great lengths to explain why they don't qualify as "emo". (The revulsion of some bands from the term "emo" is not unlike the retreat from the genre by the bands in the indie emo scene near the end of the 90s.) In some cases, "new emo" bands are simply trying to pursue their own version of the "emo" that came before on their own terms. However, the backlash stemming from the success of a few seemingly "less emo" (and more popular in the mainstream) bands, including Dashboard and The Used, has brought an increasingly substantial pool of detractors. In a strange twist, screamo, a sub-genre of the new emo, has found greater popularity in recent years through bands such as Thrice and Glassjaw. The term "screamo", however, was used to describe an entirely different genre in the early 1990s, and the bands themselves more resemble the emocore of the early 1990s. (As a reference, see Jim DeRogatis' [http://www.jimdero.com/OtherWritings/OtherScreamoGW.htm November 2002 article about Screamo].) As a result of the continuing shift of "emo" over the years, a serious schism has emerged between those who ascribe to particular eras of "emo". Those who were closely attached to the hardcore origins recoil when another type of music is called "emo". Many involved in the independent nature of both 80s and 90s emo are upset at the perceived hijacking of the word "emo" to sell a new generation of major label music. Regardless, popular culture appears to have embraced the terms of "emo" far beyond its original intentions, out of the control of the independent-minded.

Backlash

As the chorus of detractors increased, emo became more and more a target of derision. Like the Goth scene, people who focus on emo music often share a dark and emotional psyche that makes them feel like they belong outside the mainstream. They tend to thrive on the emotional ups and downs that are typically prevalent in emotionally-driven music such as emo. At the same time, fans of other rock genres, which often emphasize aggression and anger, accuse emo of being too "soft" and "whiny". In the early years of the "third wave", however, the derision was relatively light-hearted and self-effacing. In September of 2002, web developer Jason Oda put forth [http://emogame.com/eg1.html Emogame]. In the game, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith kidnapped The Get-Up Kids, and players could assume the identities of several popular singers to fight him and his minions, along with more or less every subculture in the American landscape. The game referenced numerous emo stereotypes, but also included pop culture references such as R2-D2 from Star Wars. The game was well-received by both fans and critics of emo alike, eventually spawning multiple sequels. This kind of self-awareness gave emo a much more respectable image to outsiders, as it showed emo to be self-conscious enough to see the humor in itself without abandoning what made it unique. In recent years, the derision has increased dramatically. Male fans of emo are often hit with homosexual slurs, largely a reflection of the style of dress popular within the "emo scene" and the fact that in many cultures, males are expected to be stalwart and strong, not overly emotional; emotions are "weak" and "feminine". However, emo has subconsciously challenged such notions and has stirred an evaluation of this trend in our culture. Regardless of the criticism, emo music retains a loyal audience that includes many who would otherwise consider themselves outside the so-called "emo scene". As with punk rock, the term "emo" may persist for years to come and evolve into even more styles and sounds. Whether or not recognition of the genre will persist and which version of "emo" will be best remembered remains to be seen.

Sources

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External links

- [http://www.emo-ology.co.uk Emo-ology] – an attempt to create an Emo discography.
- Category:Hardcore punk Category:Punk Category:Punk genres Category:Washington, D.C. culture