Post-hardcore
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Post-hardcore, as the name might suggest, is a musical offshoot of the hardcore punk movement. The earliest appearances of the genre 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, as a musical genre, is marked 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 intensity and social awareness as well as a DIY ethic,[citation needed] yet eschews much of the unfocused rage and loose, sometimes amateurish musicianship.
The genre also includes bands with decidedly art rock leanings such as Fugazi, Drive Like Jehu, Rites of Spring, Moss Icon, Quicksand, Hot Water Music, Glassjaw, After Words, At The Drive-In, and Hoover.
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] Post-hardcore definition and controversy
In recent times post-hardcore has also been used to refer to bands such as Thursday, Rise Against, or Saosin. 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. Many people incorrectly dub post-hardcore "screamo" or "emo". However, screamo is a different genre altogether, though they often go hand in hand. Post-hardcore is usually moderately fast and normally contains shouting (not always screaming). The shouting in post-hardcore is different from that of hardcore because while they are shouting you can still make out the vocalist's singing voice. Post-hardcore still contains the complicated guitar riffs of the hardcore music genre, but the sound is much clearer and the bass is usually very entwined with the guitar and is usually very complex. For example the more modern post-hardcore band The Fall of Troy uses very complex guitar interludes and bass lines. But post-hardcore isn't about individual complexity, it is about the sound as a whole. 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 sections of various musical fanbases, having the opinion that the genre is being used as somewhere to simply group any bands of remote rock/alternative sound but whom do not seem to categorise to a pre-existing genre.
[edit] Related Genres
| 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 - Scandinavia: Umeå - Japan Boston - Chicago - Detroit - Los Angeles - Minneapolis - New Jersey - New York - North Carolina - Phoenix - San Francisco - DC |
| Other topics |
| DIY punk ethic - Hardcore bands - Hardcore dancing - Straight edge |
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