Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. Like the term "post-punk", the term "post-hardcore" has been applied to a broad constellation of groups. Initially taking inspiration from post-punk and noise rock, post-hardcore began in the 1980s with bands like Hüsker Dü and Minutemen. The genre expanded in the 1980s and 1990s with releases by bands from cities which had established hardcore scenes, such as Fugazi from Washington, D.C. as well as groups such as Big Black, Jawbox, Quicksand, and Shellac who stuck closer to post-hardcore's noise rock roots. as well as a "do-it-yourself" ethic. Post-hardcore generally incorporates more complex chord shapes and progressions. According to SiriusXM, "tempos could be slow, or as fast as metal, and singing was allowed to be inventive."

British post-punk of the late 1970s and early 1980s has been seen as influential on the musical development of post-hardcore bands.

History

Origins (1980s)

thumb|left|upright=0.9|alt=Concert of the band Naked Raygun|[[Naked Raygun in 2012]]

Groups such as Minutemen, Naked Raygun, and The Effigies, Los Angeles' Saccharine Trust mixed Minutemen's sound with that of post-punk acts The Fall and Gang of Four on early releases like their EP Paganicons, helping to further the burgeoning genre.

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. David Grubbs-related bands Bastro and Bitch Magnet, and Steve Albini's Big Black, Rapeman, are also associated with post-hardcore. made themselves known for their strict DIY ethic, After the issuing of the "Il Duce" single and between the release of their only two full-length studio albums, Big Black left Homestead for Touch and Go Records, that, according to Stephen Thomas Erlewine, "laid the groundwork for much of the distorted, grinding alternative punk rockers of the '90s". In 1984, Minneapolis punk band Hüsker Dü released their second studio album, Zen Arcade, considered a key post-hardcore record. and Rolling Stone. Outside the United States, post-hardcore would take shape in the works of the Canadian group Nomeansno, related with Jello Biafra and his independently run label Alternative Tentacles, and that had been active since 1979. The magazine Dusted noted that the group's 1989's release Wrong was "one of the most aggressive and powerful opuses in post-hardcore ever made".

The Washington D.C. scene

During the years 1984 and 1985 in the Washington, D.C. hardcore scene, a new movement had "swept over". This movement was led by bands associated with the D.C. independent record label Dischord Records, home in the early 1980s to seminal hardcore bands such as Minor Threat, State of Alert, Void, and Government Issue. 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", During these years, a new wave of bands started to form, these included Rites of Spring (which featured The Faith former guitarist Eddie Janney), Lunchmeat (later to become Soulside), Gray Matter, Mission Impossible, Dag Nasty and Embrace, the latter featuring former Minor Threat singer and Dischord co-founder Ian MacKaye and former members of The Faith. This movement has been since widely known as the "Revolution Summer". Rites of Spring has been described as the band that "more than led the change", 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. and 1960s pop (such as the example of Gray Matter).

According to Eric Grubbs, a nickname was developed for the new sound, with some considering it "post-harDCore". Another name used for the scene was "emo-core". The latter, mentioned in skateboarding magazine Thrasher, would come up in discussions around the D.C. area. with Rites of Spring sometimes being named as the first or one of the earliest emo acts, 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. The former's music contained, according to Steve Huey, "shifting dynamics, chiming guitar arpeggios, and screaming, crying vocal climaxes", which would prove to be influential to later musicians in spite of the band's unstable existence. a release that documented the new sound of the late 1980s D.C. punk scene. Fugazi gained "an extremely loyal and numerous global following", 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." Similarly, the band's debut studio album, 1990's Repeater, has also been "generally" regarded as a classic. 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".

Expansion (late 1980s and 1990s)

thumb|left|upright=0.9|alt=Band performing onstage|Post-hardcore band Girls Against Boys in 2006

The late 1980s and early 1990s 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 (originally a side-project of Brendan Canty and Eli Janney, which would later incorporate members of Soulside), The Jesus Lizard (formed by ex-members of Scratch Acid), Quicksand (fronted by former Youth of Today and Gorilla Biscuits member Walter Schreifels), Rollins Band (led by former Black Flag singer Henry Rollins), Tar (which raised from the ashes of a hardcore outfit named Blatant Dissent), and Slint (containing members of Squirrel Bait). Acts such as Shellac and Louisville's Slint have been considered influential to the development of the genre of math rock, with the former featuring "awkward time signatures and trademark aggression" that has come to characterize "a certain slant" on math rock,

thumb|left|upright=1.3|Unwound emerged from [[Olympia, Washington.]]

thumb|left|upright=0.9|alt=The post-hardcore band At the Drive-In performing|[[At the Drive-In performing at Lollapalooza 2012]]

AllMusic has noted that younger bands "flowered into post-hardcore after cutting their teeth in high school punk bands". Hoover has been cited by journalist Charles Spano as a band that had "a tremendous impact on post-hardcore music". In New York City, in addition to Quicksand, post-hardcore bands such as Helmet, emerged. Chicago, which alongside the Midwestern United States has been important to the progression of math rock, (as well as the subsequent related project Joan of Arc, 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. Champaign, also in Illinois, was known for an independent scene that would give way to groups like Hum, Braid and Poster Children. and Unwound, 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 in Austin, and At the Drive-In from El Paso. Kansas City, Missouri bands of the early 90s also contributed significantly to the genre including Season to Risk.

The genre also saw representation outside the United States in Refused who emerged from the Umeå, Sweden music scene. The band, which made itself known earlier in their career for its "massive hardcore sound", released in 1998 The Shape of Punk to Come, an album that saw the group take inspiration from the Nation of Ulysses while incorporating elements such as "ambient textures, jazz breakdowns", Gravity was founded in 1991 by Matt Anderson, member of the band Heroin, as a means to release the music of his band and of other related San Diego groups, which also included Antioch Arrow and Clikatat Ikatowi. 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". This movement has been associated to the development of the subgenre of screamo, while it also should be noticed that this term has been, as with the case of emo, the subject of controversy. In a similar manner, Swing Kids, composed of former members of hardcore bands from the San Diego scene such as Unbroken, Struggle and Spanakorzo, have been described by journalist Zach Baron as the moment in which the "hardcore" sound of bands like Unbroken effectively became "post-hardcore", known for "covering Joy Division songs" and for its sonic "jazz-quoting" and "guitar feedback" experimentation features. They were also one of the first bands released under the independent label Three One G, founded by the band's vocalist Justin Pearson

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. Interscope Records would sign Helmet after a reportedly "ferocious" bidding war between several major record companies, and while MTV would air some videos by the group, which by the time of the release of their major-label debut Meantime, was considered then "the only band close to the Seattle grunge sound" on the American East Coast and would be hailed as "the next big thing", these expectations would "never be fully realized" in spite of the record's later influence. 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. 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". 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.

These bands allowed the genre to grow and become much more varied with At the Drive-In taking influence from art rock and rock and roll, and Glassjaw using elements of both pop music and heavy metal; furthermore, bands such as Hell Is for Heroes, Hundred Reasons, Hondo Maclean and Funeral for a Friend took significant influence from heavy metal bands like Pantera as well as hardcore bands like the Hope Conspiracy. Post-hardcore achieved mainstream success with the success of emo post-hardcore bands such as My Chemical Romance, Senses Fail, Alexisonfire, Taking Back Sunday, Brand New, Thrice, AFI, the Used, Silverstein, From First To Last, Thursday and Hawthorne Heights. Some bands also began to incorporate progressive elements; with bands such as Chiodos, Scary Kids Scaring Kids, Circa Survive, the Fall of Troy and Dance Gavin Dance gaining significant success, and bands such as Damiera, the Sound of Animals Fighting, The Bled, Norma Jean and the Chariot being left under the wood works; as well as bands taking influence from metalcore like Ice Nine Kills, Blessthefall and Pierce the Veil, inspired by acts such as Killswitch Engage, Avenged Sevenfold and Atreyu. Johnny Loftus of AllMusic wrote in 2004 that "what's now known as post-hardcore has been consistently codified into something eminently marketable. Screaming bloody murder over churning angular guitars has suddenly salable qualities, as long as the rage is offset by whimpering pianos and heart-flailing harmonies."

2010s–present (continued underground popularity)

Beginning to form in the late 2000s, the fourth wave of emo came into full fruition in the early 2010s. Moment defining bands like Modern Baseball, the Hotelier and Joyce Manor all gained significant success in the underground, and new takes on post-hardcore became prominent with the sonic experimentation of Drug Church, Title Fight, The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die and Citizen. At the same time "the wave", or "new wave of post-hardcore", was a movement of bands reviving 1990s emo, screamo and post-hardcore sounds. The name was originally coined to refer to only Touché Amoré, La Dispute, Defeater, Pianos Become the Teeth and Make Do and Mend, however by 2014 had expanded to also include groups Balance and Composure, Into It. Over It. and Title Fight. In 2011 Alternative Press noted that La Dispute is "at the forefront of a traditional-screamo revival" for their critically acclaimed release Wildlife, while a 2014 article by Treble called Touché Amoré "the one band carrying the sound forward in the most interesting ways". By 2015, many of the original acts in the movement had either gone on hiatus or entered periods of inactivity. Pierce the Veil's third album, Collide with the Sky (2012), has also received much attention. While Madness (2015) and Misadventures (2016)—by Sleeping with Sirens and Pierce the Veil respectively—incorporate more elements of pop rock and pop punk, entering territory that many find to be loosely defined as post-hardcore. Seen also is the emergence of independent post-hardcore bands like the Men, Cloud Nothings and METZ, who are moved closer to the dynamics and aesthetics of earlier acts, whilst diverging deeper into external influences. Reviewers have also noted the incorporation of a diversity of elements like krautrock, post-rock, sludge metal, shoegaze, in addition to previous hardcore, noise rock and post-punk sensibilities.

See also

  • List of post-hardcore bands

References

Bibliography

  • Andersen, Mark and Mark Jenkins (2003). Dance of Days: Two Decades of Punk in the Nation's Capital. Akashic Books.
  • Azzerad, Michael (2002). Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981–1991. Back Bay Books.
  • Reynolds, Simon. The Blasting Concept: Progressive Punk from SST Records to Mission of Burma. Rip It Up and Start Again: Post-punk 1978–84. London: Faber and Faber, Ltd., 2005.