Be a Hardcore Punk

Hardcore punk is rebellion. As the initial wave of punk rock crested and broke, hardcore swept in on the local level to take its place with a heavier, louder, faster, and more aggressive version of the original. Hardcore punk changed the face of the music industry and thrives today as a diverse and eclectic community. If you're interesting in learning more about hardcore punk, you can learn to approach the music from the right angle, get a handle on the ideology associated with hardcore, and even start looking the part. See Step 1 for more information.

Steps

Listening to Hardcore

  1. Learn about the original hardcore scene. As punk rock became increasingly cartoonish, simplistic, and "mainstream" in the mid-to-late 70s and early 80s, local bands, specifically in the Washington DC metro area, began combining an almost militaristic work ethic in regard to their practice sessions with a DIY attitude about putting on shows, taking control of their own music.[1] The sound also flourished in Southern California and other local scenes all over the United States. Hardcore punk would become a defining and significant subculture in American music.
    • These bands were independent of labels and record executives, taking an active anti-corporate and anti-establishment position in the music world. Before hardcore punk, the concept of an "independent" record label didn't exist.
    • The music itself fuses elements of metal and jazz with the attitude, aggression, and volume of punk, adding complexity and nuance to the genre. American Hardcore is a documentary film about the history and ideology of hardcore punk rock, featuring interviews with lots of the importance punk pioneers like Keith Morris, Ian Mackay, Greg Ginn, and Henry Rollins. It's an excellent primer to the genre.
  2. Listen to classic hardcore. Whatever kind of music you like, if you want to consider yourself a hardcore punk, it's important to familiarize yourself with the touchstones and defining moments of the genre. Before you sound off on the virtues of a band like The Used, give the forefathers a listen. A brief and incomplete list of nonetheless classic hardcore records includes:
    • Hardcore '81 by DOA
    • Damaged by Black Flag
    • Minor Threat by Minor Threat
    • Bad Brains by Bad Brains
    • Frankenchrist by Dead Kennedys
    • Rites of Spring by Rites of Spring
    • Suicidal Tendencies by Suicidal Tendencies
    • Double Nickels on the Dime by Minutemen
    • GI by The Germs
    • Age of Quarrel by Cro-Mags
  3. Keep up to date with contemporary hardcore punk. Through the years, hardcore punk has weathered multiple transformations and re-definitions, peaking in mainstream popularity (possibly) in the mid-2000s, with the rise of emo-crossover bands like Taking Back Sunday. Since nobody likes the old guy who complains endlessly about how much better the music was "back in the day," it's important to get with it and stay current as a hardcore punk. This isn't a YouTube comment stream. Find stuff you like and champion it, and ignore the stuff you don't. Contemporary hardcore records likely to appeal to old timers and whippersnappers alike:
    • Jane Doe by Converge
    • Abandon All Life by Nails
    • Wasted Years by OFF!
    • Hazardous Mutation by Municipal Waste
    • Hoax by Hoax
  4. Explore crossover and sub-genres of hardcore. Very quickly, any discussion of hardcore can devolve into a shouting match: "That's not hardcore! This is real hardcore!" Nintendocore? Mathcore? D-beat? Arbitrary genres never matter as much as whether or not a particular band, record, or sound is actually good. Listen to a variety of different sub-genres to familiarize yourself with the sounds and the conventions, but take it all with a grain of salt. If you don't like it, don't listen to it. Some common and/or popular sub genres of hardcore punk include:
    • Grindcore: a mix of the harshest of the harsh end of the spectrum, grindcore combines elements of thrash, noise, and industrial music. Napalm Death, Extreme Noise Terror, and Meat Mist could be classified as grindcore bands.
    • Metalcore: a broad mixture of extreme metal and hardcore music, this sub genre generally contains the vocal-stylings of hardcore punk, but with guitar-sounds and texture more reminiscent of metal. Bands like Bullet for My Valentine and As I Lay Dying probably fit this genre best.
    • Screamo: a combination of melodic hardcore punk and aggressive emo music, screamo is one of the more controversial and difficult-to-pin sub-genres, because it was commonly tagged to bands like Thursday, The Used, and Taking Back Sunday, bands that alternated high-pitched shrieking vocals with more melodic "sung" vocals.

Being Hardcore

  1. Actively oppose the ideology of the establishment. Hardcore punk is rooted in a reactionary response to the commodification of punk rock, and the wholesale rejection of consumer-culture and capitalism in music. While the umbrella of hardcore has grown large enough to include bands with ideologies to the far left and far right in the political spectrum, as well as Christian, Rastafarian, and Muslim hardcore bands, each of these bands still position themselves in reaction to some mainstream establishment culture they oppose, making it an integral part of the subculture.
    • What's hardcore for you in your community may not be hardcore for someone else. What it means to be hardcore in San Francisco may be very different than what it means to be hardcore in Des Moines, Dusseldorf, or Dakar. Embrace issues of social justice that are important to you and get informed about them to take part in active engagement.[2]
    • Hardcore punks generally avoid making an antagonistic presence in the community. Anarcho-punks and nihilistic hardcore punks in the vein of GG Allin, Richard Hell, Brainbombs and other bands in the powerviolence subgenre center themselves around an anti-everything stance that's in some ways linked to the hardcore tradition, but also distinct from it. Hardcore isn't defined by what it's against, although it is against some things.
  2. Learn about and consider the straight-edge lifestyle. An early Minor Threat song called "Straight Edge," which promoted an anti-drug message, gave rise to a popular anti-substance position in the hardcore community known as "straight edge." Straight edgers actively, and sometimes aggressively, abstain from alcohol, drugs, tobacco, and sometimes meat and casual sex, and are notable for often confronting other hardcore fans who engage in these substances and behaviors. It's a very common subculture in the hardcore subgenre.
    • Practitioners of the straight-edge lifestyle will often wear an "X" on the back of their hands, or as a patch on a jacket to display their allegiance to the lifestyle.
    • While you don't have to be straight-edge to be a hardcore punk, straight-edgers are most commonly associated with the hardcore community, so it's a good idea to familiarize yourself with the philosophy, at least, regardless of whether or not you embrace it. It's usually bad form to offer a beer to someone with an X on the back of their hand.
  3. Go local. More than any other genre of music, hardcore punk is a local movement. The touchstone hardcore bands in Boston and Rhode Island were completely different than the classic hardcore bands in Southern California and the Bay Area. A titan of the genre on the East Coast might be practically unknown on the West Coast, because the goal of the music was never world-domination, national-touring, or record sales. It was putting on a killer show for a room full of fanatics.[3]
    • Find an all-ages venue in your town that puts on hardcore shows and start attending. Make contacts in that world and find out about local bands and other more underground venues where the great shows happen.
    • If your town doesn't have an all ages venue, start putting on shows in basements, warehouses, or other locations. Call bands in neighboring cities and ask them to come play. In Florida, one of the most punk venues for a long time was run out of a padlocked storage container.
    • You don't need to move to the Brooklyns of the world to find a thriving artistic scene to engage in. Resist the pull of "Portland." Make it happen in your own neighborhood. Love where you are.
  4. Do it yourself. Hardcore punk bands got signed by record labels because they started their own record labels, and booked shows by calling up venues themselves and making them happen. Tours were run out of broke-down vans and played on short-circuiting equipment. Bands didn't make anything but gas money. Don't complain about the lack of resources at your disposal–work with what you have.
    • If there's a show on, volunteer to put up flyers, or make some flyers yourself. Help out at the venue, cleaning up afterward, if necessary. If the band cancels, call up your friends to fill in if necessary. Book bands yourself.
    • Apply this philosophy to all corners of your life, learning to become as self-sufficient as possible. Depending on where you live and what you're interested in, urban farming, wild fermentation, or cobblering could be considered "hardcore."
  5. Practice good show etiquette. Slam-dancing and violent-looking chaos in the crowd is often a big part of live hardcore shows, and it can be a fun way to experience live music and relieve tension. It can also be a way to break your nose. Learn to toe the line between throwing down in the pit and staying safe, and you'll be able to slip right into your local hardcore scene.
    • Survey the scene. How are people dancing? Does it look unapproachable or scary? If so, avoid the front of the stage. Slam dancing happens when the crowd's energy becomes so intense people just start moving, and slam into each other as a result of it. It's a way of building camaraderie and enjoying yourself, not of starting fights. Scope it out and see if it looks fun. If so, join in.
    • Don't go after other people, just get into the spirit of the pit. A common misconception about slam-dancing or "moshing" is that you run to the front of the stage and start pushing other people. If you do this, you're going to get punched in the nose.
    • Remove any loose piercing or sharp items of clothing that could hurt someone before slamming. The safety pins holding the band patches on your leather jacket make you look rad, but they can also jam into someone's arm while you're raging, or into your own.

Dressing the Part

  1. Buy used clothes with utilitarian value. Shop at thrift stores and buy sturdy clothes that you won't need to worry about changing very often. The goal should be durability, reliability, and utility, not "style." Some hardcore punks look like traditional punks, with spiky pink hair and patch-laden vests, while others look like TV repairmen, while others look like metal-heads.
    • Black denim and Dickies are great for establishing a hardcore visual style that's simple and working class. You want to look like you'd be equally comfortable cutting linoleum as you would throwing down in a mosh. Denim or leather jackets optional.
    • Avoid the mall and big box stores. Don't buy band tees at Hot Topic, buy them at the show you went to, and buy them directly from the band. That money, instead of going to some corporate stooge, goes straight into the band till, where they'll use it to put out more records like the ones you love. You'll be feeding artists, not CEOs.
  2. Wear boots or skate shoes. Nothing shouts hardcore like a solid pair of workbooks, especially chunky Doc Martens. Paired with rolled-up jeans and solid colors, a utilitarian pair of working man's boots are as hardcore as you can get. Especially black leather.
  3. Wear band tees or solid colors. The simpler, the better. Rep your favorite bands with locally-sourced t-shirts, or else rock a simple solid-color T. Plain button-ups and work-shirts are also perfectly applicable to hardcore, often buttoned all the way up to the collar.
  4. Keep your hair simple and manageable. Most hardcore punks don't wear studs or dye their hair or do anything fancy. You want to look like you don't have enough time to care about things like "hair" because you're so engaged rocking and tearing down mainstream values. Keep your hair short and messy, or shave it.
    • Some hardcore punks wear dreads, like Keith Morris from Circle Jerks, but for the most part this is rare and encroaches into some cultural appropriation territory.
  5. Use symbols smartly. Something might seem hardcore and "punk" when you're in your group of friends, but empathize with others who might not share your worldview and your particular way of seeing things. Give yourself a good reputation in the community to activate change, don't be a degenerate. Swastikas, iron crosses, and other offensive imagery aren't punk and they won't give you any credibility in the hardcore community. You'll just look like a kid who's trying too hard.[4]
    • Be smart and be aware. Like anything as varied and complex as hardcore, there have been loads of misunderstandings and misconceptions as a result of adopted symbols and imagery associated with it. Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols used to famously make a regular habit of adorning himself in swastikas, because this was the "most punk" disgusting thing he could think of doing, and–while this doesn't make it right–he lived in an entirely different culture and context than today. Think twice about how you choose to represent yourself to strangers.

Tips

  • Patches are OK as long as you don't have a ton. If they're usually cloth that's good, political patches give you bonus points.
  • Some people may criticize your beliefs or ideas. Just take it with a grain of salt, and chill out. Tell them why you think what you do, but don't go on a 20 minute rant about it. People will have different views than you.
  • Mosh pits can get very violent. Even being in a mosh pit will wear you out because people are pushing everywhere. Only go in one if you know you can stand it. Also, make sure you don't trip or fall. If you do fall down, oftentimes people around you will help pick you up again, and you should do your best to pick up people when they fall too. A lot of the scene is about unity and respect.

Warnings

  • Be careful around police. Among the hardcore scene in the 80's, police brutality was extremely common, and there was a lot of violence. Be careful, and make sure to be calm around police if they're not doing anything to you.

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Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Hardcore_punk.html
  2. ↑ http://www.complex.com/style/2013/04/29-things-you-didnt-know-about-punk-style/hardcore-punk
  3. ↑ http://www.avclub.com/article/with-zines-the-90s-punk-scene-had-a-living-history-104206
  4. ↑ http://www.aspeers.com/sites/default/files/pdf/butz08.pdf

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