Hardcore punk: Encyclopedia II - Hardcore punk - History

Hardcore punk - 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 were a young African-American band from Washington, DC, with a background in soul and funk, but also an interest in bands such as Black Sabbath and the Sex Pistols, whose eponymous first album (originally a cassette-only release, in 1981), has been called the “holy grail” of hardcore. [1]. 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 [click the green arrows for sound clips]: [2])

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.” [3] 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: [4]). The Germs’ 1979 GI LP is essentially a hardcore record, not only for its quick tempos but especially for its notably fast chord changes [5], 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.” [6]

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 He 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, in large part due to an episode of the currently popular TV drama, Quincy, ME (starring Jack Klugman), in which Los Angeles hardcore punks were depicted as being involved in a murder. Newly-minted "Quincy Punks" soon began to turn up at formerly-insular punk shows on the East Coast, while Los Angeles hardcore shows increasingly became sites of violent battles between police and concertgoers. Many clubs were trashed on both coasts, despite frantic pleas from the fanzines of the time.

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 L.A. 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 highly-important regional hardcore bands were important only through live shows or now-unavailable DIY cassette releases, and do not appear in discographies.

The cult-like influence of many of these bands, especially in their hometowns, persists to this day.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki