Harcore is not about fashion. Harcore is not about who can be the most "scene". Hardcore is about the music. I'm not sure where the confusion in what hardcore is started, but it has always been about the music. Here's a little history on the music.

Hardcore stems from the early punk movements in the mid-70s made notable by bands like The Ramones, The Clash, The Damned, and the Sex Pistols. Most of the fast paced, straight-forward sound that is hardcore can be heard in early punk. As more and more styles of the punk sound formed each year moving towards the mid-to late 70s. A newer sound of bands like The Misfits, The Exploited, GBH, and Black Flag would lead the move away from the sounds of this early punk.

This new style involved a faster, more technical drum beat and simplistic bass lines. Moving into the 80's the term hardcore is often credited by the band D.O.A. due to the title of their album Hardcore '81. As was seen in the origninal punk movement, this new sub-genre had the same do it yourself attitude. This attitude is the resounding theme of all hardcore music. The overall image of harcore was different, bringing the simplistic look of t-shirts and jeans to the table.

Founders of the Early Hardcore sounds can be heard played by the bands Black Flag, Bad Brains, Minor threat, The Mob, D.O.A., Middle Class, and Dead Kennedy's.

This new style of music became associated with violence due to the inlaid aggresive element to the sound. This aggression laid the ground works for slam dancing and stage diving found at most shows during these times due to the relatively small venues and easy access to the stage, which was not usually seen in most mainstream rock shows.

This early harcore sound had a major influence on forming genres of music such as, Thrash and speed metal, and later on the seattle grunge sound of the late 80s.

Moving towards the 90s hardcore began to branch off into many styles and sub-genres. The hardcore sound had two main branches the punk based sound of the 80s and a newer metal influenced sound, which later is the basis of most of todays metalcore bands such as Unearth, or It Dies Today. The late 80s and early 90s punk based harcore sound can be heard influenced by Agnostic Front, Sick of It All, Cro-Mags, Murphys Law, and Gorilla Biscuits. The metal influenced version of hardcore can be heard in the musical stylings of the bands Madball, Biohazard, and a more recent example Hatebreed.

I have used many of the obvious examples of what the hardcore sound is and was. There are many bands today that still have the traditionaly hardcore sound. Most of what todays youth actually call hardcore is a more diverse metal influenced subgenre of the original sound. It is imprortant to understand the roots of something that seems to be exploited to todays teenagers.

Intense. Relentless.

A branch of underground/indie music influenced by faster abrasive punk rock. Originating in the early 80’s as a variant of punk rock, hardcore evolved to a modern sound that can be compared to non commercial metal. The constant themes range from Straight Edge, to Politics, to Positive and Negative.

Bands range from Minor Threat from the 80’s to One Fifth, or Unearth of today.

There was a time when hardcore was more than music, it was a movement. Anyone, regardless of how well they could play an instrument could express themselves musically in ways too agressive, too brutal and in most circumstances too honest for even edgy mainstream music. It was a time when bands were willing to push the envelope while breaking all the rules, and didn't let the fact that they had to do it all by themselves stop them. True hardcore is an unstopable messege, totally seperate from the countless trends (from Bleached hair to Girl Jeans) that have come and gone. It's going to a show with 9 kids or 1000 kids who are perfect strangers or your best friends, and knowing that everyone in the room with a soul is compelled with the same unmatched intensity, to "think how they want to think", to "do what they know is right" to "be what they want to be" and never let anyone even think they can stop them.

I think over the years we've all gotten spoiled to the point where we don't care about much more than what we have, how many "babes we can slay" (if you're a dude) and above all else, our social status. People get so caught up in that shit that they can't undertand the value of something that doesn't provide any material benefit or make them appear special in whatever way, yet it has the capacity to empower every kid to live life to the fullest, be his/herself and have a shit-ton of fun in the process.
I think it's unfortunate that people these days pick out all the ...

A genre of music that started long ago from the punk movement. Eventually, it died down and now hardcore has become heavily confused with overrated untalented whiny-ass screamo/emo/trendXcore bands such as Atreyu, Norma Jean, and pretty much any other band worshipped by "scenesters"

1) Can act as a modifier for a word or phrase, making it more severe.
2) When used alone, used to denote something noteworthy, like saying "awesome" or "rad".

A variety of punk rock originating in the US in the early '80s. It involves shouted vocals (as opposed to growled) with a fast, aggressive tempo and a guitar sound featuring quick chord changes. Minor Threat, Bad Brains, SSD, and the Circle Jerks are known for this style. By 1986, a new style of hardcore came out of the New York scene. The NYHC scene added mosh breakdowns to mix, but the music retained its fast aggressive nature. This spawned the youth crew scene, a positive straight edge scene featuring such bands as Youth of Today, Chain of Strength, and the Gorilla Biscuits. Judge is a notable band from this era that added some metal style to their riffs. In the 90s hardcore took many different direction, bands like Lifetime and Turning Point took the late '80s sound (particularly the melodic approach pioneered by the Gorilla Biscuits) and added a softer sung vocals and the lyrical approach of DC bands like the Rites of Spring and Dag Nasty. Other bands like Earth Crisis mixed hardcore with death metal growls and slow brutal guitars. Today many bands continue to play the early '80s fast, thrashy style as well as the so-called '88 or youth crew style, while still others have taken the sound of bands like Earth Crisis farther and mixed in more metal elements such as double bass drumming. Hardcore refers to all of these styles, though metalcore is best used to identify bands like Throwdown or Converge (who don't really sound anything alike but both mix metal and ha...

A genre of porn, usually involving both men and women, banging each other. Usually looks like a bunch of apes in mating season. A related offshoot of this is bukkake.

This title was based off the definition of hardcore as something that is intense or very strong.