Post-hardcore

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 that had established hardcore scenes, such as Fugazi from Washington, D.C. as well as groups such as Big Black, Jawbox, Quicksand, and Shellac that stuck closer to post-hardcore's noise rock roots.

Quotes about post-hardcore

• Rites Of Spring arguably kicked off the entire [post-hardcore] movement with their sole album. With the hardcore scene in their hometown of Washington DC flourishing but becoming increasingly thuggish, they stepped away and changed things up, keeping the breakneck punk pace but displaying their own vulnerability and fears in the lyrics and whipping in something the genre was sorely missing: proper tunes. [...] Just don’t call them emo – they hate the term.
  • Emma Johnston of Metal Hammer [1]

• To save hardcore, Fugazi had to destroy it and build something new from what scraps could still be salvaged. [...] 1990’s Repeater was the definitive moment when “post-hardcore” finally crystalized.
  • Pitchfork [2]

• Post-hardcore is a dense, sprawling subgenre that encompasses a constellation of bands, from those widely beloved to those arguably underrated, that exist outside of the traditional hardcore context. We can trace the sound and movement back to unparalleled groups such as the Minutemen and Fugazi, who built a sonic foundation on the aggressive and DIY nature of hardcore music, the scene from which they were born, but channeled that loud, heavy energy through noticeably more complex musical arrangements.
  • Anna Zanes of Alternative Press Magazine (June 14, 2023) [3]

• Already evolved from its origins yet not as crystalized as the 2000s wave in its sound, post-hardcore in the ’90s was a special kind of life form.
  • Giedre Matulaityte of Alternative Press Magazine (September 7, 2020) [4]

• Post-hardcore broke out as a movement in a huge way during the first decade of the 2000s while shaping how people view the genre today. Countless others had pioneered the genre throughout the ’80s and ’90s, but bands such as Glassjaw, At The Drive-In and Boysetsfire helped push it to new heights.
  • Alternative Press Magazine [5]