Tristan_Geoff

American Hardcore (2007 Documentary Film)

I felt like it was only appropriate in a journal regarding post-hardcore to show my views on the original movement, and having watched this movie recently I feel it's a good place to start.

Punk, after it's mid 70's debut, had gone under a lot of changes by the 80's. Punk was being recognized by the public, through Ramones success and The Clash' experimental releases. Post-punk, while very artistic and envelope-pushing, just didn't bring punk fans the energy they strived for in the original movement. Three anerican bands rose up in 1979 to change that forever, putting the energy back in punk and changing the landscape forever. These three groups, Middle Class, Black Flag, and Bad Brains, are not only some of the most influentual bands in punk, but in music as a whole. Without them, there would be no Beastie Boys, Nirvana, Slint, Chili Peppers, Melvins, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, etc.

The ideals shown in this film reflect most punk's then and today. Social ideals didn't need to be followed to a tee, music didn't have to be safe or formulaic, fashion doesn't matter, rules don't matter, and life doesn't matter. These people chose what they were going to do with their lives and did it. They wanted to play a show? They set up and performed wherever they pleased. They set up their own tours and wrote their own songs. They made their own labels and built the packages by hand to distribute. It was the ultimate display of DIY.

The last statements of the film reported that punk was dead. How? After all they did and believed, how could they say that what they worked for had not been continued or gone unnoticed? Just as their formula was getting old, Rites of Spring, Saccharine Trust, and Husker Du realized that they couldn't go on making loud, 1 minute songs. They needed a new way to be artistic, and did this by creating their own formula.

One of my favorite things about post-hardcore is that there isn't any characteristics or formulas. Each band was influenced by hardcore punk, and that's it. It's barely even a genre in that sense, even more so than post-punk which at least has atmosphere in common from a band to another.

The hardcore movement certainly lives on today through a number of bands, but as the mid 90's came up it was clear that post-hardcore had systematically replaced it...



My first review will be the origins of it all, Saccharine Trust's Pæganicons

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