New York Hardcore

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"NYHC" as a t-shirt motif

As New York Hardcore , often abbreviated to NYHC , refers to a brand of hardcore . There is a narrower and a broader interpretation of the term. In a narrower sense, it describes the hardcore scene that emerged from punk in the New York City area in the early 1980s and whose heyday lasted until the late 1980s. In a broader sense, the term is also used without any spatial connotation to emphasize a specific playing style of hardcore, which is derived from the musical style of Agnostic Front , Madball and Sick of It All .

history

The punk scene in New York was one of the earliest and most vibrant in the United States of America. Its origins go back to the New York Dolls in the early 1970s and reached its peak with the Ramones 1976–1980. With the Bad Brains , originally from Washington, DC , who moved here in 1979 , one of the pioneering bands of hardcore punk came to New York. By then, however, they had largely shed their hardcore roots.

The first original representatives of hardcore were founded around 1982 with the bands The Abused , Agnostic Front, Reagan Youth , The Mob and Urban Waste . The musical characteristics of the NYHC sound include a reference to the British Oi! and later, with Madball , Biohazard and Pro-Pain , among others , at the beginning of the 1990s a clear affinity for metal . Since there were only a few clubs in the early days of the hardcore scene that played fast, guitar-oriented music, bands of related styles appeared in these clubs (e.g. the well-known punk club CBGBs ) - metal -heavy bands like Sheer Terror or Leeway or bands like the Stimulators or Nausea that were attached to punk appeared together with classic hardcore bands, which meant that the New York hardcore scene was relatively heterogeneous in the early days.

The New York scene had a reputation for being violent, sexist and sometimes also racist. These allegations crystallized mainly from the lyrics of Agnostic Front's album Cause for Alarm , which came mainly from the pen of Billy Milano ( MOD ) and Peter Steele (then: Carnivore ) and contained clear attacks on "social parasites" and illegal immigrants. In addition, there was the militant appearance of the New York scene, who mostly dressed as skinheads .

Above all in the CBGBs, which was initially considered to be the point of contact for hardcore punks, violent clashes between rival gangs occurred again and again in the late 1980s . The club ended the weekly Sunday matinees that had taken place until then . These were then moved to the ABC No Rio community center. Above all, non- major label bands who did not propagate sexism , homophobia or racism in their texts were booked here , so that such conflicts could be avoided.

The original NYHC representatives form a large mass of similar sounding bands, including new groups such as Madball and Pro-Pain. In addition to Agnostic Front as a pioneer, Cause for Alarm , Cro-Mags and Sheer Terror should also be mentioned. These are also loosely connected to the metal formations Anthrax , SOD and MOD and the thrash metal band Nuclear Assault . In addition, there is a scene that is more likely to be assigned to the original hardcore scene with bands such as Reagan Youth , Gorilla Biscuits , Judge , Sick of It All , Youth of Today and SFA , who also share the straight-edge and " Do it yourself (DIY) " idea brought the scene. With Murphy's Law and H2O , some representatives of the melodic hardcore also come from the city.

Bands like Life of Agony , Biohazard , Prong and Shelter , who came from the New York scene and whose debut albums can still be assigned to hardcore, broke new musical paths . Life of Agony and Shelter moved more towards alternative rock , while Biohazard and Prong mainly focused on crossover .

The demarcation about the origin is now rather blurred and bands from the surrounding cities (for example New Jersey ) and sometimes further away are also included in the scene.

Important representatives

See also

New York Death Metal

literature

  • Matthias Mader: New York City Hardcore - The Way It Was ... IP Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-931624-10-1 .
  • Tony Rettman: New York Hardcore 1980-1990 . 2nd Edition. Bazillion Points, New York 2015, ISBN 978-1-935950-12-7 .

Sampler

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Mader, Matthias: New York City Hardcore. The Way It Was ..., p. 6
  2. ^ Mader, Matthias: New York City Hardcore. The Way It Was ... , p. 42

Web links