Genre Research

Genre spercific research is important to understand the conventions and requirements for our main production. To understand how the genre has developed its roots and why it acts the way it does is what this post will aim to achieve. Below I will look at the developments of the genre and some current popular artists within, seeing where they have come from to establish how the genre came about.

So what actually is post-hardcore?
According to various sources the definition for post-hardocre is as follows: Post-hardcore is a genre of music that developed from hardcore punk, itself an offshoot of the broader punk rock movement.

Tracking back bands such as 'Devil Wears Prada' and 'Killswitch Engage' I can see that many of the current post-hardcore bands originated at somepoint from the sub genre of heavy metal - 'metalcore'. Metalcore is a subgenre of heavy metal combining various elements of extreme metal and hardcore punk. The name is a portmanteau of the names of the two genres. The term took on its current meaning in the mid-1990s, describing bands such as Earth Crisis, Deadguy and Integrity. The earliest of these groups, Integrity, began performing in 1988. Contemporary practitioners of the genre include Killswitch Engage, Underoath, All That Remains, Trivium, As I Lay Dying, Bullet for My Valentine and The Devil Wears Prada.

The meaning of the term has diminished to a certain extent and its true genre meaning of the word 'hardcore' has weakened, the genre can spread to songs which at sometimes are borderline pop, with much more electronic instrumentals being accepted in the genre. Punk bands have often merged into this genre, such as Dead By April (a swedish metal band.)

As the term explains 'post'-hardcore derived from elements of hardcore music, and is hence softening in its real rock roots and riffs. Particularly with the wide range of music genres one song can fit into several genres, and the increasing in genres does not necessaarily produce a more specific classification of the form of music. For instance 'Dead By April' have been described as rock, metal, metalcore, post-hardcore and even breakcore.

Breakcore is a style of electronic music largely influenced by hardcore techno, drum and bass and Intelligent dance music. Its sound is largely characterized by a high-tempo, well-timed mingling of distorted kick drums (also known as "Gabber kicks"), break beats arranged from samples of the Amen break, and audio samples from a wide spectrum of sources (dialog from horror films, instrumental snippets from metal and Gangsta rap tracks are common). Musicians and DJs such as Drop the Lime, Christoph Fringeli and Dj Balli have said that breakcore is merely a catch-all term which encompasses a variety of distinct electronic music styles that are related through a scene culture and aesthetics, rather than sound.