[20] In 2002, during an interview with Nardwuar, Dead Kennedys singer Jello Biafra was asked what he believed to be the first hardcore record, he remarked: "Sound Of Imker Train of Doomsday single in the late '60s in Holland.

Moshing works as a vehicle for expressing anger by "represent[ing] a way of playing at violence or roughness that allowed participants to mark their difference from the banal niceties of middle-class culture".

[41][42] Many North American hardcore punk fans adopted a dressed-down style of T-shirts, jeans or work chinos, combat boots or sneakers, and crew cut-style haircuts.

[47] Tiffini A. Travis and Perry Hardy describe the look that was common in the San Francisco hardcore scene as consisting of biker-style leather jackets, chains, studded wristbands, multiple piercings, painted or tattooed statements (e.g., an anarchy symbol) and hairstyles ranging from military-style haircuts dyed black or blonde to mohawks and shaved heads.

[51][52] Music writer Barney Hoskyns attributed hardcore being younger, faster and angrier than punk rock, to adolescents who were sick of their life in a "bland Republican" America.

[53] Hardcore punk lyrics often express antiestablishment, antimilitarist, antiauthoritarian, antiviolence, and pro-environmentalist sentiments, in addition to other typically left-wing, anarchist, or egalitarian political views.

[57] Certain hardcore punk bands have conveyed messages sometimes deemed "politically incorrect" by placing offensive content in their lyrics and relying on stage antics to shock listeners and people in their audience.

[62][63] A minority of hardcore musicians have expressed right-wing views, such as the band Antiseen, whose guitarist Joe Young ran for public office as a North Carolina Libertarian.

Black musicians include Bad Brains, Fred "Freak" Smith of Beefeater,[69] Dead Kennedys drummer D.H. Peligro, and Scream bassist Skeeter Thompson.

[70] Numerous Black and Latino members have been in the band Suicidal Tendencies, including Mike Muir, Rocky George, R.J. Herrera, Louiche Mayorga, Robert Trujillo, Thundercat, Dean Pleasants, Ra Díaz, Dave Lombardo, Eric Moore, Tim "Rawbiz" Williams, David Hidalgo Jr., and Ronald Bruner Jr.[71][72][73][74][75] Other Latinos in early hardcore bands include Black Flag members Ron Reyes, Dez Cadena, Robo, and Anthony Martinez,[76][77] Agnostic Front singer Roger Miret, his brother Madball singer Freddy Cricien, Adolescents guitarist Steve Soto, and Wasted Youth drummer Joey Castillo.

[102] Kelefa Sanneh states that the term "hardcore" referred to an attitude of "turning inwards" towards the scene and "ignoring broader society", all with the goal of achieving a sense of "shared purpose" and being part of a community.

[108] From Hollywood, two other bands playing hardcore punk, Fear and the Germs, were featured with Black Flag and the Circle Jerks in Penelope Spheeris' 1981 documentary The Decline of Western Civilization.

[124] Additionally, during this time, seminal Texas-based bands Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, the Dicks, MDC, Rhythm Pigs, and Verbal Abuse all relocated to San Francisco.

Initially formed in 1977 as a jazz fusion ensemble called Mind Power, and consisting of all African-American members, their early foray into hardcore featured some of the fastest tempos in rock music.

[146] Early radio support in New York's surrounding Tri-State area came from Pat Duncan, who had hosted live punk and hardcore bands weekly on WFMU since 1979.

Bands associated with the movement, such as Rites of Spring, Embrace, and Dag Nasty, are notable for having inspired the emotional hardcore and the original emo genre of the late 1980s and 1990s.

[186] In the late 1980s, a more militant subculture of straight edge called hardline emerged through members of the anarcho punk scene and embraced veganism and radical environmentalism.

[209][210] Additionally, at this time, Youth of Today's Ray Cappo formed Better Than a Thousand with Ken Olden and Graham Land of early 1990s straight edge band Battery, creating a sound, too, harkening back to this era.

The movement placed emphasis on the fashion style of the musicians and saw many in hardcore begin to wear skinny jeans, collared shirts and white belts and adopting dyed, straightened and swooping fringed hairstyles.

[221] CMJ writer Anthony Delia also credited Florida's Poison the Well and their first two releases The Opposite of December... A Season of Separation (1999) and Tear from the Red (2002) as "design[ing] the template for most of" the melodic metalcore bands to come.

As a reaction against the homogeneity and simplicity that scene had developed, Ten Yard Fight guitarist Tim Cossar and the band's roadie Wesley Eisold formed American Nightmare.

[209][224] American Nightmare's influence was apparent promptly in their home of Boston,[223] then expanded nationally with the release of their 2001 debut album Background Music,[209] being followed by a wave bands including Ceremony, Ruiner, Modern Life Is War, the Hope Conspiracy and Killing the Dream.

[259] Bands associated with the movement include Arms Race,[260][259] Violent Reaction,[261] Big Cheese,[262] Higher Power, Perspex Flesh, Mob Rules, the Flex and Blind Authority.

[278][279] During this period, a number of hardcore releases gained attention from the media and online that surpassed the genre's usual scope, namely Code Orange's Underneath (2020), Higher Power's 27 Miles Underwater (2021) and Turnstile's Glow On (2021).

The Financial Times named London's Chubby and the Gang and Detroit's the Armed as two of the most commercially successful groups of this wave,[294] while Spin magazine cited Militarie Gun, High Vis and Scowl as bands "help[ing] to breathe life back into both" alternative rock and hardcore.

The Washington state band Melvins, aside from their influence on grunge, helped create what would be known as sludge metal, which is also a combination between Black Sabbath-style music and hardcore punk.

Robbie Mackey of Pitchfork Media described D-beat as "hardcore drumming set against breakneck riffage and unintelligible howls about anarchy, working-stiffs-as-rats, and banding together to, you know, fight.

Guy Picciotto formed Rites of Spring in 1984, breaking free of hardcore's self-imposed boundaries in favor of melodic guitars, varied rhythms, and deeply personal, impassioned lyrics dealing with nostalgia, romantic bitterness, and poetic desperation.

[325] Grindcore also features blast beats;[326] according to Adam MacGregor of Dusted, "the blast-beat generally comprises a repeated, sixteenth-note figure played at a very fast tempo, and divided uniformly among the kick drum, snare and ride, crash, or hi-hat cymbal.

[334] In the mid-1980s, bands such as Melvins, Flipper and Green River developed a sludgy, "aggressive sound that melded the slower tempos of heavy metal with the intensity of hardcore," creating an alternative rock subgenre known as grunge.