[Ads-l] "hardcore" (punk subgenre)

[Ben Zimmer]

Here are examples of the noun "hardcore" referring to the punk subgenre,
appearing in zines later in 1980:

---
Final Solution, June 1980, p. 3, col. 2
Al Flipside (Al Kowalewski), "LA in the 80s"
Punk in L.A. started in Hollywood at the small Masque, now closed, but the
bands go on. Not necessarily to catorize [sic] but to make things easier to
talk about in their natural divisions, I will break the punk bands down
into "Hard Core", "Fringe", and for geographys sake "Surf Punks."
https://archive.org/details/final_solution_7/page/n3/mode/2up
---
Damage, Sept/Oct 1980, p. 26, col. 4
Brendan Mullen, "L.A."
Bands appearing are the Boneheads, Phranc, Castration Squad (who somehow
bridge the gap between "art” and "hardcore").
https://archive.org/details/damage_circulation_zero/page/n345/mode/2up
---

Another early sense of the noun collectively referred to hardcore punk fans
(or their subculture) as "the hardcore":

---
Slash, Nov. 1979, p. 8, col. 1 (Proquest)
Caitlin, "San Francisco"
Meanwhile the "New Wave Au Go Go" shows at the Geary continue on the most
part to star punk bands, the Dear Club and Loma Linda habitues still veer
sharply towards the hardcore, and the Mabuhay still attracts the curious
and the brave.
---
Slash, Nov. 1979, p. 17, col. 2 (Proquest)
"D.O.A. from Vancouver" (interview)
Slash: Where d'you think the hardcore music is going? D'you think it'll
eventually be accepted or is it just going to stay on the fringe the way it
is now?
Joey: Audiences are growing, the hardcore isn't really... it is but not
nearly as fast as the general audience.
---
Damage, May 1980, p. 26, col. 2
L Annex, "Mutants"
Some of the hard core punk kids sneer, "Art band," when they hear the
Mutants mentioned. The hard core is just about non-existent now though
(either dead or strung out somewhere), so that particular criticism isn't
heard so much anymore.
https://archive.org/details/damage_circulation_zero/page/n217/mode/2up
---
Damage, Aug. 1980, p. 37, p. 3, col. 1
Brendan Mullen, "Local News: Los Angeles"
This band [sc. Black Flag] must continue. The hardcore must continue. [...]
Now he's courting and wooing the hardcore to the extreme extent of booking
the Germs when nobody else in town will touch them.
https://archive.org/details/damage_circulation_zero/page/n313/mode/2up
---
Damage, Sept./Oct. 1980, p. 26, col. 4
Brendan Mullen, "L.A."
Black Flag, a personal favorite among the "hardcore," now has an official
new vocalist.
https://archive.org/details/damage_circulation_zero/page/n345/mode/2up
---
Damage, Dec. 1980, p. 33, col. 5
Brendan Mullen, "L.A."
He cited "the worst night in the history of the club" and "too much heat"
as the reason, and that in my case my name and background were tied into
the hardcore too much, too many ties with the "element."
https://archive.org/details/damage_circulation_zero/page/n477/mode/2up
---
The Face, Jan. 1981, p. 28, col. 1
Deanne Pearson, "Dead Kennedys: Punk Rot Is Here To Stay"
The hardcore, performing rituals which could have been time-warped straight
out of a 1976 Sex Pistols gig, don't hear and don't care, and the band
onstage, the Dead Kennedys from San Francisco, are with them all the way.
https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/dead-kennedys-punk-rot-is-here-to-stay
https://x.com/nothingelseon/status/1222430474561183745
---

"Hardcore" could also be used as a count noun for a fan of hardcore punk:

---
Washington Post, July 19, 1981, p. G1, col. 4 (ProQuest)
Richard Harrington, "Slam Dancing in the Big City"
In the pit right before the stage, the hard-cores, the razor-shaved
muscleheads, perform their contact ritual with abandon. [...] When several
local hard-cores went up to a Black Flag show in Philadelphia a week ago,
they were met by "outsiders" with baseball bats; many kids were seriously
hurt. [...] Most club owners don't agree with them; only the 9:30 Club lets
the hard-cores play on a fairly regular basis. [...] That's the prerogative
of the outsider and exactly what the hard-cores expect.
---

--bgz

On Wed, Sep 24, 2025 at 7:57 PM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:

> The OED3 entry for "hardcore" (June 2015 revision) has this as noun sense
> 4:
>
> ---
> Originally North American. Any of various forms of popular music (often a
> variety of an established genre) regarded as particularly uncompromising,
> extreme, aggressive, or experimental; (in early use chiefly) a particularly
> fast and harsh form of punk.
> ---
>
> The earliest example given is from a 1978 article referring to "Jamaican
> hard-core" in the context of reggae, not punk music, and the first
> punk-related cite is from 1984. Here's an early cite for the punk subgenre,
> in an article about bands from Vancouver.
>
> ---
> Calgary Albertan, Feb. 24, 1980, p. 31, col. 1
> James Muretich, "Riding the Crest of New Wave"
> Over the years the punk/new wave scene has evolved three main styles which
> encompass nearly every band playing: hard-core, pop and art punk.
>
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-calgary-albertan-hard-core-punk/181713213/
> ---
>
> While that usage might be construed as an adjective modifying "punk," it's
> followed by a subhed with "Hard-Core" on its own, so I think that supports
> reading it as a noun. The article goes on to describe bands like D.O.A.
> ("the local kingpins, being mainly responsible for waking the city from its
> musical slumber with music like an armed assault") and the Subhumans
> ("another one of the early hard-core, politically oriented bands").
>
> D.O.A. would go on to title an album "Hardcore '81" (released in April
> 1981), which the writer Steven Blush credits with kicking off the genre
> label, though it was clearly percolating in the Vancouver scene for more
> than a year before that.
>
>
> https://web.archive.org/web/20170809212902/http://greenroom-radio.com/2016/03/02/what-is-hardcore/
> cited by Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardcore_punk
>
> --bgz
>

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