So, I have to admit that I'm kind of a sucker for genre categorization. A fair amount of the bands I enjoy on a regular basis can probably be pigeonholed into genres like post-punk, math rock, post-rock, so on and so forth... and then there's Post-Hardcore.
If you take a look at the
Wikipedia talk page for the genre's article (full disclosure: I edit this article quite a bit), there are about ten shitloads of debate about what the genre entails, and a fair amount of people claim that stuff like Scary Kids Scaring Kids, Saosin, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Underoath, and varied other really bad bands are part of the genre. My general problem with putting those bands under this genre is that there is virtually no influence from the older bands to the supposed newer ones. I guess what I'm trying to say is that there is no way to put any kind of logical lineage between, say
Fugazi and
these cocks. (Note to Alesana: The Icarus Line called, they want their black shirts and red ties back.) Of course, the problem is that the definition of the genre itself:
Post-hardcore is typically characterized by its precise rhythms and loud guitar-based instrumentation accompanied by a combination of clean vocals and screams. Allmusic states, "These newer bands, termed post-hardcore, often found complex and dynamic ways of blowing off steam that generally went outside the strict hardcore realm of 'loud fast rules.' ... Additionally, many of these bands' vocalists were just as likely to deliver their lyrics with a whispered croon as they were a maniacal yelp."[2] The genre has developed a balance of dissonance and melody, in part channeling the loud and fast hardcore ethos into more measured, subtle forms of tension and release. Jeff Terich of Treblezine states, "Instead of sticking to [hardcore's] rigid constraints, these artists expanded beyond power chords and gang vocals, incorporating more creative outlets for punk rock energy."[4]
can be used to describe bands like Fugazi
and bands like Alesana.
Even bands like Franz Ferdinand and Interpol, whatever your opinions of them, can at least point back to post-punk bands like Josef K, Gang of Four, Echo and the Bunnymen et al as influences and reference points (regardless of how well you think those influences are articulated in their music). I highly doubt that anyone in Alesana has a Fugazi album, and if they did, they were probably snorting coke off of it.
So: am I being insanely pretentious about something as completely vague as a fucking
genre of music, or am I justified in claiming that people have no basis in categorizing newer so-called "post-hardcore" bands in that genre? Let's talk, people, because I am all different kinds of confused when it comes to this goddamned genre.
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Topic: Post-Hardcore, or An Exercise in Genre Nebulousness (Read 4741 times)