Don't be an asshole

I sometimes think back on the paths I took to get certain places in life. My interest in underground music is often something I reflect on, because I spend so much time consuming and engaging with it. I got in that headspace this week combing through emo albums for my Rolling Stone listicle listen.

I got to the Jazz June record The Medicine and had an overwhelming feeling I’d heard some of the songs before. It turns out a couple of those tracks were featured on an old Xbox snowboarding game I spent a ton of time with as a kid called Amped. When I say kid, I mean a middle school aged child.

Looking into it further, the game’s soundtrack is actually pretty sick. It’s got tons of old emo and hardcore songs, including stuff from The Get Up Kids, Ink and Dagger, Elliott, Earth Crisis, Nerve Agents, and more.

I hated that shit at age 12. Xbox used to let you download CDs and then import those songs into certain games. I swapped the Amped soundtrack for my sweet playlist of Sum 41 and Red Hot Chilli Peppers tunes the moment I figured out how. I did the same thing with Tony Hawk Underground 2. I remember distinctly going into the “radio” section of that game and turning off all the songs tagged “punk”. I must have turned them back on at some point because I certainly remember rockin’ out to Melvins and Rancid tracks while doing triple hard flips in Barcelona. Still, I find it eternally funny that my gut reaction to hearing so much of the stuff I love now at a young, impressionable age (when you’re supposed to get into these things) was to say “this sucks” and turn it off.

I wish I was more open minded back then. It’s hard to think what might have been different if I discovered The Get Up Kids at age 13 instead of in my mid 20s. I have imposter syndrome because I spent the 2010s playing catch-up, and even now, though I’ve been listening to this shit as long as most people I know, I feel like I’m doing a put-on. Walking through the gate at age 17 with your new group of weird little friends just hits different than trying to kick the gate open in your 20s while a bunch of heavily tattooed kids in athleisure stare at you like “who the fuck is this guy?”

I’m not complaining about it. I would have given up a long time ago if I didn’t enjoy or at least appreciate the grind. I just lament denying myself access to so many cool things for a long time. I also wish it was a bit easier for me, and that access to certain things wasn’t predicated on social status or perceived legitimacy.

Hardcore’s growth is getting to a point where people I know from civilian life are taking an interest in the genre. The one complaint I’ve heard from lots of them is how nuanced and impenetrable the scene is. No Pressure is hardcore, not pop punk, but Fall Out Boy isn’t “real punk” and doesn’t deserve scene cred. This is all very confusing to normal people, who basically can’t discern the difference.

Normies aren’t looking to come join a super-secret Skull and Bones Society level club where up is down and left is right and you need to know five Agnostic Front songs before you can wear their t-shirt. They want to go where people are nice and accepting and everyone helps them have a good time.

I feel the hardcore scene is that place when you get down to it, but it took me ten years to crack the nut. Which is fine. “Hardcore is for anyone but it’s not for everyone”, as the saying goes. It’s always been like that and it probably won’t change. But why?

I’m not posing a rhetorical or existential question here. I genuinely want to know why, in 2023, people feel the need to protect hardcore like it’s a state secret. We’re in the era of Taco Bell, Seth Myers and Monster Energy Drink. People want bands to get rich playing Blink-182 tours but don’t want the average Blink-182 fan to like their favourite bands. It doesn’t make any fucking sense.

What’s so sacred about this shit? Nobody takes a stance on anything. Bands, by and large, don’t express any opinion further than “fuck cops”, “I like my friends” or “you aren’t moshing hard enough”. When’s the last time you saw political literature at a show? When’s the last time you saw someone punch a nazi or a rapist? When’s the last time your favourite band posted something to Instagram that wasn’t a flier or a live shot?

Again, I’m not complaining. Okay, maybe I am, but I still love hardcore. I go to shows constantly. I write about what inspires me. I spend way too much of my precious time worried about trivial shit like this, because being involved in hardcore has made my life better in every conceivable way. I still don’t know what the big fucking secret we have to keep from the rest of the world is.

The only thing I can pinpoint is that people want to commit violence against strangers with impunity. I get how fun that can be, but if it’s the only thing you stand for, you’re wack as hell. People will say “if Turnstile on Seth Myers got one 14-year-old into hardcore it was worth it”, then punch that 14-year-old in the head at a show and say “well if he didn’t want that he shouldn’t be here”.

Trying to exclude someone from something with no principle behind your action isn’t noble, it’s bullying. Being a bully is cool until you turn 14 and realize nobody actually likes you. They just use you to access whatever you’re willing to smugly give them with the airs that you’re doing them a big favour by letting them into your super secret club.

I’m reminded as I write this that, although contrarianism and dickheadedness run deep within our ranks, most people you meet at hardcore shows are cool, fun, friendly and interesting. Many of us developed deep principles from DIY ethics in our formative years. Many of us go out of our way to welcome newcomers and make people feel comfortable. The percentage of hardcore kids who are true shitheads is small, but they’re a vocal minority and sometimes we let them speak for all of us. Sometimes we let them off the hook because of what bands they’re in or who their friends are.

I guess I’m just confused about why “gatekeeping is necessary and important” if giving bands shit for playing Coachella makes someone a “jealous hater”. What are we gatekeeping? The ability to hit people? That’s fucking stupid.

I always thought this was a weird, idiosyncratic place with strong opinions about musical integrity, and that fact kept the average person disinterested. Some of us seem to think the only special thing about hardcore is how we can enact violence on smaller people and not have to worry about consequences because our friends will fight for us.

I think we need to get those people the fuck out of here. I would rather have 100 normie lames two-stepping badly than one asshole bully taking inappropriate swings at unsuspecting concertgoers.

My opinion doesn’t matter though. People are gonna act how they want. I’ll be here to weather the storm and watch the scene suffer the consequences. But if you’re in a band who wants to eat free Taco Bell and break even on tour, it might be a good idea to have a sit down convo with some of the homies.

That shit’s not good for anyone.