Preface for Reddit: I wrote this paper two years ago for a college English class.

I have blacked out the names of the bands that I used in the essay because one of the things I hate the most about this subreddit is when people argue over what bands belong in what genre and what genres are better than others. I just dont want this to turn into a battleground over specific artists. Also, I dug this paper out of the depths of my hard drive for your reading pleasure, so constructive criticism is not requested, but always welcome. Enjoy. My Escape How can you listen to that shit? I hear that question a lot from my friends. The real names of the genres I often listen to (that my friends call shit) are post-hardcore rock and related genres like hardcore punk, emo, and metalcore. Many people find these genres difficult, if not impossible, to listen to. It could be the dark, minor tonality blasting from the heavily distorted guitars. It could be the relentless double-bass-pedals slamming low frequencies into their eardrums. It could be the dark, depressing lyrical themes of the music. Or it could be the screaming. In fact, it most likely is the screaming. We dont typically think of a scream as something that is exactly pleasant, and we almost always assume that the people emitting them are unhappy about something. And we do typically enjoy listening to music that we find pleasant. Consequently, it doesnt make a lot of sense to include unpleasant things, like screaming and dark lyrical themes, in music. While pondering the fact that I spend immeasurable hours listening to this music, it becomes a little unsettling to think about what my interest in the music says about my personality. Obviously, a large part of my attraction to the music is that I find it sonically pleasing. No matter how much of an intellectual attraction one has to the idea of a certain genre, it is impossible to truly enjoy it unless its acoustic characteristics stimulate ones pleasure receptors. But my relationship with post-hardcore music began as an intellectual one. I was certainly predisposed to find the genre musically appealing, as I was already a fan of a multitude of hard rock and some metal music. But what about this unconventional music made me buy that first album, If Only You Were Lonely by Hawthorne Heights, which started my accelerating spiral into the world of post-hardcore music? Upon first glance, the answer to that question looks as if it might be a frightening one. Superficially, post-hardcore music seems to be a genre not to be taken lightly. With band names like Bury Your Dead, Senses Fail, and Dead Poetic, and lyrical themes of loss, suicide, defeat and death, the genre can certainly raise an eyebrow or two. If taken literally, the lyrics of hardcore music could be seen as dangerous, threatening, and unhealthy for the ears of adolescents. Numerous lawsuits have been filed against greatly successful heavy metal bands like Judas Priest and Slayer, claiming that their lyrics are all of those things. But I have yet to hear of a case that wasnt dismissed by the judge or ruled in the artists favor. Regardless, all of these characteristics of the music appear to suggest some questionable things about the artists that compose it and the fans that enjoy it. So how seriously should we take hardcore rock artists music? According to Gene Simmons, not very. Simmons is the lead singer and bassist of the immensely successful and enduring American rock band Kiss. Although heavy

metal, the genre that Kiss revolutionized and sold more albums in than any other artist, is musically quite different from post-hardcore, the two are certainly related. They are both significantly less popular than mainstream rock and pop (although metal is more popular than post-hardcore), both fall under the category of hard rock, and both can have similar lyrical and visual themes. Heavy metal icons like Ozzy Osbourne (who used to bite the heads off of bats at his live shows) and Simmons (who used to spit blood at the crowd at Kiss live shows) are known for their dark lyrics, evil themes, and hints of devil worshipping. When asked about his blood-spitting ritual in a famous interview, Simmons responded, But what does it all mean? Nothing! It means for two hours were gonna make you forget about the traffic jam and the fact that your girlfriend is whining or whatever else is going on in your life, and for two hours we give you escapism. Thats what it means. Osbourne was also quoted saying that most of his wild antics and lyrics were more for entertainment and shock value than anything else. So here we have arguably the two most successful and famous metal rockers in history telling us that all their questionable behavior is simply for entertainment. And if Gene Simmons and Ozzy Osbourne arent qualified spokespersons for heavy metal and the genres that sprouted from it, I dont know who is. I suppose all this should make me feel better about the fact that I enjoy such sinister music; hopefully it means Im not a closet devil-worshipper who secretly wants to eat bats and spit the blood back out at my friends. It means Im not depressed or suicidal or insane or bloodthirsty or whatever emotions the music I am listening to at the moment happens to be screaming about. So if I dont listen to it because I can relate to what the performers are telling me or because I am making deep emotional connections to the music, why do I listen to it? There is, of course, the obvious reason why anyone listens to any type of music: I find it acoustically attractive. All of our brains are wired in different ways that cause us to enjoy different foods, colors, smells, people, movies, books, and of course, music. And I was certainly predisposed to have an acoustic attraction to the music since I was already an avid listener of hard rock and some metal bands. But what lies beneath the surface? There must be something about the genre as a whole, the countless bands that play its music, and other related sub-genres that I find appealing beyond the music and made me buy that first album. After listening to a few of my favorite post-hardcore recordssome death growls from As I Lay Dying, a few electric guitar breakdowns from A Day to Remember, and a depressing story of insanity upon the death of a lover from Alesanas concept albumI was enlightened: freedom. Complete, unconditional freedom. Thats what sparked my attraction to the music. Six years ago, if I heard a lot of the music I listen to today, I would probably say the same thing my friends do now: How can you listen to this shit? But during high school, I started listening to more and more hardcore music. I started with the more mainstream stuff the pop-punk bands that pop radio stations will call punk and rock stations will call pop. Then I slowly started listening to harder and harder music; before I knew it, I was a post-hardcore rock junkie. During those years, I was in a stage in which I felt my life was constraining and repetitive. That is not to say that I was depressed; I was far from it. I definitely enjoyed my high school years, but sometimes it just felt like

everyday was the same as the last, and I would be stuck at Londonderry High School for the rest of my life. I couldnt wait for each summer to come. I couldnt wait to go to college. I wanted a change so badly that I needed to take a plane to get to four of the six colleges I applied to. At that point in my life, more than any other time before it, I needed a sense of freedom. I needed something that made me feel like I had the choice to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted to do it, and people would accept me for the way I was. Thats exactly what post-hardcore music provided for me. Post-hardcore gave me this sense of freedom in a variety of ways. Perhaps the most obvious form of freedom in the music can be found in its composition. All types of hardcore music are unique from any other genre in that the artists can do anything in the form of music, record it, make it available to the public, and someone (not necessarily I) will find it entertaining. Literally anything. Youd be amazed to hear some of the music from bands that not only exist, but actually sell records. A sub-(sub-sub-)genre called nintendocore involves bands composing music from 8-bit video game sound cards (like the one found in Nintendo Entertainment System released in 1985) and combining it with other characteristics of heavy metal music. Another genre called crunkcore, a combination of rap and hip hop beats with screamed hardcore lyrics, was dubbed by the United Kingdom rock music magazine Kerrang! as, possibly the worst genre of music ever created. But crunkcore bands like BrokeNCYDE, I Set my Friends on Fire, and Attack Attack! manage to sell enough records and concert tickets to be successful bands. Some of the lighter bands that could still be placed under crunkcore, like 3OH!3 and Breathe Carolina, have even found some mainstream success. And, of course, this freedom allows artists to write songs about all those previously mentioned topics that are a bit questionable: death, depression, addiction, suicide, loss, defeat. But the genre allows, encourages even, the expression of any and every emotion that an artist wants to sing (or scream) about. Some may ask, but doesnt all music provide a feeling of freedom in a way? Yes and no. We obviously have the freedom to choose the type of music that we want to listen to (when we are old enough to buy records with the parental advisory: explicit content sticker, that is). But some types of music provide anything but freedom. Take, for example, the genre of pop: an abbreviation for popular music. The name of the genre is based off of the word popular, defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as commonly liked or approved. The very definition of the genre sets strict guidelines for the musicians that are seeking the title of pop artist. Any deviation from what the record companies or radio stations deem to be popular will result in a catastrophic, and perhaps unrecoverable, blow to a pop artists career. Can you imagine what would happen to Justin Timberlakes career if he screamed the lyrics to every song with supporting electric guitars and heavy drums on his next album? He might get some new fans from the punk crowd, but he would undoubtedly never get another song on a pop radio station and would probably lose his record contract. Pretty far from absolute, unconditional freedom. The same could be said for concert scenes of other genres. While attending a Justin Timberlake concert, your options of what you can do without drawing attention to yourself are probably pretty slim. You could sing, be quiet, dance, or stand still. But if you tried doing many of the things that might be seen at a posthardcore concert, youd probably get some pretty confused looks from other people.

A completely normal response to this point may be that post-hardcore musicians too are constrained by certain musical characteristics in order to be considered part of the genre. But that is not entirely true. Elements of countless other genres appear regularly throughout post-hardcore music. Many artists are known for writing ballads, songs of slow tempos commonly featuring a piano, string instruments, or acoustic guitars to add some variety to their albums. Some bands alternate heavy, distorted breakdowns in their songs with poppy, up-tempo choruses featuring clean vocals that would not be out of place on Billy Costas top thirty countdown. Autotune, a voice-altering program that now litters the hip-hop and pop scenes, has also worked its way into many hardcore artists repertoires. Fearless Records, a prominent record label on the hardcore music scene, has even released seven compilations of punk and hardcore artists performing famous classic rock, metal, 80s, 90s, pop and rap songs, much to the delight of punk music fans. Although the idea of the artists I listen to having total freedom in the composition of their music is appealing, it is even more personal than that. I have been to more than my fair share of post-hardcore concerts, and Ill be the first to tell you: they are quite the experience. Post-hardcore and heavy metal concerts are unlike any other place in the world. I always tell my friends that I think everyone should at least see such a concert first-hand, if not attend one in its entirety, because it is such a unique environment. But its more than what you may have already heard about them: the mosh pits, the crowd surfing, the band going crazy on the stage. Hardcore concerts are unlike any other place on Earth because you can do literally anything and you will not be out of place. You have complete, unconditional freedom. Nothing you could possibly do, short of some major felonies, would be frowned upon by the people around you. You could sing, scream, get in a mosh pit, vomit, cry, crowd surf, jump on top of people, get in a fight, do drugs, take your clothes off, or just stand back and watch, and youd be fitting right in (until you get to the periphery of the crowd where security may tell you otherwise). Despite the fact that I cant quite say I can relate to the people at the concerts who live for the violence of the mosh pits and have sleeves of tattoos and gauged earlobes, I can unquestionably appreciate the environment that they and the artists that we all love to listen to create. The environment that accepts people for exactly the way they are and for anything that they want to do. That acceptance is what makes the music appealing. Beneath the surface of the specific sounds that the music creates, it is the sense of complete freedom to do anything and be myself and to be accepted that draws me into the heavy, unique, and unconstrained styles of the genre. All this talk about post-hardcore rock being unrestrained and providing freedom to its listeners raises an important point. Certainly not everyone that listens to this genre will experience the same feeling of freedom as I do. And, without a doubt, other people are sure to feel a sense of freedom with many other genres of music. On the other hand, some people may not feel freedom in listening to any type of music, and others may feel free listening to every type of music. So how is it that I have arrived at this captivating relationship with post-hardcore music? People are judged in this world. No matter how much we hate it, we are judged by the way we look, the jobs and education we have, the clothes we wear, the things we do, the cars we drive, and the things we say. Of course, the people that care about us and

know us best dont judge us simply by those things because they have learned who we really are. But out there, in the public world, it cant be avoided. Everyday, hundreds if not thousandsof people that have never seen me before (and probably never will again) look at me, and I cant help but wonder what they see. Whether we are consciously aware of it or not, this constant critique that we undergo by strangers, evaluating how we compare to the mainstream of society, takes a toll on us. We all need an escape. An escape from this judgment, this criticism, this idea of the mainstream. We need unconventional avenues to express ourselves; unordinary ways to relieve ourselves from the eyes of society and release our inner selves. For me, music is that avenue. Post-hardcore rock provides, just as Gene Simmons said, an escape from society, a space for me express myself, free from the constraints of the mainstream. I can listen to any type of music I want, and nobody can stop me. I could compose, if I so desired, any kind of sound I wanted, and somebody might find it appealing. And the most concrete example of this escapism is in the concerts I attend. It is the space in which I can truly do anything and not be judged by the people around me. It is the ability to escape the mainstream. It is the way I choose to exercise my complete, unconditional freedom. Such an exit from society can take place in myriad ways for different people. For some, it may be doing a peculiar or mysterious activity, or in writing about anything they want, or in getting as far away from civilization as possible, or in satisfying a sexual fetish. But for me, it is in post-hardcore rock. I was predisposed to use the genre and concerts as my alternative avenue of expression, as I already loved music and concerts in general, especially hard rock and metal. Thousands of other people like me chose the same avenue of escape from the mainstream: my concert-mates. Non-mainstream forms of expression: it is what we all yearn for, consciously or not, when we need to avoid the pressures of society. When I needed that escape the most, in those high school years that seemed to drag on for decades, I seized it and never looked back. And now I can scream lyrics at the top of my lungs at an Escape the Fate concert, knowing I will be accepted by the people I share my non-mainstream avenue of expression and escapism with: so grab this statement, and read between the lines, Im walking on an edge, thats how I stay alive.