Washington, D.C., hardcore, commonly referred to as D.C. hardcore, sometimes styled in writing as harDCore, is the hardcore punk scene of Washington, D.C. Emerging in late 1979, it is considered one of the first and most influential punk in the United States.
History
Punk in Washington, D.C., found its origins in the district's former centers of 1960s counterculture. Georgetown University became a key location due to its heavy student population and student radio station, WGTB. The station was run under little supervision from the university administration, and therefore became a voice in the early 1970s for cultural radicalism that had faded since the end of the 1960s. Dupont Circle, becoming more known for its diverse and LGBT-inclusive community, also became important, as well as socially-restless Adams Morgan.
Washington, D.C., first saw touring punk bands such as the Ramones in 1976. D.C.'s punk that year with groups like the Slickee Boys and Overkill, who were soon joined by the Look, the Controls, the Razz , White Boy, Urban Verbs, the Shirkers, the Penetrators, Tru Fax and the Insaniacs, and others. Limp Records, run by record producer and record store owner Skip Groff, released several of the earliest D.C. punk singles, as well as the compilation, :30 Over Washington, all of which helped lay the foundation for the larger scene to come. Also crucial to the scene was the founding of Inner Ear Studios by recording engineer Don Zientara. The studio would soon produce records for both the Look and Urban Verbs.
The Atlantis, located in the rear room of the Atlantic Building's ground floor at 930 F Street NW, was a short-lived venue, but was significant in the development of the punk scene. The first D.C. venue to host primarily punk and new wave bands, the Atlantis' first punk concert featured the Slickee Boys, Urban Verbs, and White Boy on January 27, 1978. By early 1979, the Atlantis had closed, but the space would reopen under new ownership on May 31, 1980, as the Nightclub 9:30—soon known as 9:30 Club—and serve as an important part of the D.C. punk scene's foundation.
Among the earliest Washington, D.C., punk bands formed in the early 1980s were Iron Cross, the Velvet Monkeys, Bad Brains, the Teen Idles, the Untouchables, Minor Threat, S.O.A. (fronted by Henry Rollins), Chalk Circle, Void, the Faith, Youth Brigade, Government Issue, Scream, and Marginal Man. Bad Brains, who were the first hardcore punk band to form on the east coast of the United States, would influence a wave of new, more aggressive sounding bands in the city. One such band was the Slinkees. Despite the Slinkees only performing live once, three of their members would go on to form the Teen Idles in September 1979. The Teen Idles' 1980 EP Minor Disturbance was the earliest non-single release in the D.C. hardcore scene. The group broke up in November 1980, and band members Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson quickly formed Minor Threat, who debuted in December 1980.
Minor Threat profoundly influenced the hardcore punk genre, their contributions to the music, ethics, aesthetics, and ethos widely acknowledged by other hardcore bands. The band used faster rhythms and more aggressive, less melodic riffs than was common at the time. Minor Threat inspired the straight edge movement with its song "Straight Edge", which spoke out against alcohol, drugs and promiscuity. MacKaye and Nelson ran their own record label, Dischord Records, which released records by D.C. hardcore bands, commonly referred to as harDCore. The Flex Your Head compilation, released in January 1982, was a seminal document of the early 1980s D.C. hardcore scene. The record label was run out of the Dischord House, an Arlington, Virginia punk house. Henry Rollins, who would come to prominence as lead singer of the California-based Black Flag, as well as his own later Rollins Band, grew up in Washington, D.C., and was influenced by the music of Bad Brains and the bands of his childhood friend, Ian MacKaye.
The tradition of holding all ages shows at small D.I.Y. spaces, has roots in the early Washington, D.C., straight edge movement. It emerged from the idea that people of all ages should have access to music, regardless of if they're old enough to drink alcohol.
Post-hardcore
Origins and Revolution Summer
When the Faith (with Alec MacKaye) put out the EP Subject to Change in 1983, it marked a critical evolution in the sound of D.C. hardcore and punk music in general. AllMusic writer Steve Huey described their music as "hint[ing] at what was to come, softening the standard-issue hardcore approach somewhat with better-developed melodies and a more inward-looking perspective"