Melodic hardcore

Melodic hardcore is a broadly defined subgenre of hardcore punk with a strong emphasis on melody in its guitar work. The style often includes guitar harmonies, riffs using octave chords, as well as broken chords. Additionally, lyrics tend towards intellectualism, often being politically conscious or narrative, with concept albums sometimes being prominent. Bands in the genre also have a tendency to take influence from a range of genres including emo, post-punk, screamo, pop-punk, metalcore, post-rock and gothic rock.

In the early and mid–1980s, bands including the Faith, Descendents, Dag Nasty, Gorilla Biscuits and 7 Seconds were amongst the first hardcore bands to put an emphasis on their melodies. In 1988, Bad Religion incorporated more melodic elements into their music with their third album Suffer, which was widely influential, and reshaped the skate punk genre from its purely hardcore origins into a subgenre of melodic hardcore. During the 1990s, this melodic skate punk style became one of the most prominent styles in punk, with NOFX, Pennywise and Strung Out emerging as forefront acts. 1988 also saw the formation of Inside Out and Turning Point who pioneered an additional style of melodic hardcore, routed in youth crew, emo and tough guy hardcore. This style began to gain prominence towards the end of the 1990s with In My Eyes, Bane and Reach the Sky.

During the 2000s, the genre became the most prominent style in the hardcore scene, and diversified into a variety of styles including the horror punk and gothic rock informed style of AFI and the Nerve Agents, the heavy and nihilist style of American Nightmare and the Hope Conspiracy, the more melodic and punk-leaning style of Rise Against and Strike Anywhere, the positive hardcore style of Have Heart and Verse and the emotional style of Defeater and Touché Amoré. Around 2009, the genre became less prominent in the American hardcore scene, but continued in the United Kingdom with Dead Swans and While She Sleeps, and in the American metalcore scene with Hundredth, the Ghost Inside and Counterparts. During the 2010s, British and Australian melodic hardcore bands including Casey and Holding Absence pushed the genre closer to post-rock. Since the beginning of the 2020s, the most prominent melodic hardcore bands have been One Step Closer, Anxious and Koyo.