Cowpunk is a subgenre of punk rock that began in the United Kingdom and Southern California in the late 1970s - early 1980s. It combines punk rock or new wave with country, folk, and blues in its sound, lyrical subject matter, attitude, and style. Examples include Social Distortion, The Gun Club, The Long Ryders, Dash Rip Rock, Violent Femmes, The Blasters, Mojo Nixon, Meat Puppets, The Beat Farmers, Rubber Rodeo, Rank and File, and Jason and the Scorchers. Many of the musicians in this scene subsequently became associated with alternative country, roots rock or Americana.
In the United States, California is commonly associated with the film, music, and arts industries; there are numerous world-famous Californian musicians. Hardcore punk, hip hop, country, and heavy metal have all appeared in California. Furthermore, new genres of music, such as surf rock and third wave ska, have their origins in California.
Washington, D.C., has been home to many prominent musicians and is particularly known for the musical genres of Jazz, Rhythm & Blues, bluegrass, punk rock and its locally-developed descendants hardcore and emo, and a local funk genre called go-go. The first major musical figure from District of Columbia was John Philip Sousa, a military brass band composer. Later figures include jazz musicians, such as Duke Ellington, Charlie Rouse, Buck Hill, Ron Holloway, Davey Yarborough, Michael A. Thomas, Butch Warren, and DeAndrey Howard; soul musicians, including Billy Stewart, The Unifics, The Moments, Ray, Goodman & Brown, Van McCoy, The Presidents, The Choice Four, Vernon Burch, guitarist Charles Pitts, and Sir Joe Quarterman & Free Soul.
The music of Indiana was strongly influenced by a large number of German and Irish immigrants who arrived in the 1830s. A prime example is "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen" written by Thomas Westendorf, from Hendricks County, Indiana, in 1875.
The American state of New Jersey is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic region.
Virginia's musical contribution to American culture has been diverse, and includes Piedmont blues, jazz, folk, brass, hip-hop, and rock and roll bands, as well as the founding origins of country music in the Bristol sessions by Appalachian Virginians.
The music of Arizona began with Indigenous music of North America made by Indigenous peoples of Arizona. In the 20th century, Mexican immigrants popularized Banda, corridos, mariachi and conjunto. Other major influences come from styles popular throughout the rest of the United States.
Born Against was an American hardcore punk band from New York active between 1989 and 1993. In addition to their radical leftist politics, the group espoused a DIY punk message and challenged what they perceived as being a problem within the punk subculture of their time. Though Born Against received little media exposure while still together, they have since been described as "legendary" by the Chicago Reader and the LA Weekly.
Folk punk is a fusion of folk music and punk rock. It was popularized in the early 1980s by the Pogues in England, and by Violent Femmes in the United States. Folk punk achieved some mainstream success in that decade. In more recent years, its subgenres Celtic punk and Gypsy punk have experienced some commercial success.
Negative Approach is an American hardcore punk band, formed in Detroit, Michigan in 1981. The band is considered among the pioneers of hardcore punk, particularly in the Midwest region. Like most hardcore bands, Negative Approach was little known in its day outside of its hometown. It is now idolized in the Detroit rock underground and the punk subculture, considered to be one of the elite bands of the "old school" era, and continues to be influential. Negative Approach initially broke up in 1984 with singer John Brannon moving on to the Laughing Hyenas, and later Easy Action, but the band has reformed as of 2006 and continues to tour sporadically.
The Wrangler Brutes were an American hardcore punk band formed in 2003 in Los Angeles, California.
Sam McPheeters is an American artist, journalist, novelist, and performer. Raised in Albany, New York, he became a published author at age 12, with Travelers' Tales, a collection of regional folklore. In 1985, McPheeters grew active with the hardcore punk scene, producing several fanzines and organizing local concerts. After moving to New York City in 1987, he co-founded Born Against in 1989 and the Vermiform Records label in 1990. In 1993, he co-founded the Virginia-based band Men's Recovery Project, and in 2003, he co-founded the Los Angeles-based band Wrangler Brutes.
Life's Blood was an American hardcore punk band formed by four first-year college students in New York City in 1987. It consisted of Adam Nathanson on guitars, Neil Burke on bass, John Kriksciun on drums, and Combined Effort all ages shows promoter and fanzine editor Jason O'Toole on vocals.
Men's Recovery Project was an American experimental noise rock band formed by Sam McPheeters and Neil Burke in Richmond, Virginia, active from 1993–2002. The group's post-modern absurdist musical attitude resulted in a diverse and consistently obtuse output, with varied material touching on electronic, avant garde, comedy and spoken word motifs that often alluded to their roots in hardcore punk.
Australian musicians played and recorded some of the earliest punk rock, led by The Saints who released their first single in 1976 and subgenres or offshoots of punk music, such as local hardcore acts, still have a strong cult following throughout Australia today.
(Young) Pioneers was an American folk punk band from Richmond, Virginia, active from 1993 to 1999. Composed of members of such influential bands as Born Against, Avail and Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, they released two albums and numerous singles on Vermiform and Lookout! Records. An overtly political band, their lyrics ranged from "superfluous nods to radical heroes like George Jackson and Carlos the Jackal" to "describ[ing] the relationship between struggling individuals and the machinery of oppressive politics".
Neil Burke is an American musician and artist. He is known as a former member of several hardcore punk and noise rock bands, most notably Born Against and Men's Recovery Project. Burke is currently a poster artist, graphic designer and screen printer working out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Canadian hardcore punk originated in the early 1980s. It was harder, faster, and heavier than the Canadian punk rock that preceded it. Hardcore punk is a punk rock music genre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A. may have helped to popularize the term with the title of their 1981 album, Hardcore '81. Hardcore historian Steven Blush said that the term "hardcore" is also a reference to the sense of being "fed up" with the existing punk and new wave music. Blush also states that the term refers to "an extreme: the absolute most Punk."An article in Drowned in Sound argues that 1980s-era "hardcore is the true spirit of punk", because "after all the poseurs and fashionistas fucked off to the next trend of skinny pink ties with New Romantic haircuts, singing wimpy lyrics", the punk scene consisted only of people "completely dedicated to the DIY ethics". One definition of the genre is "a form of exceptionally harsh punk rock."
