Deadpool talks hardcore fashion – guestcolumn

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Hi ya fashion victims. Welcome to a piece of truth that hurts far more than spitting on the younger generations for not wearing the same uniform that you did. There is this misconceived notion that there is something like fashioncore or whatever the hell you want to call it. Sure, the young kids dress differently, aren’t interested in the same old shit we were and they even have the audacity to call their music hardcore. Welcome to your twilight days. You finally have grown into the person who you never wanted to be. I won’t tell you that you are worse than your predecessers. Well maybe. But there are some things that you tend to forget when you grow older.

Welcome to a piece of truth that hurts far more than spitting on the younger generations for not wearing the same uniform that you did.

When I was growing up I hated the fact that there were always older people that told you that it was so much better in the past. Especially when it comes to music. They always ranted on about how good the Beatles and the Stones were. And hey, you have to admit they made some great music, although you never should trust the taste of someone who thinks that Sgt Peppers is the best Beatle album, but hey, that was then, this is now. It is a known fact that music consumed in your teenage years has far more impact than anything else. I am not going too deep into the psychological details because this is about hardcore. So if you decide that you are a hardcorekid you surely will sing along to your favorite sons even when you are old and senile.

With the music comes the lifestyle. Hardcore has always required more from it’s followers than average. This is not special. Most genres do that. Except for the people who use music as backgroundnoise. There is as much fanatism in techno as there is in hardcore. It only applies to a small group, or niche as marketeers like to call it, and this group will stick around far longer than the ‘normal’ or ‘mainstream’ crowd. Deal with it. I’ve seen so many people come and go and I stopped wondering about their motivations long ago. Sure, I hate it when someone quits being into hardcore because they finally got laid. I don’t feel betrayed, I don’t feel sorry for them and sometimes I miss them (but not that much). It’s just the shitty reason for leaving this wonderfull niche of fucked up people.

Things change. A lot of things changed for the better. The music is more available than ever, you can get your merchandise fairly cheap and information is easy accesible. And yeah, I don’t like a lot of new bands. In my opinion there is a lot of shit around that seems like a punishment from God himself. Just like 90% of the shit that came out when I was young. I have seen numerous bands that would have been the next big thing, and that I honestly loved, but turned out to be shit when I listened more and more to it. Only a few bands have the power to stick with you the rest of your life. Again, deal with it. The same goes for the clothing.

Come on, which idiot decided that it was cool to wear a T-shirt over your longsleeve? Or wait, mullets, bandana’s, truckercaps, tribaltattoos, edgetattoos (they sure look good when one is snorting cocaine), crewcuts, etcetera, etcetera. Check out old crewphotographs with everybody looking ‘tuff’. It sucked. Even more, it inspired all these kids to do the same thing over and over again. Still nothing wrong with that. I love most of these uniforms because they are ugly as sin. The thing is that people claim a lot and don’t even do what they claim. We wore our uniforms with pride. The new kids still do the same thing all over again. Drunk Horse wrote a nice song called ‘Legions’. I love these lines (and quite honestly the last word could also be clique, I haven’t got a lyricsheet);

It’s not cool to conform.
But check out this uniform.
Now you’re unique.
Welcome to the unique

Wether you like it or not, there is so much truth in these words. And it’s not even a hardcore band. Although they are worth checking out.

So, when older people get in to whiny rants about the youth of today and how they don’t look hardcore I always smile. Just because I know that your decision for buying clothes is based for 80% on what others will think about you, and 20% because you actually need or like these clothes. Clothes serve a completely different function than protecting you from the weather. In a luxurious society where we live in it’s to show the world who you are. Just like in the animal kingdom the colours show what you are or could be. So crying your eyes out behind your keyboard that the younger ones don’t look like the job start to realize you are just as bad or even worse.

The only thing that bothers me about this stuff is that it’s really a smokescreen for the things that really matter. The scene is still filled with homophobia, rascism and sexism. We need to get rid of things like that before we can welcome the new Carl Lagerfeld or Versace of hardcore.

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