The story of a revolution that was never meant to be a genre gets its due this month. Writer Audrey Golden traces the rise of queercore in ‘Queercore,’ a new entry in Bloomsbury’s acclaimed 33 1/3 Genre series, out June 11.
Queercore grew out of the same DIY spirit that drove earlier feminist artists, as queer musicians pushed back against the homophobia and sexism that ran through hardcore punk. The movement officially got its name in the mid-1980s when G.B. Jones and Bruce LaBruce coined it in their revolutionary zine J.D.s, though its roots stretch back further to bands like Wayne County and the Electric Chairs, Nervous Gender, and Fifth Column.
The scene exploded into the next decade through bands that often crossed over into riot grrrl, including Tribe 8, Team Dresch, Sister George, and Huggy Bear. Their revolution traveled by zine and cassette, distributed far and wide, and those documents became guidebooks for queer punks in small towns across North America, Europe, Australia, and Japan.
Golden’s 208-page book explores queercore as a genre that was never intended to be one, identifying the key players across the lexicon, from musicians and filmmakers to record labels and zine-makers, and documenting their histories through original interviews and archival research. It guides readers from the movement’s beginnings into the present, where its legacy still looms loudly for LGBTQIA+ artists and everyone pushed to the margins of the mainstream.
Golden brings real authority to the subject. The New York-based arts and culture writer focuses on music, cinema, and politics, and is the author of ‘I Thought I Heard You Speak: Women at Factory Records’ and the forthcoming ‘Shouting Out Loud: Lives of the Raincoats.’