Queercore

Queercore is a punk movement by and for queer people, begun in the mid-1980s as a deliberate alternative both to mainstream gay culture and to the machismo of hardcore punk. Musically it spans abrasive hardcore, pop-punk and lo-fi indie rock, but it is defined by its infrastructure and address: zines, independent labels, all-ages spaces and songs that speak directly about queer desire, gender, AIDS, community and rage at assimilation. Its central bands — *Pansy Division*, *Tribe 8*, *Team Dresch* — made openly gay and lesbian punk a durable scene rather than a novelty.