"Ian MacKaye talks about how he watched the Woodstock documentary over and over and over when he was a little kid—actual 1969 Jimi Hendrix Woodstock, not Limp Bizkit–ass, rock-bottom-for-society Woodstock ’99—and Ian carried that original Woodstock ideal with him, the dream that a rock band could foment a revolution or at least inspire a community, millions of people strong, who’d go out and smile on their brothers and everybody get together and try to love one another right now and eventually build a better world. Now, knowing what you know, or think you know, about punk rock as the antithesis of hippie-fueled classic rock, you might be tempted to think that perhaps Ian’s being sarcastic here, with this “inspired by Woodstock” business, but something to know about Ian MacKaye immediately is he’s usually not being sarcastic at all. And when he is being sarcastic, you’ll know that, too."

"There was a situation where the shows were becoming increasingly, moronically violent, and a lot of people were like: 'fuck it, I'll drop out, I don't want to be a part of this any more."

"Grind. Skronk. Pigfuck. Seemingly every word associated with noise rock sounds incredibly unflattering out of context, and even in context doesn’t fare much better. Before noise rock had a name, rock critics such as Lester Bangs and Robert Christgau came up with their own suitably unpleasant ways of describing the tortured sounds of music oozing out of the American underground in the late ’70s and early ’80s. Out of the roots of hardcore and punk slithered something much nastier and much noisier. That vile beast is the sound we now know as noise rock."

"It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when the term “noise rock” was coined. It’s not a buzzy catchphrase like “shoegaze” or “krautrock.” It’s simply two ideas smashed together — noise and rock, the marriage of conventional rock structures and melodies with the techniques of experimental noise music. It’s arguably an oversimplified, generic way to describe a style of music, but after decades of eardrum trauma, notoriety and musical stunts, “noise rock” speaks volumes."

"What I call "proper" noise rock [is] defined by: a lo-fi or inexpert recording; a slow, sludgy tempo; the distinct feeling that some or all of the band are fans of heavy metal and/or 70s hard rock; and a lowbrow outlook, albeit perhaps with an ironically raised eyebrow."

"Hardcore was the suburban American response to the late-seventies punk revolution."

"Rites Of Spring arguably kicked off the entire [post-hardcore] movement with their sole album. With the hardcore scene in their hometown of Washington DC flourishing but becoming increasingly thuggish, they stepped away and changed things up, keeping the breakneck punk pace but displaying their own vulnerability and fears in the lyrics and whipping in something the genre was sorely missing: proper tunes. [...] Just don’t call them emo – they hate the term."

"To save hardcore, Fugazi had to destroy it and build something new from what scraps could still be salvaged. [...] 1990’s Repeater was the definitive moment when “post-hardcore” finally crystalized."

"Emo means different things to different people. Actually, that's a massive understatement. Emo seems soley to mean different things to different people − like pig latin or books by Thomas Pynchon, confusion is one of its hallmark traits. [...] The word has survived and flourished in three decades, two milleniums, and two Bush administrations. It's older than four baseball teams, six basketball teams, four football teams, and two soccer leagues. It's older than five former Yugoslav republics, the last seven national spelling champions, and Avril Lavigne. It's older than most of its fans. It's been a source of pride, a target of derision, a mark of confusion, and a sign of the times. It's been the next big thing twice, [and] the current big thing once. And yet, not only can no one agree on what it means, there is not now, nor has there ever been, a single major band that admits to being emo. Not one. That's pretty impressive, and contentious. And ridiculous. Good thing too − because so is emo."

"Already evolved from its origins yet not as crystalized as the 2000s wave in its sound, post-hardcore in the ’90s was a special kind of life form."

"Post-hardcore broke out as a movement in a huge way during the first decade of the 2000s while shaping how people view the genre today. Countless others had pioneered the genre throughout the ’80s and ’90s, but bands such as Glassjaw, At The Drive-In and Boysetsfire helped push it to new heights."

"Post-hardcore is a dense, sprawling subgenre that encompasses a constellation of bands, from those widely beloved to those arguably underrated, that exist outside of the traditional hardcore context. We can trace the sound and movement back to unparalleled groups such as the Minutemen and Fugazi, who built a sonic foundation on the aggressive and DIY nature of hardcore music, the scene from which they were born, but channeled that loud, heavy energy through noticeably more complex musical arrangements."

"I've never recognized 'emo' as a genre of music. I always thought it was the most retarded term ever. I know there is this generic commonplace that every band that gets labeled with that term hates it. They feel scandalized by it. But honestly, I just thought that all the bands I played in were punk rock bands. The reason I think it's so stupid is that – what, like the Bad Brains weren't emotional? What – they were robots or something? It just doesn't make any sense to me."

"The one fact that no one seems to debate − or at least debate that loudly − is that emo emerged from hardcore."

"Emo is not supposed to hold up. You get older and maybe you feel the same, but the same just feels different."

"It's safe to say emo music today is barely a shadow of what it once was. Nobody today thinks about the DIY hardcore punk element that the genre was founded on. Now when you hear emo you think Hot Topic, you think whiny pre-teens, and you think terrible sellout radio tunes. Most people either hate or love the genre of emo based on the era they grew up in. Lovers of the first wave generally hate the 1990's second wave, listeners from the 90's generally hate the 2000's era, and people who grew up through the 3rd wave now realize what crappy music they were listening too. Whether you love it or hate it, you might as well laugh at it."

"Defining hardcore is like defining falling in love -- definitions really miss the point. You don't need a definition to know if you're in love or not -- you just know it. You just feel real hardcore when you experience it."

"Hardcore is first and foremost a form of music. That is to say that there are hardcore band s out there that have nothing at all to say, and there are others that have more to say than music to play. Additionally, I believe that there are more more components to hardcore than the other music."