Post-hardcore, as the name might suggest, is a musical offshoot of the hardcore punk movement. The earliest appearances of the genre were in Washington, D.C. in the mid- to late-1980s (see the era's releases on Dischord Records, for example), though it was not widely known until the early 1990s. Post-hardcore, as a musical genre, is marked by its precise rhythms and loud guitar-based instrumentation accompanied by vocal performances that are as often sung as whispered or shouted. The genre has developed a unique balance of dissonance and melody, in part channeling the loud and fast hardcore ethos into more measured, subtle forms of tension and release. It shares with its hardcore roots an intensity and social awareness as well as a DIY punk ethic, yet eschews much of the unfocused rage and loose, sometimes amatuerish musicianship of punk rock.

Side note: Everyone bitches about My Chemical Romance being 'emo' but MCR fits more into the Post-Hardcore catogory than anything.

When Hardcore and Punk mixed. Making the sound of Hardcore at some parts then slowing down for more punk parts with singing, not screaming. A band called "Refused" experimented with this. They were a Hardcore band. With the release of "The Shape Of Punk To Come" By "Refused" is when Post-hardcore was born. They thought they were changing punk, when they made a new genre. Doesn't confuse this with emo, or screamo.

Originally, a generation of art punk bands emanating from the infrastructure of what had been the American hardcore punk scene. Closely related or perhaps even derivative styles of post-hardcore included math rock and emo.

The Washington, DC scene surrounding Dischord records circa 1985 is often considered ground zero for post-hardcore, thanks largely to Revolution Summer, a campaign by Dischord to revitalize the then-creatively stagnant Washington, DC hardcore punk scene. Initially, groups like Embrace, Rites of Spring and Ignition integrated melody, a sense of groove, an introspective lyrical focus, and a stronger command of rock songwriting into hardcore sensibilities, though subsequent groups formed circa 1987 such as Moss Icon and Soulside moved post-hardcore into a more art rock direction by introducing elements such dynamic shifts, progressive songwriting styles, and angular guitar work influenced by the original post-punk movement, in many ways the sonic and spiritual antecedent of post-hardcore.

Fugazi, formed in the late 1980s by former members of Embrace and Rites of Spring, were arguably the most important and influential post-hardcore band. Committed to independent rock values, touring throughout the world, and relentlessly pioneering stylistically, Fugazi played throughout the 1990s and set the tone for the American underground rock scene during that time. By the start of the new millennium, post-hardcore groups like At The Drive-In, Unwound, Les Savy Fav and the Dismemberment Plan had all released sonically lush albums, landed major label contracts, or both. Additionally post-hardcore had also arrived as a force in popular culture by that time under the guise of emo, for better or worse. Sadly, post-hardcore's current state is one of confusion and dilapidation, as many pedestrian emo groups have adopted the term as representative of their style in hopes of increasing their credibility.

Agenre of music formed when people in the hardcore scene got tired of hardcore's limited form. Retains some characteristics of hardcore but builds more on tension and release

A style of underground music that evolved from combinations of different genres of music. It combines elements of punk and hardcore/metal. Some also refer to bands that are post-hardcore as "emocore." Although many consider post-hardcore to be heavier and less main-stream than emocore. Post-hardcore includes screaming as the major vocalization technique within most songs, with melodic singing at other times. Some bands have a "screamer" and others who "sing," while still others have one lead vocalist who goes from screaming to singing throughout a given song.

Music that is as heavy, nasty and edgy as hardcore but not as one-dimensional and features exponentially less use of the words "respect" and "hate" in its lyrics and content... It has nothing whatsoever to do with Taking Back Sunday or Dashboard Confessional; defining "Post Hardcore" in such a manner displays profound ignorance of even the slightest notion of what constitutes this phrase's crucial rootword "Hardcore" and anyone providing such a definition that includes the above-mentioned bands wouldn't know "Hardcore" if it walked up and punched them in the teeth while wearing brass knuckles or if Sheer Terror was playing a live show in their mother's basement.

This definition applies to modern post-hardcore, not the old school one.

Post-hardcore contains elements of hardcore, punk, and metal, with slightly heavy, fast-paced guitar riffs. Screaming is the main vocal feature, but there are also melodic breakdowns sung in clean vocals at other times, usually in a fairly high voice.

The lyrics are often regarded as what people believe as "emo" nowadays, but if emo really did stand for "emotional", then practically all music out there should be called emo as well, like Britney Spears. The real emo is actually very different compared to the emo that MTV brainwashed everyone with, but I won't go into depth about that because there are plenty of entries of emo that talk about the real deal.

A lot of people like to associate modern post-hardcore with emo and screamo, especially since some post-hardcore bands selected those as their genres on their Myspace, but that is because Myspace doesn't have anything near post-hardcore as a selection, so selecting emo and screamo are probably the only other closest genres that people would familiarize with post-hardcore (although the real emo and screamo aren't very similar to modern post-hardcore at all). Please don't call post-hardcore "emo" and "screamo". It's post-hardcore.

A genre that was started by emo kids that hated other emo kids, but stayed true to the punk and hardcore roots, thereby emerging as one of the greatest genres of music of all time.

A respectable genre, that combines the heavy musical structure of hardcore with more melodic vocals. Post Hardcore generally contains the same guitar structure as hardcore, for example; the breakdown. This Genre is in no way another way of classifying 'emo'. And doing so would illustrate ones ignorance in relation to this branch of alternative music. Although post hardcore often contains, emotional lyrics.

Some post hardcore bands:

-alesana
-a skylit drive
-Behind Crimson Eyes (good aussie band)
-Chiodos
-Drop Dead, Gorgeous
-Emanuel
-Escape The Fate
-The Fall of Troy (experimental)
-From Autumn to Ashes
-The getaway plan (good aussie band)
-Protest the Hero
-Saosin
-Story of the Year
-Underoath

Some hardcore/Metalcore bands:

-Bring Me the Horizon
-Destroy the Runner
-Haste the Day
-I Killed The Prom Queen (aussie hardcore, GETSOME!)
-Mortal Treason
-Parkway Drive (aussie hardcore)