Positive hardcore (sometimes shortened to posicore or posi-core) is a branch of the hardcore punk music scene, that is socially aware, or focuses on values, such as being inclusive, community-oriented, and anti-violent.^[1][2] The genre was created as a backlash to the violence and negativity in the straight edge scene.^[3]

History

Since the term was coined in the 1980s, it has been applied to a divergent group of musical styles and bands including 7 Seconds,^[4] Youth of Today,^[5] Good Clean Fun,^[6] and The Wonder Years.^[7] Early positive hardcore bands in the 1980s and 1990s sang about social issues such as the treatment of the LGBT community by the hardcore punk scene^[4] as well as non-violence and scene unity.^[8] These were topics that the hardliners rejected. In the late 2000s through the 2010s there has been a renaissance in the genre.^[9] Instead of being a backlash against hardline, the renaissance comes from a backlash against the (2010s) dominant metalcore bands in the scene.^[10]