Crunkcore (also known as crunk punk and scrunk) is a musical fusion genre characterized by the combination of musical elements from

crunk Crunk is a subgenre of hip hop music that emerged in the early 1990s and gained mainstream success during the mid 2000s. Crunk is often up-tempo and one of Southern hip hop's more dance and club oriented subgenres. An archetypal crunk track fre ...

post-hardcore Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. It was initially inspired by post-punk and noise rock. Like post-punk, the term has bee ...

, heavy metal,

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * ''Pop'' (G ...

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic co ...

and

dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded danc ...

. The genre often features

screamed vocals Screaming is an extended vocal technique that is popular in "aggressive" music genres such as heavy metal, punk rock, and noise music and others. It is common in the more extreme subgenres of heavy metal, such as death and black metal as we ...

, hip hop beats, and sexually provocative lyrics. The genre developed from members of the scene subculture during the mid 2000s.

History and characteristics

According to MasterClass, crunkcore originated by fusing " post-hardcore punk and hip hop into an aggressive, party-hearty sound in the mid-2000s." The genre took influence from various subgenres related to post-hardcore (

screamo Screamo (also referred to as skramz) is an aggressive subgenre of emo that emerged in the early 1990s and emphasizes "willfully experimental dissonance and dynamics".Jason Heller, "Feast of Reason". ''Denver Westword'', June 20, 2002Access date ...

and emo) and heavy metal (

metalcore Metalcore (also known as metallic hardcore) is a fusion music genre that combines elements of extreme metal and hardcore punk. As with other styles blending metal and hardcore, such as crust punk and grindcore, metalcore is noted for its use ...

and

nu metal Nu metal (sometimes stylized as nü-metal, sometimes called aggro-metal) is a subgenre of that combines elements of heavy metal music with elements of other music genres such as hip hop, alternative rock, funk, industrial, and grunge. Nu m ...

). Other genres to influence crunkcore acts include

rap rock Rap rock is a fusion genre that fuses vocal and instrumental elements of hip hop with various forms of rock. Rap rock's most popular subgenres include rap metal and rapcore, which include heavy metal and hardcore punk-oriented influences, res ...

electropop Electropop is a hybrid music genre combining elements of electronic and pop genres. Writer Hollin Jones has described it as a variant of synth-pop with heavy emphasis on its electronic sound. The genre was developed in the 1980s and saw a r ...

dance-pop Dance-pop is a popular music subgenre that originated in the late 1970s to early 1980s. It is generally uptempo music intended for nightclubs with the intention of being danceable but also suitable for contemporary hit radio. Developing from a ...

techno Techno is a Music genre, genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally music production, produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central Drum beat, rhythm is typ ...

, and funk. Writer and musician Jessica Hopper claims that Panic! at the Disco's fusion of emo and

elements influenced the development of crunkcore in the mid-2000s. While crunkcore is typically characterized by the use of screamed vocals, some crunkcore artists do not scream. For instance,

Warped Tour The Warped Tour was a traveling rock tour that toured the United States plus three or four stops in Canada annually each summer from 1995 until 2019. It was the largest traveling music festival in the United States and the longest-running touri ...

co-creator and CEO Kevin Lyman calls the group

3OH!3 3OH!3 (pronounced "three oh three") is an American electronic music duo from Boulder, Colorado, made up of Sean Foreman and Nathaniel Motte. They are best known for their single " DONTTRUSTME" from their album '' Want'', which reached number ...

"the real tipping point for scrunk", and said that "though 3OH!3 doesn't incorporate the blood-curdling screams of many scrunk acts, they were the first emo-influenced act to depart from traditional instruments in favor of pre-programmed beats", while still retaining many of the stylistic elements of emo. The Millionaires, who do not use screamed vocals, are also crunkcore. ''The Phoenix'' described crunkcore as "a combination of minimalist

Southern hip-hop Southern hip hop, also known as Southern rap, South Coast hip hop, or dirty south, is a blanket term for a regional genre of American hip hop music that emerged in the Southern United States, especially in Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston, Memph ...

auto-tune Auto-Tune (or autotune) is an audio processor introduced in 1996 by American company Antares Audio Technologies. Auto-Tune uses a proprietary device to measure and alter pitch in vocal and instrumental music recording and performances. Auto-T ...

croons,

breakdowns, barked vocals, and party-till-you-puke poetics". '' Inland Empire Magazine'' described the genre as combining " and heavy metal licks with crunk."

Culture and criticism

The ''Boston Phoenix'' has mentioned criticism of the style, saying that "the idea that a handful of kids would remix lowest-common-denominator screamo with crunk beats, misappropriated gangsterisms, and the extreme garishness of emo fashion was sure to incite hate-filled diatribes". Amy Sciarretto of

Noisecreep Noisecreep is a hard rock and heavy metal music news and media website based in the United States. The site was created by AOL Music in March 2009. Noisecreep was the fourth genre-specific music website owned by AOL after the rock music websit ...

noted that crunkcore is "oft maligned as the

of this generation." The group Brokencyde in particular has been singled out, with John McDonnell of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' reviewing their music unfavorably.

AbsolutePunk ''AbsolutePunk'' was a website, online community, and alternative music news source founded by Jason Tate (the most recent CEO). The website mainly focused on artists who are relatively unknown to mainstream audiences, but it was known to fe ...

founder Jason Tate said that the level of backlash against Brokencyde is more than he has seen for any single act in the ten years. According to Tate, "they're just that bad, and they epitomize everything that music (and human beings) should not be." Brokencyde member Mikl has acknowledged the criticism leveled at them, but stated, "We don't care what people say ... All these critics are trying to bring us down, and yet we're selling a lot of copies of our music and that's because of our dedicated fans." Writer Jessica Hopper also has criticized the group, but acknowledged its appeal to teenagers, stating "brokeNCYDE just completely references anything that might be a contemporary pop culture reference, or anything that a teenage person is into.... You kind of get everything at once." 3OH!3 drew similar controversy in 2015 by releasing a single titled "My Dick".

References

{{Pop music 21st-century music genres Fusion music genres Crunk Post-hardcore 2000s in music 2010s in music Electronic music genres Electropop Hip hop genres