Slowcore
Slowcore, also known as sadcore, is a subgenre of indie rock and alternative rock characterised by slower tempos, minimalist instrumentation, and subdued lyrical performances.

Characteristics
Slowcore is considered a subgenre of indie rock, alternative rock, and pop. There is no definitive characterisation of the genre, however it is typically defined by slow tempos with a sombre and atmospheric approach to songwriting and composition. Slowcore articles often take influence from related genres, including dream pop, post-rock, folk, and americana. Drone and ambient music are also cited as being similar. Less frequently, slowcore songs borrow elements from other genres, including shoegaze and midwest emo.Lyrics within slowcore are often melancholic, with the vocal performances subdued. For example, Swedish singer Stina Nordenstam has been described as slowcore because of "her sadly beautiful little-girl whisper" style of singing. In 1998, SF Weekly wrote that "The best thing about slowcore [...] is that they demand the listener pay attention. The worst thing about them is that sometimes you fall asleep by the third song".

Sadcore
Slowcore is occasionally referred to as "sadcore", and many journalists and scholars consider them to be synonymous labels for the same genre. Regardless, when they are distinguished, the differences are attributed to a heightened melancholy in the lyrics of sadcore songs.The sadcore categorisation saw considerable use in the early 2000s. Mentions include The Washington Post calling Mark Eitzel, the lead singer of American Music Club, the "reluctant king of sadcore" in 2002 and LA Weekly calling Charlyn Marshall (stage name Cat Power) the "Queen of Sadcore" in 2003. Reviewers also used it in passing for albums such as Red House Painters' Rollercoaster (1993), Shearwater's Everybody Makes Mistakes (2002), and Low's box set A Lifetime of Temporary Relief (2004). Since then, Lana Del Rey self-described her music as "Hollywood sadcore" in an interview with Vogue in 2011. Phoebe Bridgers's music has also been called sadcore, a descriptor she dislikes: speaking to The New Zealand Herald in 2023, she said "I hate the 'sad girl' label".

Etymology
There is no definitive origin of the label "slowcore" outside of the agreement between scholars that its use began in the 1990s. Within music, the suffix "-core" infers a scene or style, originating with "hardcore". The American Dialect Society describes it more generally as a "productive suffix for aesthetic trends". "Slow" refers to the pace of the music. For "sadcore", the same applies, except "sad" refers to the emotion of the lyrics.One claim to the origin of the label is from Alan Sparhawk of the band Low. In an interview with The Paper Crane podcast, Sparhawk said his friend had coined the term "slowcore" as a joke and that he had humorously mentioned it in one of his band's earliest shows. He says that after that show, the media picked up the term and its usage began increasing.

Reception
The "slowcore" label has been criticised by scholars and bands, calling it pejorative. Members of Low, a band often considered monumental in the growth of the genre, disliked the label: in 1998, founding member Alan Sparhawk called it "cheesy". Regardless, the label grew in popularity and in an interview with Vice in 2018, Sparhawk recognised his band as being influential in its growth.

History
Late 1980s: Stylistic origins
The sound that would become known as "slowcore" began emerging in the United States in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a counterpoint to the rapid growth of louder rock genres like grunge. Unlike these genres, the early years of slowcore did not have a defined scene or any geographic hotspots. American Music Club are considered an early slowcore band. Releasing their debut The Restless Stranger in 1985, the band's music was slow and with characteristics akin to genres like folk and singer-songwriter. This style was echoed by other bands at the time, such as Cowboy Junkies. This style of folk- and americana-inspired music would become one of the defining styles of slowcore music.Within the same period of time, Galaxie 500 formed and began releasing dream pop albums. Their sophomore album, On Fire (1989), strongly influenced the genre, as did the rest of their discography, although their dream pop style was not entirely indicative of how slowcore would develop. Regardless, On Fire would become the "blueprint for the minimalist construction of slowcore itself". Because of this, the band is frequently cited as one of slowcore's leading antecedents. Samuel Rosean, writing for Drowned in Sound, described them as slowcore's "most well-known progenitor", a phrase also used by Andrew Earles in his 2014 book Gimme Indie Rock: 500 Essential American Underground Rock Albums 1981-1996. Robert Rubsam, writing for Bandcamp Daily, called Galaxie 500 the "fountainhead for all that would come".There were other early bands that formed in the 1980s that would help define slowcore, however many would not release anything until the 1990s. These include Codeine, Red House Painters, and Mazzy Star.During this period, the label "slowcore" was not used.

1990s: Peak growth and evolution
While many of the bands that would influence the concept of slowcore existed before the 1990s, this decade is often cited as being when the genre began, as well as being its heyday. Throughout this period, the amount of bands and albums associated with the genre grew greatly, establishing its core sound and style.
In these early years, the genre was defined by bands that had a style of minimalist and prolonged instrumentation with melancholic vocal performances. Codeine, having formed in 1989, released Frigid Stars LP in 1990, which incorporated "tortured lyrics and tired vocal melodies". Codeine's music received attention over the following years, and after the release of the Barely Real extended play in 1992, the Toronto Star described it as being a "unique 'slowcore' sound". Two years after Codeine's debut, Red House Painters, having formed in 1988, released their debut: Down Colorful Hill (1992). The album is bleak in both lyrics and composition; this album, alongside their following albums Rollercoaster (1993) and Bridge (1993), have been described as instilling feelings of "desperation, regret, and general darkness". Earles contended that Red House Painters was the saddest band within slowcore in the early 1990s. Another early band was Bedhead, which formed in 1991 and released their debut WhatFunLifeWas in 1994. This album consisted of soft vocals and dynamic instrumentation, and the band would release two further studio albums, Beheaded (1996) and Transaction de Novo (1998), which maintained the same slow sound as their debut but deviated in technique. After this, the band disbanded and fell out of public discourse.
During this time, the sound of slowcore music depended on the location. For example, taking influence from post-rock and indie-rock was prevalent within Chicago, while the Californian scene was defined by Red House Painters and American Music Club. However, Low, out of Duluth, Minnesota, would ultimately create the genre's archetypical sound. Formed in 1993 by Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker, the band started by experimenting with slow and quiet rock music and in 1994, released their debut album I Could Live in Hope. This album was different from its predecessors: while it maintained stylistic similarities with other bands' sparse instrumentation, it was more difficult to categorise into other genres, like post-rock or dream pop. Due to this unique sound, Low are heralded as pioneers of the genre.Towards the end of the decade, Duster released Stratosphere (1998). By this point, they had already released a few EPs but had failed to garner a notable reputation. The album was reviewed by Pitchfork and other zines, and the band would release one final album, Contemporary Movement (2000), before disbanding until 2018. Despite this, the band would ultimately become one of the most influential within the genre.Another band attributed to this period of growth is Bluetile Lounge.

2000s–present: Continued expansion
Slowcore continued to grow throughout the 2000s, with artists typically amalgamating slowcore with other genres.In 2001, Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star and Colm Ó Cíosóig of My Bloody Valentine formed Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions and released Bavarian Fruit Bread. The band helped repopularise a more dream pop-inspired sound of slowcore reminiscent of Galaxie 500 that would see success over the coming years. In 2016, Cigarettes After Sex entered the spotlight with their single "Nothing's Gonna Hurt You Baby". The song, a dream pop and slowcore ballad, was originally released in 2012 but became viral online. Following this, the band released their self-titled debut album in 2017, described by Pitchfork as a "slowcore collection [that] borders on ambient".In 2002, several Red House Painters members formed Sun Kil Moon. Early on, pundits noted that this band departed from the slowcore sound present in Red House Painters releases to instead opt for folk-inspired song construction. Despite this, others continued to find similarities between Sun Kil Moon's music and slowcore. The song "Duk Koo Kim" from Ghosts of the Great Highway received a write-up in Drowned in Sound's "Slowcore Week", though the author noted the song moved "slightly away from [the] slowcore movement".Dan Barrett, a member of the post-punk band Have a Nice Life, released a self-titled album under the name Giles Corey in 2011. Giles Corey was emotive both lyrically and musically, with the production purposefully being low fidelity. Rosean noted that this was predictive of how slowcore would progress in the 21st century: departing somewhat from the essential simplicity in musical composition to instead place additional emphasis on emotional vulnerability. Rosean cited I'm Not As Good at It As You (2010) by S, formerly of indie rock band Carissa's Wierd, as another example of this. He writes: the album "[emphasises] harmony and melodic release over repetition while still maintaining [slowcore's] minimalistic style".Since then, reviewers have labeled various artists and releases as slowcore, including singer-songwriters Nicole Dollanganger and Ethel Cain.

References
Notes
Citations
BibliographyGrønstad, Asbjørn Skarsvåg (29 October 2020). Rethinking Art and Visual Culture: The Poetics of Opacity. Bergen, Norway: Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-46176-8. ISBN 9783030461768. S2CID 229229535.
Rogers, Ian (2008). "'You've got to go to gigs to get gigs': Indie musicians, eclecticism and the Brisbane scene". Continuum. 22 (5): 639–649. doi:10.1080/10304310802311618. S2CID 144566463.
Metzer, David (21 September 2017). The Ballad in American Popular Music: From Elvis to Beyoncé. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781316676400. ISBN 9781316676400.
Fox, Dominic (2009). Cold World: The Aesthetics of Dejection and the Politics of Militant Dysphoria. Hampshire, England: John Hunt Publishing. ISBN 9781846942174.
Crystal, David (2014). Words in Time and Place: Exploring Language Through the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199680474.
Earles, Andrew (15 September 2014). Gimme Indie Rock: 500 Essential American Underground Rock Albums 1981-1996. Voyageur Press. ISBN 9781627883795.Further readingDrowned in Sound Slowcore Week archive

External links
Slowcore genre overview at AllMusic
Sadcore genre overview at AllMusic