Sass (music)

Etymology#

The name sass was derived from sass, referencing the genre’s flamboyant vocal expressions and lyrics. Svenonius submitted himself to the competition, later stating in an interview with the The Washington Post that “To me, different qualities define sassiness: disrespect to authority, to be youthful and zestful, and be sharply dressed”. A January 1993 issue of Maximum Rocknroll called the band the “sultans of sass”. While many sass bands crossed over into the mainstream, the name “sass” was only used in the hardcore scene during its initial popularity. In the mainstream, it was more often called hardcore or screamo. Around 2018, SeeYouSpaceCowboy began to self-identify as sasscore, a portmanteau of sass and metalcore that the band considered themselves to have coined, to clarify their influences from both styles. In the following years, the term became a popular synonym for all sass; however, in a 2021 article, BrooklynVegan editor Andrew Sacher expressed that “sasscore” encompassed a narrower selection of bands than simply “sass”, excluding the softer, less hardcore-based sound of the Blood Brothers, Death From Above 1979 and Hot Hot Heat. In a 2021 interview, the band’s vocalist Connie Sgarbossa stated of the term’s use as synonym that “It’s kind of funny that ‘sasscore’ has become such a thing, because I came up with that stupid genre tag for SpaceCowboy back in the day, and there’s become this like cult around sasscore. I think people think that’s what they actually called it back then.” In a 2004 article by Loyola College in Maryland student newspaper The Grayhound, the Blood Brothers vocalist Jordan Blilie was noted as self-identifying his band as “sasscore”, noting his preference for the term over screamo.

Characteristics#

Sass is characterized by overtly flamboyant mannerisms, homoerotic lyrical content, synthesizers, dance beats and a lisping vocal style. It incorporates sarcastic vocal intonation dissonant riffs, flamboyance and chaotic energy. Vocals and guitars are often high pitched. Sass was the result of a brief subcultural moment that was the intersecting origin point for both the hipster and scene subcultures, at a time when both names were synonymous. According to a 2014 Stuff You Will Hate article, sass was less of a unified sound, and more of a performance and esthetic style that incorporated certain musical elements to support its live performances. These included vocalists placing their hands on their hips or into their pants. Sass bands often take influence from a wide variety of styles including post-punk, new wave, disco, electronic, dance-punk, grindcore, noise rock, metalcore, mathcore and beatdown hardcore.

Precusors#

The origins of sass trace back to the Nation of Ulysses, who formed in Washington, D.C., in 1988. The band expanded upon post-hardcore by being fashion-conscious and creating dancable music. Vice Media writer David Anthony stated that in the late 2000s, “Detractors would often lay the scourge of white belts and so-called ‘sass-core’ at” the feet of Justin Pearson, vocalist for Crimson Curse and the Locust. Across North America, many screamo and post-hardcore bands followed a similar progression. Following the 1993 disbandment of San Fransico’s Portraits of Past, the majority of its final lineup formed the Audience, who adopted synthesizers akin to new wave and a visual style influenced by gothic rock and glam rock, Rhode Island’s Six Finger Satellite adopted elements of no wave and disco music on Severe Exposure (1995) and Washington state’s Satisfact adopted post-punk and new wave synthesizers. Other proto-sass bands were Braniac, Le Shok and Milemaker.

Origins (1998–2001)#

During the late 1990s, hardcore punk and, in particular, screamo experienced a surge in popularity, when it was adopted by musicians outside of the genre’s norm. One group of these was the subculture that would later be called hipsters, who incorporated more artistic and feminine elements, particularly elements to encourage dancing. Sass solidified itself as a genre around 1998, as music began to be released by pioneers the VSS and the Blood Brothers, who influenced the Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower, These Arms Are Snakes and later Frodus to continue the sound. The centre of the scene was the record label Sound Virus. The genre was explicitly confrontational towards the hypermasculinity of tough guy hardcore, straight edge and powerviolence, which dominated the hardcore scene at the time. For this reason, it experienced opposition from these groups, as well as more politically correct members of the scene.

Mainstream crossover and decline (2001–2005)#

Sass was closely related to the dance-punk revival of the early to mid-2000s, with sass band A.R.E. Weapons, formed in 1999, being one of the earliest bands in the Williamsburg, Brooklyn dance-punk revival scene. Sass crossed over into the mainstream around 2002, following the release of the Faint’s Danse Macabre (2001), Hot Hot Heat’s Make Up the Breakdown (2002) and !!!’s !!! (2002). The most commercially successful post-sass dance-punk band was Death from Above 1979 and their debut album You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine (2004), with the Rapture’s Echoes and Q And Not U’s Power too furthering the movement that year. The dance-punk revival that was quickly adopted by groups outside of the hardcore scene, experiencing major mainstream attention through the release of the Killers’ “Somebody Told Me” and Franz Ferdinand’s “Take Me Out” (both 2004). The Blood Brothers’ third album …Burn, Piano Island, Burn (2003) brought conventional sass to mainstream attention, with BrooklynVegan editor Andrew Sacher naming it as “one of the most important post-hardcore albums of its generation” In the hardcore scene, sass began to decline in popularity around 2003, and had disappeared entirely by 2005.

Revived interest (2010–present)#

During the early 2010s, there was a revived interest in sass amongst fans active on the screamo message board Cross My Heart With a Knife (CMHWAK). By 2018, a sass revival had formed fronted by Gas Up Yr Hearse, Dotgiffromgod and SeeYouSpaceCowboy. This wave used a heavier take on the genre, incorporating elements of metalcore and grindcore. This scene originated from the screamo scene, with many of the artists being signed to RVA Records. Unlike the genre’s originators, these bands generally self-identified as sass. Of the revival, SeeYouSpaceCowboy’s vocalist Connie Sgarbossa stated “SpaceCowboy was initially, the idea of just throwing a bunch of shit in a blender and seeing what happens and making it work. So that was a huge part of what pushed us to bring the sass back, to do really heavy stuff and still be weird”. By the early 2020s, they had shifted their sound away from sass, in favor of metalcore and pop screamo. Screamo experienced a major resurgence in the 2020s, largely practiced by generation Z. It encompassed a wide variety of styles such as traditional screamo, emoviolence and white belt grind. This wave was international, with a scene developing in Indonesia, based around Zegema Beach Records, with groups such as Hallam Foe.

Girlfriend sass#

Girlfriend sass is a subgenre of sass that emphasizes its dance-punk influence. It straddled the line between the hardcore scene and the mainstream dance-punk revival of the early 2000s. With Q and Not U, Black Eyes, the Faint and Milemaker been prominent in the underground, while Head Automatica, Hot Hot Heat, !!! and the Rapture experienced commericial success. The term was tongue-in-cheek, ironically referencing its softer sound as appealing to fans’ girlfriends, despite the fans often being subject to homophobia.

Sassy screamo#

Sassy screamo is a subgenre of sass that reincorporated the genre’s screamo influence. Stuff You Will Hate called x Vincent Price’s Orphan Powered Death Machine x and After School Knife Fight “the zenith of sassy screamo”.

White belt grind#

White belt grind is a style of sass that is influenced by mathcore and grindcore. During the mid-2000s, Heavy Heavy Low Low became one of the most prominent groups in the genre, with the supergroup Head Wound City also adopted the style. It experienced a revival in the late 2010s with SeeYouSpaceCowboy and the Callous Daoboys.

Scene grind#

Scene grind grew out of white belt grind in the mid-2000s, fronted by See You Next Tuesday and Iwrestledabearonce. It was mostly based around the social networking service Myspace.

Legacy#

The influence of both sass and the fashioncore of Orange County, California bands Eighteen Visions and Bleeding Through eventually developed the scene subculture.

See also#

• Risecore
• Pop screamo
• Crunkcore