Homocore

The word homocore has several meanings or usages.

Terminology

The word 'homocore' was first coined by G.B. Jones and Bruce LaBruce in their seminal queer punk zine, "J.D.s" ('J.D.s' is a commonly used abbreviation for the term 'Juvenile Delinquents') and referred loosely to their audience: disaffected, disenfranchised queer punks of all persuasions. It's a neologism based upon the traditional punk base-word 'core', meaning the essential part. The word first appeared in "J.D.'s" issue #1 in 1985.

HOMOCORE, the zine

Tom Jennings "stole" the word from them, with their assent, for the title of his zine [http://www.wps.com/archives/HOMOCORE HOMOCORE] , co-edited with Deke Motif Nihilson: a queer, anarcho, weirdo, punk zine that was inspired by the surprisingly queer happenings at the 1987 Anarchist Survival Gathering in Toronto - while the middle class kids were out throwing rocks at the police and overturning newspaper boxes with political fervor, many queer punks stayed behind and "networked". There Tom Jennings, Deke Motif Nihilson, G.B. Jones, Bruce LaBruce, Bruce's roommate and cartoonist Candy, editor of DR. SMITH zine, and many other anarcho-weirdos from around the continent, met and hung out for a long weekend. A movement was born.

HOMOCORE editors and contributors survived seven and a half issues:

* HOMOCORE #1, September 1988
* HOMOCORE #2, December 1988
* HOMOCORE #3, February 1989
* HOMOCORE #4, June 1989
* HOMOCORE #5, December 1989
* HOMOCORE #6, May 1990
* HOMOCORE #7, February 1991

The half issue being the BAD POETRY issue #5-1/2; since this was done on the largest possible sheet of newsprint paper our publisher could handle, it to this day resists scanning and archiving. The name may not be ironic.

Homocore, the book

Ken Knox and David Ciminelli co-authored the book "Homocore", subtitled "The Loud and Raucous Rise of Queer Rock", which was published by Alyson Books in September 2005. It was an attempt to relate the musical history of Homocore through interviews with American groups that had emerged from the scene. The book focused primarily on events that had happened in the U.S. and featured groups such as Pansy Division, Team Dresch, Best Revenge, Iamloved, The Dead Betties, Triple Creme, and Three Dollar Bill.

Homocore, the movement

Homocore as an idea or concept survived as an ersatz movement well after the early zines became defunct, and now generally seems to be synonymous with queercore. Ersatz only in that it fragmented into many "scenes", each appropriately serving unique but overlapping audiences, such as more queer or more punk-oriented music.

ee also

Queercore

External links

* [http://www.wps.com/archives/HOMOCORE Homocore zine]
* [http://www.iath.virginia.edu/pmc/text-only/issue.991/review-1.991 SPEW -The Queer Zine Convention]