Remember White Belts at Hardcore Shows?

Some trends are better remembered.
Where were you when the towers fell? How about when Paris Hilton’s sex tape dropped? Do you recall seeing television ads for the first Motorola Razr? Can you reminisce of when Lindsay Lohan was still bangable? If you answered yes to any of these questions then you were an adult, or at least close to becoming one in the early to mid-2000s. Congratulations.
The 2000s saw a surge of popularity in hardcore/metalcore bands as the pop-punk wave of the 1990s started dying out with haste. This was a time when major labels were picking up bands you once saw playing basement shows. Give the bands a year and they could be found wooing teenage girls at warped tour. Don’t believe me? Check out Victory Records or Geffen’s roster from this era.
Today I’m talking about the goddamned white belt. Almost as tasteless as opening your article with a 9/11 reference, they were in full effect during this time. Leather, studded or un-studded; if you were at a show in this era you know what I’m talking about.

I know most of you who’ll read this will reply with statements like, “You’re confusing hardcore with emo/emocore/screamo/metalcore/grindcore/what-the-fuck-evercore.” You’re right; it definitely was more popular in those genres. But don’t kid yourself into believing that trends didn’t bleed over the fine line between sub-genres.
Commonly seen on girls and skinny dudes who weigh less than one of my legs, the white belt definitely popped in a sea of black t-shirts and denim. You could almost guarantee that whoever was wearing it had long, dyed bangs hanging in his eyes and at least one facial piercing.

The hardcore fashion trend of this era was camo cut-off shorts, military flat caps (i.e. Carl from First Blood), and Puma’s. Seeing guys at shows with tourniquet-tight jeans and a white belt was cause for long stares. I definitely remember seeing my first one in the wild when I attended a 100 Demons show at the The Kave in Bucksport, ME.
In the end it didn’t matter what you wearing, but how you acted. I always thought it looked dorky but at that point in time I hadn’t experienced the ‘ironic’ mustache trend yet so forgive me for being so rash. Ultimately I’m glad that whole emocore phase died, even though some of the remnants can still be seen today in the form of skinny jeans and Falling In Reverse.
Keep your eye open for the revival in 2021.
