Unlike many rock subgenres that emerged in the late ‘90s, slowcore has few easily traceable points of origin. The genre wasn’t born from a single DIY scene or regional movement, so much as an amalgamation of bands across the US arriving at a similar sound independently. The genre is often characterized by introspective lyricism, stripped back instrumentation that usually culminates in a crescendo of sorts, and (you guessed it) slow BPMs. Galaxie 500 are commonly referred to as the pioneers of this genre, and although they split up in 1991, bands like Duster, Bedhead, and Codeine would carry on this legacy into the late ‘90s. Ironically, and like many alternative genre tags, the term “slowcore” only became a widely used label after the genre’s initial peak in the ‘90s. The term has increasingly served as a retrospective categorization, particularly for younger listeners discovering these once-obscure records through platforms like TikTok (of which the #slowcore has amassed more than 14 ...