Meanings
- uncommonuncountableentertainmentA form of alternative rock characterised by bleak lyrics, downbeat melodies and slow tempos.
Near-synonym: slowcore
5 more examples
As proof of this, Staub points to the wide variety of press coverage the band received, from spotlights in the usual music media to reports in People, Time, NPR (which identified the band as one of the leaders of the "sadcore" movement), and even Martha Stewart Living […]
1996 September 21, BillboardAlso, The Red House Painters were the first in a wave of bands that followed in AMC's wake, making slow, bleak music that the press would later dub "sadcore" […]
1999, Seán Body, Wish the world away: Mark Eitzel and American Music ClubDespite past disappointments, the undisputed king (and queen) of sadcore return […]
2000, Dave Thompson, Alternative rockEven in 'serious' rock journalism, every sound was a kind of core: hardcore, slowcore, speedcore, sadcore. What next?
2000, Joel Lane, From Blue to Black[…] one of the grayest sadcore bands on God's bleak earth, a band that for encores — however rarely it earned them — would slog through Irish jigs […]
2004, Jonathan DiMarco, Good Bullets Make Bad NeighborsSynonyms: slowcore
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA form of alternative rock characterised by bleak lyrics, downbeat melodies and slow tempos.
Origin
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
sadcore. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sadcore
“sadcore.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sadcore. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sadcore,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sadcore.
Source: sadcore on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.