Hardcore punk artists were very familiar to the dishonest presentation of punk music in media, and rather than push against it in an overtly political way, they drifted into more insular territory, small venues, largely abandoning association with regular punk. they're hardcore. And through this, the spirit of punk that post-punk had tapped into to create more interesting music, was instead being developed further in more brutally honest expressions of emotion. Which these expression in hardcore led to the creation of emo, which is the same thing as hardcore etymologically, but even more personal and cathartic.