硬核朋克（Hardcore Punk，通常简称为硬核）是朋克摇滚的一个分支，起源于1970年代的英国和北美。 硬核朋克比最初的朋克更重，更噪，更快，旋律更加简单更加混乱。 硬核朋克风格的歌曲一般比较短、快、响，内容常常涉及激进的反社会、反规则的思想。原先「硬核庞克」这个用词不是那么固定，一直到加拿大温哥华乐团D.O.A.透过他们1981年发行的专辑《Hardcore '81》，使得这个词被广泛使用。

硬核更引发直刃族（Straight Edge）的文化运动以及强硬派（Hardline）与Youth Crew等等运动。这种音乐类型在80年代的地下音乐，随着独立音乐的推广、DIY精神，更加蓬勃发展，从美国华盛顿哥伦比亚特区到纽约、新泽西甚至是加拿大、英国。他影响数种音乐类型，更成功打入主流市场，诸如金属核、油渍摇滚、鞭挞金属、Emo与后硬核。

Hardcore punk (or simply hardcore) is a punk rock music genre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. Hardcore punk music is generally faster, harder, and more abrasive than regular punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A. may have helped to popularize the term with the title of their 1981 album, Hardcore '81. A September 1981 article by Tim Sommer shows the author applying the term to the "15 or so" punk bands gigging around the city at that time, which he considered a belated development relative to Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. Hardcore historian Steven Blush said that the term "hardcore" is also a reference to the sense of being "fed up" with the existing punk and new wave music. Blush also states that the term refers to "an extreme: the absolute most Punk."