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Ian with the Kids
Integral to hardcore punk’s politics was the disintegration of crowd/band barriers. In the above picture Ian Mackaye, of seminal DC Hardcore band Minor Threat, stoops to give the microphone to the crowd to participate. The dynamic here is crucial to understanding the new punk strain’s view of life and how to operate as a human being. With the “death of punk” in ‘79, the music media quickly rejected all of those who still clung to ideas in punk’s brevity, intelligence, and straightforwardness. The kids (literally, the hardcore scene was populated by young to older teens, generally speaking) took charge themselves. Ian Mackaye and Jeff Nelson (the drummer of Minor Threat, not pictured) started Dischord Records as a means to release their first band’s posthumous record. There was no profit here, just a dedication to an art form and culture that relied on ingenuity and economy to survive. With this as a back-story, we can see why barriers were demolished. Going to a hardcore show was not a passive action. You didn’t go just to “watch”. It was a participatory event.
Azerrad, Michael. Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2001.
Friedman, Glen E. Fuck You Heroes. New York: Burning Flags Press, 1994.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dischord
Tsitsos, William. “Rules of Rebellion: Slamdancing, Moshing, and the American Alternative Scene,” Popular music Editorial 18, no. 3 (1999): 397-414. links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0261-1430(199910)18:3<397:RO...
Ian with the Kids
Integral to hardcore punk’s politics was the disintegration of crowd/band barriers. In the above picture Ian Mackaye, of seminal DC Hardcore band Minor Threat, stoops to give the microphone to the crowd to participate. The dynamic here is crucial to understanding the new punk strain’s view of life and how to operate as a human being. With the “death of punk” in ‘79, the music media quickly rejected all of those who still clung to ideas in punk’s brevity, intelligence, and straightforwardness. The kids (literally, the hardcore scene was populated by young to older teens, generally speaking) took charge themselves. Ian Mackaye and Jeff Nelson (the drummer of Minor Threat, not pictured) started Dischord Records as a means to release their first band’s posthumous record. There was no profit here, just a dedication to an art form and culture that relied on ingenuity and economy to survive. With this as a back-story, we can see why barriers were demolished. Going to a hardcore show was not a passive action. You didn’t go just to “watch”. It was a participatory event.
Azerrad, Michael. Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2001.
Friedman, Glen E. Fuck You Heroes. New York: Burning Flags Press, 1994.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dischord
Tsitsos, William. “Rules of Rebellion: Slamdancing, Moshing, and the American Alternative Scene,” Popular music Editorial 18, no. 3 (1999): 397-414. links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0261-1430(199910)18:3<397:RO...