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From Hardcore Music To Straight Edge Philosophy

Hardcore rock was founded in the early eighties in Washington DC. It revolved around teens, mostly males that would form bands and set up some portable bleachers and perform a short set of songs.

One of the hot groups that has gained notoriety is Minor Threat. Even though they weren’t the best musicians at the time, their leader Ian MacKaye was a profound lyricist.

The band had trouble filling the portable bleachers at their local community center in the beginning. After a few months they gained notoriety for their thinking as well as their music. Unaware of the impact their music would have on the young, impressionable fans, the band became known for leading the movement that has been termed “straight edge”.

The ideologies behind straight edge were the basic ideas that you should not drink or do drugs because it will mess you up and that is what the government is expecting of the youth in America. Instead, if you loathe your folks or the Reagan administration, do the opposite of them. This will keep your body lean and your mind sharp.

Minor Threat only lasted a few years, but Ian MacKaye founded the record label Discord which owns all their recordings. He was tired of all the hoops the corporate giants expected him to jump through.

Ian formed another band in the early nineties named Fugazi, which is a colourful acronym that was first coined in the Vietnam War. This band made sure they only played at places that didn’t sell alcohol and would never charge more than five dollars a person. This obviously left them out of playing grand arenas and filling up bleachers.

Fugazi never got greedy or gave into any of the music industry’s tricks. They traveled around the US in a small van and took the straight edge creed a bit further by promoting a vegan lifestyle. They kept to their core beliefs and would not even give Rolling Stone magazine an interview due to the fact that the magazine had ads for liquor targeting young kids.

Fugazi broke records and began a huge underground following. They didn’t feel the desire to sell out big stadiums and instead were content to sell out portable bleachers at more intimate shows.

Fugazi has not performed in a few years even though they refuse to say they have broken up. Since then a few of the members have put out some awesome solo songs and have done some great studio work backing some more famous artists. Ian has gone on to start another group with his current girlfriend called The Evens. Ian is still signing new artists each year to his record label and turning out great music.