When Ian Mackaye, lead singer of the 80s DC punk band Minor Threat wrote the words to the song "Straight Edge," he was describing his own philosophy of clean living and why he rebelled against the intoxication he saw happening all around him. he did not encourage, or even imagine that others would take his lyrics as a model for their own lives.
From Minor Threat to Youth of Today and the Youth Crew
Minor Threat broke up in 1983, but the ideas in their songs lived on. Other hardcore punks embraced Mackaye's tenants of clean living, lifted from another Minor Threat song "Out of Step." These tenants included:
- Not Drinking
- Not Smoking
- Not having promiscuous sex
This straightedge lifestyle was embraced by bands like SSD, DYS, and Uniform Choice in the mid 80s, who actively identified themselves as straightedge bands, and preached about straightedge in their lyrics and between songs at their live shows, but it was the scene that took off in Connecticut and New York in the late 80s that would have the most influence on the future of straightedge.
Spearheaded by bands like Youth of Today, Side By Side, Judge, Gorilla Biscuits, and numerous others, a hardcore punk scene of predominantly clean cut young people took shape and spread like wildfire. The sound and scene to which these bands belonged was dubbed "Youth Crew" from a Youth of Today song of the same name.
X's On Hands
The mark that has been associated with straightedge virtually since it's inception has been the 'X'. Before Ian Mackaye was in Minor Threat, he and Minor Threat drummer Jeff Nelson were in a band called The Teen Idles. According to the Dischord Records website, the label responsible for putting out The Teen Idles, Minor Threat, and many other legendary DC bands, When Teen Idles were on tour in California, the band members were all underage. To denote this fact, they had X's drawn on their hands by promoters so they could be allowed into the clubs they were booked to play at. the band took this idea of drawing X's on the hands of underage concert goers back to DC with them as a way to encourage promoters to organize all-ages shows. As straightedge began to blossom as more than just one punk's personal philosophy, many straightedge people began deliberately drawing X's on their hands at shows as a way to distinguish and set them apart from others at crowded hardcore punk shows.
The 90s and the Second Coming of Straightedge
The Youth Crew scene lasted from the mid 80s to the early 90s. As the bands and people involved in the Youth Crew scene broke up and drifted away, a new wave of straightedge hardcore bands and kids were on their way in.
With a heavier and more metallic sound to their music, and more staunch and militant beliefs expounded in their lyrics, bands like Earth Crisis, Unbroken, Strife, Trial, Snapcase and The Path of Resistance, paved the way for a second wave of straightedge. This second wave blossomed as the bands associated with it blew up in popularity, drawing in not only legions of new fans and straightedge converts, but national media attention as well.
Veganism and Straightedge
With bands like Earth Crisis, Raid, Birthright, and others singing about veganism as well as straightedge, many outside the hardcore community, and some within as well, began to perceive veganism as part of the straightedge ethic.
While it is compatible with straightedge ideals of clean living and maintaining a moral compass of sorts, veganism is not a part of straightedge, though throughout the 90s many straightedge people were also vegan or vegetarian.
The Mid-90s Youth Crew Revival
The mid-90s saw a revival of bands playing music in the Youth Crew style, without the metal influence so pervasive in other straightedge hardcore bands of the 90s. This included bands like Ten Yard Fight, Floorpunch, and In My Eyes, to name a few, building the bubble that was the straightedge scene even larger as we approached the new millennium.
Straightedge at the Turn of the Century
At the close of the decade and the start of the new century, a number of the biggest straightedge bands all called it quits. Ten Yard Fight, arguably the biggest band of the 90s Youth Crew revival played their last show on Oct, 17th 1999, at a fest known as National Straightedge Day, or "Edge Day" which became an annual unofficial holiday of sorts celebrated by straightedge people around the world. Earth Crisis, the biggest of the vegan straightedge bands of the 90s played what was at the time their last show at Hellfest on July 7th 2001.
Straightedge continued to have advocates right up to the present, playing music in a variety of styles with bands like Throwdown, Champion, What Happens Next?, and The First Step, and the reunions of prominent straightedge bands from the past keeping straightedge alive for a new generation.
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