Underground 80's

Ahh yes, the 1980's. The popular music of this time is mostly defined as synthesizer music, as I am sure you all know. What none of you probably know, is that '80-'86 were the hay-days of hardcore punk rock. No this is not the "jugga jugga" "hardcore" today, and the definition of hardcore today is not even CLOSE to the definition hardcore punk rock. It is not like "regular" punk rock either: e.g. the Ramones, the Sex Pistols. It was called hardcore because they stripped down the music to the brutal, angry core. Most of the musicians of this time were not actual musicians. These guys just picked up a guitar, learned three chords, and spilled their hearts out in under a minute; the most angry 54 seconds you will ever hear. Bands like Black Flag (who Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain said was one of his main influences) Minor Threat, and the Misfits started completely different movements of their own. To get a better idea of the mentality of these teens, I will quote Jack Grisham from the band T.S.O.L.; "We aren't trying to go to the top, we are trying to level the top." He also said "thinking that they're gonna play your song on the radio is like a black man thinking he is gonna be elected president of the ku klux klan. No your not. You didn't even think of it that way." The scene sprouted countless independent record labels, including Black Flag founder Gregg Ginn's SST records. It was a scene about unity with a do it yourself mentality. You would record all of your songs live, and however it turned out was good enough. Then you would copy and cut out every insert to the album yourself. It was about expressing your rage. It was not about money, race, or any of the BS problems that popular record labels sign you up for.

Today in class we were talking about Michael Jackson breaking race barriers. Race was not an issue during this time. In fact, one of the most influential punk rock bands from D.C. known as the Bad Brains, were all black. The Dead Kennedys also had a black drummer. It just did not matter. In this scene, everybody was equally worthless. I said previously that hardcore punk rock was about unity. By unity, I mean a unity to fight for the same cause (against Ronald Reagan, the catalyst of the hardcore punk rock movement). It did not mean unity amongst your fellow punks as it does today. When you went to a show, you would get punch in the face, kicked in the head by crowd surfers (one man recollects a man with cowboy boots a spurs spurring people in the head), and when you left you would have all of your rage out for the day. People set off bombs, teenagers were doing meth (as well as every other drug) and having sex in the alley, buildings were broken into, people were hurt and robbed. Despite all of this violence, these were the geeky kids who worked regular jobs during the week and you would never in a million years expect them to be capable of this, but it was almost exclusively on the weekends that they could lash out against the pop culture and conformity of the '80's. If this sounds too wrong for you, then you should know that it was not this violent at first. It was rebellious, of course, and the Las Angeles police did not like this. They would go to punk shows and beat the crap out of kids who did not do anything; they would do it just because the kid was a punk. One man recalls a group of cops beating a kid who was too damaged to even stand up, but they just kept beating him and beating him. Why? He went to see his favorite band play and just happened to cross their path. I am not going to say that they started it...... oh wait yes I am. Henry Rollins (now and actor, writer, and musician) was at a show and he remembers, "a cop just walked up to me and said 'did you just call me faggot?'" Rollins said he was scared because it was "cat and mouse, the cop could take [him] at any time" and the police knew this so they would mess with the kids and abuse the law. Hooray double standards! The cops would get away with it because of the societal hatred for hardcore punk rock. The police would show up to punk shows and shut them down because they did not agree with the political views of the punk rockers, and this would usually start riots: literally. If you guys remember the interview with Tim Armstrong of Rancid (and Operation Ivy!) in class, recall that he said "Who am I to judge who is a punk?" This means that it is wwaayy to hard and complex to try to explain hardcore punk rock and honestly I just wanted to talk about it because it will never show up in any college class any where ever, so I suggest you watch or read "American Hardcore". This will give you interviews from people who lived the experiences and will be able to explain it a lot better than me. So go watch that movie, or listen to all of the different bands for many many years so you actually understand what this scene is before you start judging it like everyone else. If you do not do either of these things, never say anything about punk rock again.