Title
A History of Modern Music: Part Four: Indie: 18. Ian Mackaye meets Bad Brains and invents hardcore January 1979
Subject
Invention of Hardcore
Description
This article talks about how the genre of hardcore punk was founded by the singer of Fugazi and how it turned the scene to a more positive and politically-minded community.
"The scene's moral compass - he pioneered the straight-edge movement, which eschewed drugs, alcohol and casual sex - MacKaye founded the fiercely independent Dischord Records and steered hardcore away from flirtations with skinhead violence."
"The scene's moral compass - he pioneered the straight-edge movement, which eschewed drugs, alcohol and casual sex - MacKaye founded the fiercely independent Dischord Records and steered hardcore away from flirtations with skinhead violence."
Creator
Stevie Chick
Source
The Guardian
Publisher
Guardian News & Media Limited
Date
June 14, 2011
Contributor
[no text]
Rights
Guardian Newspapers Limited, Jun 14, 2011
Relation
[no text]
Format
[no text]
Language
[no text]
Type
Article
Identifier
[no text]
Coverage
[no text]
Original Format
[no text]
Text
No mere three-chord punk dullards, Washington DC's Bad Brains had chops to spare. They'd started as jazz-fusion quintet Mind Power, worshipping at the altar of John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra until they discovered the Sex Pistols. Refashioning themselves as Bad Brains, these four Rastafarians played whip-tight punk rock at nosebleed velocity, also dropping occasional Jah-praising dub jams into their setlists. Such efforts won Bad Brains a ban from every club in their hometown.
Sixteen-year-old skater Ian MacKaye first met Bad Brains at a Cramps gig in DC in January 1979, forming his own group Teen Idles after seeing them play. Besotted, MacKaye invited the cash-strapped Bad Brains to rehearse in the basement of their singer's parents' house, later saying that "watching Bad Brains work was inspirational. . . They were the fastest, greatest band in the world." After Teen Idles split in 1980, MacKaye fronted Minor Threat, whose brutally brief thrashes, righteous politics and DIY ethic kickstarted the hardcore punk movement that spread across America in the early 80s. The scene's moral compass - he pioneered the straight-edge movement, which eschewed drugs, alcohol and casual sex - MacKaye founded the fiercely independent Dischord Records and steered hardcore away from flirtations with skinhead violence. Bad Brains' subsequent career was more haphazard: singer HR recorded vocals for their 1986 album I Against I from jail, serving time for cannabis possession.
Sixteen-year-old skater Ian MacKaye first met Bad Brains at a Cramps gig in DC in January 1979, forming his own group Teen Idles after seeing them play. Besotted, MacKaye invited the cash-strapped Bad Brains to rehearse in the basement of their singer's parents' house, later saying that "watching Bad Brains work was inspirational. . . They were the fastest, greatest band in the world." After Teen Idles split in 1980, MacKaye fronted Minor Threat, whose brutally brief thrashes, righteous politics and DIY ethic kickstarted the hardcore punk movement that spread across America in the early 80s. The scene's moral compass - he pioneered the straight-edge movement, which eschewed drugs, alcohol and casual sex - MacKaye founded the fiercely independent Dischord Records and steered hardcore away from flirtations with skinhead violence. Bad Brains' subsequent career was more haphazard: singer HR recorded vocals for their 1986 album I Against I from jail, serving time for cannabis possession.