User talk:Ddecker1

Straight Edge

People wonder what's wrong with some kids. People wonder what these kids have to hide. There must be something wrong with them. Is it because they look more different from other youths? No, is it because they are more violent than others? No, but what is the reason? The reason simply is - they live the "straight edge". But what is "straight edge" exactly?

The basic definition was created in the early 1980s in a hardcore-punk song of the Washington D.C. band "Minor Threat" whose singer Ian Mackaye wrote a song about living a life without drugs; the song which included the six legendary words "don't drink, don't smoke, don't have sex !". It was a song called "Straight Edge" a song that gave a name to a new movement amongst the youth of then and preserved its fascination and attitude up to the new millennium. To explain the history of the term "straight edge" even a bit more precisely; the words became the meaning for after the drummer of minor threat saw the symbol of a straight edge on a poster and thought it would be the perfect symbol for this new lifestyle.

Basically it was a thing about cleaning oneself. In the late 1970s and early 1980s there was a big frustration in the punk scene worldwide. It was pretty much all about sex and drugs and rock'n'roll ,and whoever wanted to be a real punk got drunk or stoned every time there was an opportunity.

The problem was that the political backgrounds of punk became more and more unimportant, and people didn't even have the power to be active anymore. the poison took their power. So some kids, especially in New York, rethought this whole punk-idea and decided for themselves not to participate in this organized chaos anymore, to resist against the peer pressure, and to get clean and save their power for the fight to reach their ideals. The important thing which gave those kids the platform and power to start out their mission around the world was the music. Fast punk, it was the new kind of punk. Today we call it old-school hardcore.

Bands like minor threat, ssd, and the teen idols were only some of the first straight edge bands. Thousands of others followed their way. the music was the basis, but what was the background behind this "don't drink, don't smoke, don't have sex!"? Was it just a frustrated group of kids who wanted to get attention by living like that? Not at all.

The part about the drinking and smoking is easy to understand. It means; "concentrate your power on the important things in life" but what about the sex? Why should people not be allowed to make love according to this lifestyle? Well, that's not quite what it was supposed to mean and still is; it is supposed to mean, that one shouldn't have promiscuous sex; sleeping around every time one gets the chance. No pretending of love just to get sex. The reason for that is to show respect to others. Not to see them as things. This is probably one of the most discussed about points of this whole definition.

Straight edge is nothing suspicious. Straight edge is personal choice. Straight edge is the decision to find ones own norms. Straight edge is support for weak and disadvantaged beings. Straight edge is the attempt to make the world a better place.