Straight Edge Punk Subculture

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MUSIC HISTORY II RESEARCH PROJECT:
EXPLORING THE STRAIGHT-EDGE PUNK MOVEMENT

Chris Spears
MU332: Music History II
March 3, 2017 Thesis and Credible Bibliographic Sources
1.1 Thesis The “straight edge punk” categorization within contemporary musical history is a subculture of hardcore punk rock which celebrates the musical themes of the 1970s and early-1980s hardcore punk scene but does so in a way that steers clear of the traditional “excesses” of the punk subculture, such as alcohol, recreational drug use, and oftentimes promiscuous sex. In viewing the emergence of the punk culture and punk music as an escape from the “norm” created by musical marketing and social trends of the 1970s, the punk genre set to establish itself away
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Straight edge: Hardcore punk, clean living youth and social change.
New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. 2006.
Ross Haenfler follows the lives of dozens of straight-edge youths, showing how for these young men and women, and thousands of others worldwide, the adoption of the straight-edge doctrine as a way to better themselves evolved into a broader mission to improve the world in which they live. Straight edge used to signify a rejection of mind-altering substances and promiscuous sex, yet modern interpretations include a vegetarian (or vegan) diet and an increasing involvement in environmental and political issues.
Jones, Raymond McCrea. Out of step: Faces of straight edge. New York: Empire Press,
2007.
This book is a refreshing look at a scene that has slipped from its prominence of a decade ago when the straight edge scene had figureheads like Earth Crisis leading the charge on its behalf, let alone two decades ago when Minor Threat coined the term of "straight edge." The photos and narratives in this book are well-composed and do a great job of capturing the subjects in very natural environments, each of which depicts a belief system that provides for a clean

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