Are American youths a problem to be solved by our society? Many think they are, whether they are aware or not.

Welcome to the attempt of a student to guide the interested public through issues of adolescents and adolescence in the world of American Hardcore Punk and Indie music!

The goal of this website is to introduce to the viewer the American underground music scene at the point of it's conception as a true cultural force and then view this subculture and it's citizens through the lenses of adolescence discourse, class, gender, and poststructuralism.

Huh?

It's simple! Bands like the Minutemen, Black Flag, and Minor Threat, were very important and influential in the lives of youths across the nation in the early to mid-1980's, but in a more interesting, important, revolutionary way than other music that turned teens on at the time.

“It was for kids, it was about kids, it was by kids”.

Chris Foley, SS Decontrol
Boston, MA

Independent (or Indie) music and Hardcore punk rock in particular were art forms and communities that demanded a different kind of involvement from it's members, enticed a whole different kind of audience, and spoke volumes about how adolescents were experiencing life at the time.

We're talking angry, energetic youths at the dawn of the Reagan Era tearing down normative behavior, capitalism, peer pressure, and the status quo!

I'm not here to say that this changed the world, but it changed the lives of many, and it's ripples will continue to be felt every time an adolescent starts a band to speak there mind in a determinedly autonomous manner.

I'll be analyzing 5 main texts on this site in this order: American Hardcore (documentary film), The Decline of Western Civilization (documentary film), Our Band Could Be Your Life (documentary-style essay collection), We Jam Econo (documentary film), and Get in the Van (tour diary).

In this order you will be introduced to the birth of Indie music in the Hardcore and gain a basic understanding of what it was, who was involved, some of the notable bands, and what it has to contribute to an analysis of American adolescent discourse. Next you will have the opportunity to watch documentary film shot during the transitional period of Los Angeles punk rock to get a look at some early Hardcore bands, their behavior, attitudes, and insights, and the same for their fans, some club owners, and fanzine staff. Next is a look at two prominent bands, Minor Threat and The Minutemen, that helped define the ethos and sounds that dominated early Indie music and who each veered in new and promising directions instead of stagnating. Finally we end our excursion with the tour diary of Henry Rollins, Black Flag's most famous and longest lasting frontman, which will be used as an opportunity to discuss the "dark side" of our subject matter: ways in which individuals and entire scenes are impacted by cultural forces that want to destroy, bend them to their will, or subvert and weaken ther revolutionary status.

You would benefit from starting by checking out the GLOSSARY for terms foreign to you. There is a separate GLOSSARY for CRITICAL TERMS that are used in discussing the adolescent issues within this project, with a heavy emphasis on terms found in Nancy Lesko's work Act Your Age!: A cultural Construction of Adolescence. Understanding these terms is vital to an understanding of what this project attempts to discuss and illustrate about the issue of adolescents and the adolescent discourse in America. Also on the critical side will be a page of timely media on the hardcore and indie cultures and some videos that will illustrate cultural condition of America during the time period of our interest- the early to mid-1980's (that means we'll get to see The Gipper!). Finally I'll post a list of addition material worth checking out on the subject and a Bibliograophy to try and stay proper, thankful, and legal.

You can watch all the video from all the pages and some more over in the video gallery!