The straight edge lifestyle is a counterculture element within punk rock culture, characterized by avoiding drugs, alcohol, and promiscuous sex. Its origins are disputed, but it gained popularity in the 1980s with bands like Teen Idles. Some saw it as militant and narrow-minded, while others were attracted to its less drug-filled environment. The movement peaked in the 1990s with bands like Judge and Youth of Today, but tensions have since dissipated. It should not be confused with the band X, who openly used drugs and alcohol.
The straight edge lifestyle, sometimes referred to by the letter X or the number 24, describes a small segment of people within the larger punk rock culture, who held some ideas that were antithetical to most punk rock music. Depending on the degree to which people practice the lifestyle, they may be vegan or vegetarian, tend to avoid alcohol, drugs and promiscuous sex, and may not even drink caffeine-containing products. There is considerable dispute about what should and should not be part of a straight edge lifestyle, and a number of people debate this topic intensely.
Some see the straight edge lifestyle as a derivative of musician Todd Rundgren’s thoughts about not drinking or smoking marijuana, but because Rundgren’s music more properly belongs to the hard rock genre. Others say the songs of the 1970s band The Modern Lovers, who are thought to have influenced punk rock music and whose lyrics express some of the ideas about lifestyle, were influential. Most, however, explain the beginnings of straight edge with a 1980 tour by punk rock band the Teen Idles, who weren’t old enough to drink and played some venues that had bars.
In order for the Teen Idles to play in bars, especially San Francisco’s Mabuhey Gardens, each band member was marked with an X on the back of one hand, so that no alcohol was served to them. This same tagging system allowed many people to see local punk bands in small bars and establishments that served alcohol. Later bars and clubs used rubber stamps to indicate whether a person attending a concert was a minor or legally of age.
The X brand caught on as a symbol of the early straight edge lifestyle, which is sometimes referred to as Old School. The interest in vegetarianism and an interest in some religious concepts such as those of the Hare Krishna faith captivated others, while some people were mostly attracted to straight edge ideas due to the less drug-filled environment it offered. What constituted the lifestyle was so diverse, and since many punk bands expressed completely opposite ideas about “sex, drugs and rock and roll”, the straight edge lifestyle can be characterized as a counterculture element within the larger punk environment. There was great tension between groups who opposed the “straight” life and those who took a more traditional rock and roll approach.
When the movement took off, there were some people who were particularly criticized by others in punk culture and were labeled a “militant.” This could mean outspoken or it could mean narrow-minded and limited in outlook and unwilling to allow others to pursue life as they see fit. It also meant that violence occasionally entered discussions between people of the heterosexual persuasion of life and others.
Early bands that appealed to the straight edge crowd include Teen Idles, Minor Threat, Government Issue and Cause for Alarm. The militant element peaked in the 1990s with groups like Judge, Bold and Youth of Today. Some bands also began to lean towards metal rather than punk rock, with bands like Strife and Earth Crisis being examples.
By the 2000s much of the tension that marked the straight edge lifestyle and punk lifestyle relationship had evaporated. Perhaps this is due in part to a growing acceptance of ideas such as vegetarianism. It is therefore common to see straight edge and non-straight edge bands perform together, without much animosity.
There might be some confusion for those who are fans of the punk, rockabilly band X that started playing in the 1970s. They were not associated with this lifestyle and some band members openly admit to using drugs and/or alcohol. X were not considered as much hardcore punk as some of the bands that followed, and for some years they were better known than many straight edge bands, playing larger venues, often with a single opening act of their choosing.
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