I've Got Better Things To Do Than Sit Around and F*** My Head, Hang out With The Living Dead...I've Got The Straight Edge

I started thinking about this the other day when I was bopping along in my car with my iPod blasting through my car stereo...I don't think that musicians realize how powerful their music could be. I don't think musicians realize how much they could help a person in understanding different issues within their own life. I don't think musicians realize how their fans perceive their music, as if the fans favorite band is speaking only to them, not the other other 1000 people that are called their "fans". I don't think that they realize how some songs hold up after years and years, past their given time.

Take Minor Threat (a punk band of the early 80s from Washington DC) for example. I don't think that Ian MacKaye knew the impact his one song, "Straight Edge," would have on the world today. Ok, maybe not the world, but to all the straight edge kids, teens, young adults, and even adults today. I don't think Minor Threat thought about the impact they would have on the whole straight edge subculture. If only they knew...

I'm not going to ramble on and on about what straight edge is, or what it stands for, or what it represents for the people who follow this philosophy. I will, however, quickly, tell what straight edge is. Basically its a subculture that that has stemmed for the hardcore punk scene. People within this culture are called "straight edgers" and abstain from alcohol consumption, drug use, and promiscuous sex. I will also say this, straight edge and straight edgers get a bad reputation a lot of the time, and for many different reasons. Most of the times it is because straight edge is perceive to be a gang...it's not a gang! No one has to be beat into the subculture! It could also be because most straight edgers are perceived (by non-straight edgers) as elitists, or even uptight cause they don't know how to "party". And still because some straight edgers are very militant and preacher-like when it comes to their straight edge beliefs.

Ok, I could ramble all day about straight edge. Let's just say it's important to me.... But think if Minor Threat or Ian MacKaye hadn't started this wave in the early 80s? Would this subculture be as thriving as it is now? Would Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_edge )have information on it? Maybe, but maybe not.

It's just something to think about.