Originally Published: Friday, April 1, 2005
Written by: Nadia
Opening Remark: A Personal Standpoint
The article (more of a rant really) below is based on my opinion, some of which are supported by facts. If you’d care to send hatemail, praise or anything of the sort feel free to leave a comment and or email me at: lovelostthegun@yahoo.com
The Decline of Positivity in the Scene
The violence that goes on in the scenes across the country today is disgusting. I can say, with confidence, that all of us have witnessed fights that had no real instigation. A lot of people feel that they have to be tough in a scene that was originally created for the opposite reason. Look back to the days when people would dance together, sing together, and preach about their collective beliefs and opinions. Fights were not started because someone accidentally blew smoke into someone’s face, ash landed on someone’s $100 pair of Diesel’s, “metal” fans coming to a hardcore show, a child making contact with a singer’s mic, an old man blocking the stage. The examples of, generally, unprovoked violence are endless.
Questioning the Purpose of Violence
So what purpose does this sort of violence serve? By beating up someone who blew smoke in my face, would I be furthering the straightedge revolution? It would be quite the opposite. Those of you who enjoy viciously attacking people who are not edge is only hindering the public’s views of straightedge. Like it or not, this can have a very negative effect on the scene. It creates a problem for people who try to book shows. What venue wants to have a band playing that draws such a violent crowd? Lemme tell ya, none. Will parents allow their children to attend a show that is known for drawing a violent crowd? Definitely not. These factors can ruin us. Venue owners will be afraid to have shows that bring a violent crowd, therefore they will not book the bands that bring such crowds. If a hardcore show does manage to take place, parents won’t allow their kids to go because of the widespread violence they hear taking place at the concert. So now that concert has just lost at least 50+ attendants. Those who do attend will inevitably cause some sort of fight thereby nullifying the usage of that venue.
The Impact on Venues and Community
I’ve seen such a cycle happen in my hometown! In Northern VA, we have lost over 5 venues due to violence at shows or kids just not respecting the property they are on. It’s these so-called hardcore supporters that ruin a good time for the rest of us. I started attending hardcore shows shortly after I turned 15 (the age deemed appropriate by my parents). At this period, shows were still filled with posi crowds. Going to a show was like meeting up with my 2nd family. I knew that I would be treated with respect and that we would have fun showing our love to the bands that were playing that night. If a fight broke out, it was because we were defending one of our own. An example: at one show we were at, one of our friends got mugged and beat up in the parking lot of the venue. The same person who did this later came into the show and we took him outside and did the same thing to him as he did to our friend, eye for an eye.
A Shift in Show Dynamics
As time went on new people started coming to our shows with their views that violence was necessary. They would attack the people standing outside of the pit, start fights with a kid who punched them by mistake in the pit (but it was interpreted as intentional), and pick on the “metalheads” that would make an appearance at a show.
A lot of the time when a band that has gotten big, such as the metalcore band As I Lay Dying, would play fights would consistently break out among the crowd because hardcore kids unnecessarily start fights with the “MTV” kids. It was a constant preventable drama that stopped many of the “old school” kids from attending the shows. Now one could say “Well they can just deal with it and go to the show anyway”, well this is a possibility but who would want to deal with crap like that at every show they go to? I would rather just stop going than have to wonder about my safety at a show.
The Dilemma of Safety and Enjoyment
There have been numerous cases reported to the general public about our scene that are misconstrued and do not represent most of us as a whole. All it takes is a few bad apples to ruin things for everyone else. If we do not do something to change the path that this scene is heading down, we could face some serious challenges.
Misrepresentation in Media and Its Effects
The ways of straight-edge kids attacking people without true provocation have already aired on 20/20. It won’t be long before the riots created by hardcore kids at shows make their way into the news. Take a look at the Boston Beat Down v2 documentary, it promotes the violence that occurs in the scene and even says that it puts the “hard back in hardcore”. Since when has a genre had to consist of people beating each other up to maintain their dignity? I thought this scene was for those searching for more. For more intelligent music, for a group of friends, they could truly depend on to be there through thick and thin, to start a positive revolution among the average person, yet we are acting like a bunch of gang members. We’re running around beating people up to prove a point, to prove that our proverbial balls are the size of Texas. We think that by beating someone up who is smoking a cigarette at a show, they might become straight edge or at least not poison our air ever again.
We think that by attacking a defenseless child who was simply expressing his love for music we’ll set an example that our shows are not for all ages. We believe if we can put an old man in a hospital for walking around a pit to get a closer look at a band that he thought sounded amazing, we’re notifying the public that only select people are welcome at our shows. What kind of message are we sending out as the collective scene?
A Call for a Positive Revolution
Each person in the scene needs to start taking action to once again make this a positive place for people to gather and have fun together. No more fighting without cause, learning tolerance to those that might annoy you, and overall just being the better person in situations that leave you flustered. Let’s give rebirth to a scene that is slowly dying and making way for something that is based on hatred and violence.
