sXe

"What is Straight Edge?"







I get this asked alooooot. I am straightedge, and no, not the ruler...the answer to the question above is that it is a subculture centered around hardcore music. People who are straight edge do not smoke, do drugs or consume alcohol, or have promiscuous sex. There are no dietary or religious beliefs tied to straight edge contrary to what many people have come to believe, but we will get to that later. Minor Threat wrote a song in 1980 and a name was given to what would become a movement. The basic beliefs that drugs and alcohol were not needed and should be rejected. That one should live against the grain of popular society and live by rules and standards from themselves and not the ones dictated by society.



Davey Havok of AFI
{FAV. BAND!}



The long answer requires a bit of a history lesson…..



In the late 1970s and early 1980s a group of bands and kids began something that grew into a movement. It would become a movement that would outlive many of their involvement in the music and the scene. They didn't know what they were doing. They knew they didn't like what was going on around them, the self destruction, the self hatred, the pain and suffering caused by the punk attitude. They took a symbol that was originally used to identify them as being too young to drink so that the bartenders would know not to serve them and they made it their own. So they started setting themselves apart by wearing X's on their hands and by singing songs proclaiming:

"I'm a person just like you

But I've got better things to do

Than sit around and mess up my head

Hang out with the living dead

Snort white shit up my nose

Pass out at the shows

I don't even think about speed

That's something I just don't need

I've got the straight edge"

The "X"

The letter X is the most known symbol of Straight Edge, commonly worn as a marking on the back of both hands, though it can be displayed on other body parts as well, such as a tattoo. Some followers of Straight Edge have also incorporated the symbol into clothing and pins. According to a series of interviews by journalist Michael Azerrad, the Straight Edge "X" can be traced to the

The Washington D.C. Flag

Teen Idles' brief U.S. West Coast tour in 1980.The Teen Idles were scheduled to play at San Francisco's Mabuhay Gardens, but when the band arrived, club management discovered that the entire band was under the legal drinking age and therefore should be denied entry to the club. As a compromise, management marked each of the Idles' hands with a large black "X" as a warning to the club's staff not to serve alcohol to the band. Upon returning to Washington, D.C., the band suggested this same system to local clubs as a means to allow teenagers in to see musical performances without being served alcohol. The mark soon became associated with the Straight Edge lifestyle. In recent years, more music venues and (even dance clubs) have begun adopting this system. A variation involving a trio of X's (xXx) originated in artwork created by Minor Threat's drummer, Jeff Nelson,  in which he replaced the three stars in the band's hometown Washington, DC flag with X's. The term is sometimes abbreviated by including an X with the abbreviation of the term "Straight Edge" to give "sXe". By analogy, hardcore punk is sometimes abbreviated to "hXc". The X symbol can be used as a way to signify a band or person is Straight Edge, by adding the letter to the front and back, for example, the band 'xTyrantx'

Confusion About the Term

Some people may confuse straight edge with religion, but it's not a religion - it is a philosophy. The confusion is understandable though, because in the early days when straight edge first appeared, those who subscribed to this lifestyle believed a clear head would help them focus on their spirituality.
But straight-edgers do not all follow one religion. There are atheists, agnostics and Christian people who consider themselves straight edge. In the beginning, bands like Shelter and 108 even helped spread a Hare Krishna movement that many straight-edgers adopted for themselves.
You don't have to make a group with any one particular religion to be straight edge. You just have to follow a path that allows you to take care of yourself and your personal responsibilities without letting outside influences take over.
While this on little blog post cannot hope to cover all the challenges of the straight edge concept, it should be known that straight edge people have chosen to embrace this lifestyle for their own reasons.

　In short, it's a lifestyle that promotes a positive way of living.=]


I've got the StraightEdge!

 

Work cited:

Teen idle's. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.freebase.com/view/en/the_teen_idles

LastDischord Records, Initials. (2019, october 18). Minor threat. Retrieved from http://www.dischord.com/band/minor-threat

(2010). Retrieved from http://static.gigwise.com/gallery/dischordrecords.jpg