tional drug use. The movement was kickstarted by Washington, D.C.'s Minor Threat in the 1980s. The lead singer of Minor Threat, Ian McKaye, is credited with coining the term in their song "Straight Edge". He has since disowned the movement. Someone who is "straight edge" follows the punk lifestyle, but doesn't drink, smoke, or do drugs. Some straight edgers avoid promiscuous sex, and many modern straight edgers are vegetarian or vegan. Straight edge was a reaction to the self-destructive nature of the scene and it's drug use. One sign that a person is "edge" is a black "X" written with marker on the person's hand. This comes from the practice of marking an "X" on the hand of underage youths at shows so the bar tender would know not to serve them alcohol. Hardline is a social movement which originated in the straight edge punk subculture. Hardline is based around extreme politics, mostly derived from the doctrines of deep ecology. It is controversial, even within straight edge for it's militant stance against drug use. Hardliners will sometimes attack strangers who are drinking, smoking or doing drugs. Some people have been killed as a result of these actions. The most well-known hardline band is the now-defunct Vegan Reich.
- The indie scene is an offshoot of punk that carries on punk's DIY ethic, though indie music is sonically more diverse. Characterized by independent labels, regional diversity, and grassroots fanbases, the indie scene encompasses a wide variety of underground music genres, most notably alternative rock and particularly its subgenres such as indie rock, indie pop, and indietronica. A prime example is the Seattle grunge scene that developed in the late 1980s. Grunge had considerable mainstream success in the early 1990s, during which the media placed an emphasis on the bands' working class clothing and indie ethics along with other alternative rock-related tropes such as Lollapalooza in an attempt to define it as a supposed "alternative culture" for Generation X.
Subcultures with origins separate from punk Edit
Punk has ties to the skinhead subculture, a working class youth subculture which originated in the UK in the 1960s. The original skinhead movement had largely died out by 1972, but in the late 1970s it underwent a revival, partly as a reaction against the commercialization of punk. Punks and skinheads have had both antagonistic and friendly relationships, depending on the circumstances. Also in the late 1970s, punk influenced skinhead fashion, leading to the punk-skinheads code of dress.
Punk and hip hop emerged around the same time in New York City, and there has been a surprising amount of interaction between the two subcultures. Some of the first hip hop MCs called themselves punk rockers, and some punk fashions have found their way into hip hop dress. The Beastie Boys originally started out as a hardcore band. Malcolm McLaren (the manager of the Sex Pistols) played roles in introducing both punk and hip hop to the United Kingdom. Recently, hip hop has influenced several punk bands, including The Transplants and Refused, and punk themes, such as disenchantment with the urban-industrial landscape, have been expressed in the lyrics of many hip hop artists.
The industrial subculture has several ties to punk.
Additionally, punk and the heavy metal subculture have shared similarities since punk's inception, and the early 1970s metal scene was instrumental in the development of protopunk. Glam rockers The New York Dolls, massively influential on early punk fashion, also influenced the look of glam metal. Alice Cooper was a forerunner of the fashion and music of both the punk and metal subcultures. Motörhead, since their first album release in 1977, have had continued popularity in the punk scene. Hardcore was a primary influence on thrash metal bands such as Metallica and Slayer and, by proxy, an influence on death metal and black metal. Conversely, punk subgenres like metalcore, grindcore, punk metal and crossover thrash were greatly influenced by heavy metal. As a result, many punks are fans of h