Mindfulness, anti-sexism, veganism – basically it all goes back to one movement: the hardcore punk of the 80s. A search for clues with thought leader Ian MacKaye.
Few figures in European and American cultural life have been as influential and as invisible to the masses as Ian MacKaye, the bands’ charismatic founder Minor Threat and fugazi. Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters wrote him a glowing fan letter as a youngster, and as late as 2020 was still half-jokingly saying that the Foo Fighters wouldn’t have accomplished anything until they could release a single on MacKaye’s Discord Records label. In Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel “Here I Am” main character Jacob Bloch eulogizes Fugazi: “The greatest band ever, in every respect. Their music was great. Their ethos was great. (…) Don’t make videos, don’t do merchandising. Do Music with anti-capitalist, anti-women, class-conscious messages.” Two global youth movements of the past few decades, the drug-free “Straight Edge” lifestyle and the “Emo” movement, go back to the lyrics of Minor Threat and fellow Dischord bands without forcing this development or even endorsing it.