Out of the “Dregs of the Eighties” and Screaming at the New World Order

Abstract

In the late 1980s, the US punk scene was plagued by Nazi skinheads, macho violence, and hostility toward leftist politics. At the dawn of the 1990s, several punk bands challenged this state of affairs by putting radical leftist politics at the heart of the scene, ejecting racists, and opening space for women, Latino, and queer participants. They fostered new and more intense musical styles distinct from New York Hardcore (NYHC) style, and built new institutions—zines, performance venues, and record labels—to give shape to their music and politics. The music of the all-Latino band Los Crudos exemplifies the trend of intense hardcore punk with a strident political message.