Generation Reagan Youth

Hardcore punk radicalized punk rock in the U.S. at the end of the 1970s and was initially composed for the most part of white, male, and suburban youth. Both the scene's self-perception and academic accounts have tended to perceive hardcore as a musical subculture per se rebelling against the conservative zeitgeist of Reagan's America. In this study, the author conceives of hardcore as a particular form of life emerging in its distinct social practices within an umbrella form of life itself structured by neoliberal principles and white male privilege. Generation Reagan Youth historicizes hardcore's form of life across three scenes, namely skinhead, straight edge, and broader hardcore punk by taking into account lyrics, fanzine discourses, performance footage, and album cover artwork. Within this framework, the author demonstrates how white male performances in hardcore represented the white neoliberal form of life, while also offering opportunities for resistance - not the least in tandem with politicized hardcore manifestations like Queercore, Riot Grrrl, or Latino Punk.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1
1.1 The Haunting and Haunted History of Hardcore .................................................. 1
1.2 The White Male Body of Hardcore in the Historical Context
of the Post-Civil Rights Era .................................................................................. 4
1.3 Hardcore as a Form of Life ................................................................................. 10
1.4 How to Read the Body of Hardcore .................................................................... 14
1.5 The Historiography of Hardcore ......................................................................... 17
1.6 Structure of this Study ........................................................................................ 21