20 Years of Dischord is a concise but representative musical chronicle of the first two decades of the label originally created by Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson as teenagers in 1980[2] with the sole purpose of releasing Minor Disturbance,[1][3][4] their band, the Teen Idles, debut EP; but that, over time, it went on to document the most part of the music coming out of the U.S. capital city's underground community,[1][3][4][5] becoming highly influential.

[3] "...the fascinating part [of 20 Years of Dischord] is hearing the progression ... from a high-octane hardcore hotbed to a more arty, experimental, and wide-ranging purely musical scene..."The third disc, an enhanced CD titled Unreleased and Rare, consists of a variety of outtakes, demos and live recordings from the Dischord vaults,[3][7] also includes an early interview with MacKaye,[1] as well as some video files of archival footage featuring performances by the Teen Idles, Untouchables, State of Alert, the Faith, Void, and Deadline.

Introduced by MacKaye, Nelson and Henry Rollins, the booklet contains a brief historic review of the label, a profile of each of the bands featured on the compilation, and a pictorial discography.

[1][3] Conceived by Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson, the 20 Years of Dischord box set was edited by Don Zientara at Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, Virginia.

The video files on the enhanced CD were edited by Chris Mills and Guillaume Bernardeau at the studio of RHED Pixel, located outside of Washington, D.C. Dischord Records released the collection on October 1, 2002.