Animal rights and punk subculture
This association dates back to the 1980s and has been expressed in areas that include song lyrics, benefit concerts for animal rights organisations, and militant actions of activists influenced by punk music.
This association continues on into the 21st century, as evinced by the prominence of international vegan punk events such as Ieperfest in Belgium, Fluff Fest in Czech Republic, and Verdurada in Brazil.
Researcher Kirsty Lohman points out that punk's concern for animal welfare is placed in broader politics of environmental awareness and anti-consumerism, suggesting a form of continuity with previous countercultures such as the hippies and avant-gardes.
[19] Some straight edge people became Hare Krishnas because the latter provides a transcendental and philosophical framework wherein lay the commitments of non-drug use, vegetarianism and avoidance of illicit sex.
[20] Francis Stewart of the University of Stirling explained that there is still an anarchist influence on hardcore punk and straight edge, even if it were subtle, especially in regards to veganism and animal liberation and in the position of these within larger patterns of oppression.
[22][23] By the same token, other authors, such as music theorist Jonathan Pieslak, as well as straight edge activists argue that left-wing socio-political and politically correct agendas are detrimental to the movement because the scope of supporters is actually narrowed in broadening its causes since not everyone agrees on all of them.
[25] Elsewhere, Boisseau and Donaghey write that many people exposed to animal rights and veganism continue their activism after ending their involvement in punk scenes, indicating the politicising role of these subcultures.
[26] Zines also played a fundamental part by discussing animal rights, factory farming, and the health and environmental effects of diets, often drawing on academic authors.
[13] For many listeners, punk rock scenes provided their first encounter with the horrors of slaughterhouses or laboratories, as noted by the comparative religion scholar Sarah M. Pike and vocalist Markus Meißner, especially "before the Internet made documentaries available to everyone.
[33] Another controversy has been the anti-abortion stance of some of the most religiously committed activists which, in the case of hardcore punk, were influenced by the sanctity of life belief of Krishna Consciousness and hardline.
[35][36] This relationship (and subgenre) arises in the context of political upheaval, with a conservative government that waged war against Argentina (1982) and would eventually deploy nuclear missiles in the country.
[37] Anarcho-punk tried to restore punk rock's original objective of a subversive change in the world, countering the "disappointment, self-destruction, and commercial corruption" that permeated its key first-wave bands, and instead abiding by a devoted do-it-yourself ethic and philosophical anarchism.
[38] Anarcho-punk bands, which at first were widely pacifists, called to live consciously and to engage in activism; while some like Discharge and Crass emphasised their anti-war positions, others focused on animal rights such as Flux of Pink Indians and Conflict.
[14] The scholars Russ Bestley and Rebecca Binns argue that the early establishment of animal rights in anarcho-punk led to a form of "two-way dialogue" between bands and participants instead of a "top-down" ideological imposition, which was more of the case with other developments.
[46] In the following years, numerous anarcho-punk bands composed songs promoting animal rights and sometimes made it the principal topic, encompassing vegetarianism, anti-vivisection and opposition to hunting.
[54][44] The title of their 1983 song "Meat Means Murder" turned into a slogan which quickly propagated through the punk scene; articles on the topic appeared on fanzines, even on American (Flipside and Maximumrocknroll) and Australian ones.
[27] Their follow-up single To a Nation of Animal Lovers (1983) featured Steve Ignorant of Crass as co-vocalist and included illustrated vivisection essays in addition to addresses of scientists, food producers and fur farms.
[64][50] In the mid- to late 1980s, the stripped-down and coarse style of anarcho-punk mixed with different subgenres of heavy metal and brought forth crust punk[65] and grindcore,[66][67] which shared its emphasis on political and animal rights issues.
[71] Some authors credit the anarcho-punk scene originated by Crass as the introduction of diverse concepts and counter-cultural practices in popular culture, including those related to animal rights.
[81] The scholar Simon J. Bronner observes the lack of political homogeneity within the ideology, noting that there have been radical, religious, anarchist, and conservative straight edge bands, sometimes-tensely-coexisting in local scenes.
[19] Sociologist William Tsitsos pointed out that some of the most influential American straight edge bands that espoused animal rights focused only on personal morality, even when referring to corporations, while some of their European counterparts saw these lifestyles as part of a larger left-wing challenge against capitalism.
[82] The most controversial offshoot that advocated animal rights was hardline, a biocentric militant ideology that combines veganism, revolutionary politics and an Abrahamic view of the natural order, thus abjuring homosexuality and abortion.
[86] On the other hand, Pike notes two origins for the activists that would later emerge from the scene: the political one, which started with the arrival of the Animal Liberation Front from England, and the religious one, influenced by the Hare Krishna faith.
[87] Pioneering this trend were the 1986 songs "Do Unto Others" by Cro-Mags, a band with Hare Krishna members, and "Free At Last" by Youth of Today, straight edgers, both criticising slaughterhouses in a verse.
[88][65] After those first contacts, works such as Diet for a New America (1987) by John Robbins and Animal Liberation (1975) by Peter Singer increasingly began to circulate between the members of the scene, influencing bands and zines.
[92][93] In the early 1990s, the straight edge offshoot krishnacore was developed, which among its principles includes vegetarianism, centred on the bands Shelter (formed by two ex members of Youth of Today) and 108.
[113] Since the mid-1990s, the hardcore scene of São Paulo, Brazil has been highly organised, politicised and involved in animal rights by a collective that incorporated straight edge, anarchism, and the Hare Krishna tradition.
[103] In the late 1990s, several vegan straight edge bands had split up and soon the ideology took a back seat in the American hardcore subculture, but its impact on the scene has lasted and become "almost inextricably linked" to it.
[119] Journalist Will Potter affirms that the hardcore subculture "was even more influential" for activists than its British predecessor, with both having "had a formative, lasting impact on" the radical animal rights and environmental movements.
[41] The ska-punk band Goldfinger, formed in 1994, started as a "fun" project but since their fourth album, Open Your Eyes (2002), their frontman and producer John Feldmann became a member of PETA and put animal rights at the forefront of their music.
