Still Screaming for Change
In 1986, Youth of Today changed the lyrics for a song about fighting to a song about forgiveness. 37 years later, we still have something to learn from it.
I.
There is such a thing as consistency. There is such a thing as dedication. There is such a thing as loyalty. In the first two decades of hardcore, we all grew up with a canon of songs that venerated these ideals, and whether it was “Committed For Life,” “Nailed to the X,” or “Always (A Friend for Life),” the running theme seemed to suggest that hardcore was a lifestyle of fixed decisions. It was about taking a hard stance, as one band named themselves. At sixteen years old, I personally made a not-so-insignificant number of decisions about who I was that I believed I was making “for life” or “until death.” Fixed convictions—and more specifically, making my mind up and sticking to it, no matter the consequences and often in black-and-white terms—gave me a kind of stability I didn’t grow up with. It also gave me a sense of superiority in a life that constantl…