Youth crew

Youth crew is a sub-genre of hardcore punk that was most popular from approximately 1986 to 1990, primarily in New York Ci

Youth crew is a sub-genre of hardcore punk that was most popular from approximately 1986 to 1990, primarily in New York City and, to a lesser degree, Los Angeles. The sound was largely defined by a handful of highly-influential Revelation Records releases, including Youth of Today, Gorilla Biscuits, Bold and Side By Side.

Unlike the early hardcore bands, many youth crew kids defined themselves as being separate from punk rock, seeing themselves as a counter culture within the counter culture. They often rejected the "live fast, die young" model of punk and promoted what they called a more "positive" lifestyle, embracing straight edge and vegetarianism. Like the bands from the beginning of the decade, however, they were still mostly young, Caucasian males originally from the suburbs, then living in the cities. Because this made them targets for violence in the established urban punk scene, they formed tight-knit cliques which they referred to as crews, patterning themselves on the gang-like groups that had dominated the early New York and Boston scenes.