Rockpedia

In short

The scene that produced straight edge, then reacted against its own toughness and produced emo.

The scene

Minor Threat invented straight edge in a forty-six second song, and Dischord built a label that ran on principle to an extent that embarrassed everyone else. By 1985 the same people had decided that hardcore's emotional flatness was a limitation rather than a virtue; Rites of Spring came first, and the word 'emocore' was coined in the city that year. Fugazi is what the whole argument eventually sounded like.

What happened

• 1981 Minor Threat invent straight edge
• 1985 'Emocore' is coined in Washington DC