Youth crew / straight edge, from the outside in. Each step is a genre and the single record this encyclopedia would put on first. Play them in this order and the last one should sound like a next step rather than a wall.
- 1 The way in
Rock 1954
The whole family: guitar, bass, drums and a beat borrowed from blues and rhythm and blues. Every branch below grows out of this trunk, metal included.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
The Beatles - Revolver, if you want to understand why everything branched so fast.
The Beatles, Revolver (1966) - 2 Then
Punk rock 1974
Three chords, two minutes and zero patience for solos. A full reset of rock, and the second major source of extreme metal.
Shouted. Barked or chanted, and you can still make out the words.
Put on
Ramones - Ramones. Fourteen songs in twenty-nine minutes, not a wasted note.
Ramones, Ramones (1976) - 3 Then
Hardcore punk 1980
Punk accelerated to 200 bpm, songs of one minute and shouted vocals. Without it there is no thrash, no grindcore, no metalcore.
Shouted. Barked or chanted, and you can still make out the words.
Put on
Bad Brains - Bad Brains (the ROIR cassette). The fastest band of the decade.
Bad Brains, Bad Brains (1982) - 4 What you asked about
Youth crew / straight edge 1986
Hardcore with a code: no alcohol, no drugs, gang vocals and breakdowns. The ethics of the scene became the subject of the songs.
Shouted. Barked or chanted, and you can still make out the words.
Put on
Gorilla Biscuits - Start Today. Optimistic hardcore, which is rarer than it sounds.
Gorilla Biscuits, Start Today (1989) - 5 Where to go next
Proto-punk 1967
Garage rock turned hostile and repetitive, with noise and nihilism. Nobody called it punk yet, but everyone at CBGB copied from it.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
The Stooges - Fun House. The sound of a band self-destructing in real time.
The Stooges, The Stooges (1969)
Assembled from the tree: every genre Youth crew / straight edge descends from, in order. Youth crew / straight edge has no subgenres, so the last step is the genre that rates closest to it by sound.