From the moment of its birth in the early '80s, the culture of hardcore punk was inextricably tied to violence. Punk had always been about confrontation in one form or another, but it wasn’t until hardcore came along that the ambient threat of violence implicit in punk culture was fully realised. A certain amount of the uproar around hardcore violence was probably the result of Reagan-era conservatism exacerbated by irresponsible media coverage, but even by their own admission, the instigators of the hardcore scene still fought a lot. They fought with the public, the police, and each other. They fought on the streets, at shows and—in some cases—at the rehearsal space. Violence, however one looks at it, was a part of the everyday language of American punk music in the '80's.
