No More (song)

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Youth of Today (2010)

No More is a song released in 1988 by the hardcore band Youth of Today . He appeared on the album We're not on this alone . The song was about animal rights and was a hymn for veganism . He achieved a broad impact in the scene. As a result, numerous hardcore punks became vegetarian or vegan.

No More was the symbol for many when punk and straight edge developed from a behavior primarily related to their own and their own scene towards a targeted socio-political commitment. Youth of Today are considered to be the ones who introduced vegetarianism and veganism to the scene.

Emergence

At the end of the 1980s, when the song was written, vegetarianism or even veganism was hardly known in society. There were already vegan bands like Vegan Reich or Statement within the hardcore scene , but even within the manageable straight-edge scene they led a niche existence. Vegetarianism was also uncharted territory within the punk and straight edge scene. Straight Edge developed out of the punk scene in the early 1980s. Because of the experiences and problems the punk scene had with alcohol and other drugs , straight edge punks refrained from using any drugs. The aim here was the effect that the drugs had directly on one's own body. John Porcelly, the songwriter, recalls, "Me and Ray [Cappo] were both vegetarians .. Ray wanted to write a song about vegetarianism .. it was such a strange concept to most people. We thought [...] we want it really do that? Will people accept it, or will they find it completely strange? [...] And then, it was just an idea whose time had come. "

The song

In addition to the clear motto “No More”, the song also addresses the consequences of meat consumption and animal rights within the verses. Cappo begins by saying that eating meat is a crime for which living things must die. Then he realizes that he will no longer participate (No more!). And finally, that it's not just him, but that a vegetarian movement is emerging, the numbers of which are steadily increasing. Because people educate themselves. Overall, the song treats the topic extremely briefly. In addition to the chorus, it only has 17 lines of short text. Significant lines read: “Meateating; Flesheating, Think About it / So callous a crime we commit "(German:" Eat animal meat / Eat human meat, think about it / We commit such a callous crime ").

Musically, on the other hand, No More hardly differs from what was common in the scene at the time, it is a typical New York hardcore song of the late 1980s with clearly audible metal parts. Short, fast parts, especially around the chorus, and sung parts of the song alternate with much slower and longer pieces that work primarily purely musically. The video was also important: Here various scenes from slaughterhouses (obtained from PETA ) are cut together with New York street and concert scenes in which the band and their friends spray "No" on walls, chase butcher carts away and other friends from eating meat .

effect

Porcell recalled in 1997, “After the Youth of Today song No More , practically the whole scene went vegetarian. [...] A little later, being vegetarian and straight edge became synonymous. ”Even if the straight edge movement was individualistic and correspondingly diverse in its punk origins,“ vegetarian ”soon became the central assumption, which was also adopted by people strangers to the scene Media as reproduced in the New York Times 1995.

After No More had not encountered the feared strange reactions, but had been positively received, further songs of similar content followed in quick succession. The New York straight-edge band Gorilla Biscuits released Cats and Dogs in 1988 with the line "My true compassion is for all living things, and not just the ones that are cute" (Eng. "My true compassion goes to all living beings and." not just those who are cute. ”), the Cro-Mags then 1989 Death Camps . Earth Crisis , the band that was to become the flagship band of the vegan straight edge movement, was also formed in 1989.

Vegetarianism and often veganism have been an integral part of the straight-edge ideology since the late 1980s. Many ex-punks have often kept this vegetarianism and veganism as the only setting in their punk days, with which straight-edge-induced vegetarianism and veganism has left the boundaries of the straight-edge and punk scene far. Here was one of the sources for the further spread of vegetarianism in society. Even if Youth of Today weren't the first to mention vegetarianism in their lyrics, they were the first known band and were able to achieve a corresponding broad impact.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Klaus Petrus: Vegan Straight Edge: Lifestyle or Ideology? Animal in focus, May 14, 2011, accessed March 6, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Cesar G: Into the Age of Quarrel: A Retrospective on the Genre's Roots in New York Hardcore. Metal Lifestyle, November 21, 2017, accessed March 6, 2018 .
  3. ^ Robert T. Wood: Straightedge Youth: Complexity and Contradictions of a Subculture . Syracuse University Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0-8156-3127-9 , pp. 39 .
  4. ^ A b Marc Calmbach: More than Music: Insights into the youth culture Hardcore . In: Cultural Studies . tape 28 . transcript Verlag 2015, ISBN 978-3-8394-0704-2 , p. 86 .
  5. ^ No Drugs, No Drink, No Problem — Straight Edge Then and Now | The fix . In: The Fix . ( thefix.com [accessed March 6, 2018]).
  6. ↑ a b c Alan Parks: THIS SMALL WORLD: THE LEGACY AND IMPACT OF NEW YORK CITY HARDCORE PUNK AND STRAIGHT EDGE IN THE 1980S . In: DigitalCommons @ CalPoly . S. 43-86 ( calpoly.edu ).
  7. ↑ Life without flesh and leather | Knowledge | SWR2 . In: swr.online . ( swr.de [accessed on March 6, 2018]).
  8. ↑ "Ray screamed his message on guys with swastika tattoos" —Youth of Today in an interview . In: Noisey . May 6, 2016 ( vice.com [accessed March 6, 2018]).