Minor Threat was a short-lived but very influential hardcore punk band from Washington DC, often credited with starting the straight edge movement. Critics have called them and their work " iconic," and have noted that their "groundbreaking" music "has held up better than [that of] most of their contemporaries."
They and fellow Washington DC residents Bad Brains set the standard for many hardcore punk bands in the 1980s and 1990s. They produced short, often astonishingly fast songs, eventually with excellent production quality, which at the time was lacking in most punk/ alternative rock). All of Minor Threat's records were released on the band's own Dischord Records.
While at Wilson High School, Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson were in the influental DC punk band The Teen Idles. After that band broke up, MacKaye decided to switch from bass to vocals, and organized Minor Threat with Nelson and two prep-school kids (from Georgetown Day School), bassist Brian Baker and guitarist Lyle Preslar. Minor Threat's first performance was in December 1980, opening for Bad Brains.
Their first 7" EPs, "Minor Threat" and "In My Eyes", were released in 1981. The group became popular regionally, and toured the United States' east coast.
"Straight Edge," a song on the first EP, inadvertently inspired the straight edge movement. The song seemed to be a call for abstention from drugs and alcohol-- a new thing in rock music, which initially found a small, but dedicated following.
Another Minor Threat song from the first EP, "Out of Step", further demonstrates the aesthetic: " Don't smoke/Don't drink/Don't fuck/At least I can fucking think/I can't keep up/I'm out of step with the world." The "I" in the lyrics was implied, and some in Minor Threat -- Jeff Nelson in particular -- took exception to what they saw as MacKaye's imperious attitude on the song.
