Abstract
In this article I examine the contested and equivocal role of ‘straight edge’ as a
subcultural identity and lifestyle practice within the Indonesian DIY hardcore punk scene. Associated with a personal commitment to abstain from alcohol and drug use, straight edge was also understood by many in the Indonesian scene as a ‘positive punk’ movement for both self-transformation and progressive social change, reclaiming an authentic punk philosophy of autonomy and community from the ‘negative’ performance of transgressive rebellion. However, as the scene became entangled in both neo-liberal processes of commercialization and a resurgence of Islamic conservatism, many of those committed to positive punk began to question the role of straight edge and its relationship to DIY production as an anti-capitalist creative practice. Through a critical assessment of the lifestyle politics of straight edge in the Indonesian scene, I explore the potentials and limits of subcultural identity practices for emancipatory politics. Entangled in contradictory discourses and practices of collective identity, personal choice, subcultural authenticity, and anti-capitalist activism, straight edge both helped to cohere a distinct anti-capitalist DIY hardcore current within the Indonesian punk scene and constrained the political potential of DIY practices within a framework of subcultural identity and lifestyle. I situate this specific history of straight edge in the Indonesian scene within a broader analysis of the contradiction within DIY punk between building positive personal and social
alternatives and critically negating existing modes of identification and sociality.
subcultural identity and lifestyle practice within the Indonesian DIY hardcore punk scene. Associated with a personal commitment to abstain from alcohol and drug use, straight edge was also understood by many in the Indonesian scene as a ‘positive punk’ movement for both self-transformation and progressive social change, reclaiming an authentic punk philosophy of autonomy and community from the ‘negative’ performance of transgressive rebellion. However, as the scene became entangled in both neo-liberal processes of commercialization and a resurgence of Islamic conservatism, many of those committed to positive punk began to question the role of straight edge and its relationship to DIY production as an anti-capitalist creative practice. Through a critical assessment of the lifestyle politics of straight edge in the Indonesian scene, I explore the potentials and limits of subcultural identity practices for emancipatory politics. Entangled in contradictory discourses and practices of collective identity, personal choice, subcultural authenticity, and anti-capitalist activism, straight edge both helped to cohere a distinct anti-capitalist DIY hardcore current within the Indonesian punk scene and constrained the political potential of DIY practices within a framework of subcultural identity and lifestyle. I situate this specific history of straight edge in the Indonesian scene within a broader analysis of the contradiction within DIY punk between building positive personal and social
alternatives and critically negating existing modes of identification and sociality.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 233-261 |
| Number of pages | 29 |
| Journal | Punk & Post-Punk |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jun 2017 |