Documentation of Minor Threat, a "hardcore" band
from Washington D.C., in a performance at CBGB's
in New York
Video, color, sound, 38 min 18 sec
The function of both popular and extremist music in contemporary culture
has long been a point of intellectual inquiry for Graham in his analyses of
the social implications of cultural phenomena. Here he documents Minor
Threat, a “hardcore” band from Washington D.C., in a performance at
CBGB’s in New York. Distinguished from punk music in that it developed
in suburban areas, hardcore, as typified here by Minor Threat, is seen
by Graham as a tribal rite, a catalyst for the violence and frustration of
its predominantly male, teenage audience. The direct, raw quality of
Graham’s documentary style mirrors the crude energy of his young
subjects and the hardcore subculture of the 1980s. (SR-KA)
