Desert Wizards

“Whereas subgenres and ‘subscenes’ would become further specialized in the last years of the decade and throughout the 2000s, in the early to mid-1990s, there were centripetal forces providing most participants with a toolbox of shared experiences and reference points. Many, in fact, came from outside the punk scene, coopted into the vocabulary and imagery of liner notes, fanzines, patches and ephemera.

If you were 'a 90s hardcore kid,’ chances were you were also familiar with certain texts—books and films like Watership Down, Winnie the Pooh, Star Wars, Swing Kids, Dune, The Lord of the Rings, and the poems of Shel Silverstein. These became the fodder for the memes of the pre-Internet generation.

In the squeaky-clean straightedge pockets this sometimes translated into unabashed collectorism. Having a limited-edition 'X’ Swatch might win you some social cache, but using an Empire Strikes Back lunchbox as a purse? Now that was a real coup.

Ultimately, people of any generation are a product of their culture. It might be premature to say that there was a shallower set of references 'back then,’ just as it may be dismissive to say 'indoor kids’ have always gravitated to the same things. It’s not 'weird’ that people should like these stories and traditions. What is 'weird’–if by weird we mean curious and not very well examined–is that these texts should have been incorporated into one particular chapter of a two-decade-old subculture without precedent or a repetition in the years to come.” - Mike McKee, More Than Music