CHAPTER 20 | CDS, MTV, AND POP SPECTACLE 507
power metal—disguises the fact that the similarities between these styles are
more signifi cant than the differences.
Los Angeles was also an important center for hardcore punk. Like their fore-
bears the Ramones and the Sex Pistols, hardcore punk bands played songs that
were short, fast, and loud, with lead singers shouting angry, anarchistic, nihilist
lyrics. Unlike the 1970s punk bands, however, they were more inclined to indulge
in instrumental solos—always within very short song formats—featuring more com-
plex drumming and exploration of guitar effects such as extreme distortion.
Their stage dress tended to be the same slovenly jeans and T-shirts they wore on
the street, a sort of antifashion fashion statement. Virtually none of the hardcore
bands signed contracts with the major labels; instead, they created their own
independent labels to issue self-produced vinyl LPs and EPs (ten- or twelve-inch
45-rpm “extended play” records, typically containing four to six songs and thus
longer than a single but shorter than an LP).
Ignored by the major labels, hardcore punk bands tended to have regional
followings, and the hardcore phenomenon was not so much a national move-
ment as it was the sum of several local scenes. Probably the fi rst and most infl u-
ential scene was in Los Angeles, where Black Flag was formed in the late 1970s; byhardcore punkK Dave Mustaine of
Megadeth, seen here
performing in 2007,
personifi es the continued
importance of the guitar
hero in heavy metal.172028_20_495-513_r3_sd.indd 507 23/01/13 11:15 AM