One of the most influential leaders in the development of hardcore punk rock, H.R. of the legendary Bad Brains, sat down with SPIN for our Decades of Sound collaboration with Bose. In celebration of the speaker company’s 60th anniversary, H.R. talked about the ’80s, during which he and Bad Brains were paving the way for punk.
If there’s anything that H.R. misses about the ’80s, he tells SPIN that it’s the call-and-response between the band and audience during performances. Without phones back in the day, concerts and crowds embraced the moment and show with raw emotion, likely more so than today.
Because he lived through it himself, H.R. says the best concert of the decade was Bad Brains in 1984 at the famed CBGB venue in New York City.
There were various other bands alongside Bad Brains crafting and sharing the then-new punk rock to the masses during the ’80s, and H.R. credits Long Beach Dub Allstars and Fishbone as being two of the most influential of the decade.
Join us through the Decades of Sound, hearing from impactful artists about their favorite eras of music in celebration of Bose’s 60th anniversary.
