 Ginn repurposed the company as a record label to release material by his band Black Flag.Music writer Michael Azerrad wrote, "Ginn took his label from a cash-strapped, cop-hassled store-front operation to easily the most influential and popular underground indie of the Eighties".Along with other independent American labels such as Twin/Tone, Touch and Go Records, Epitaph and Dischord, SST helped to spearhead the nationwide network of underground bands that formed the pre-Nirvana indie-rock scene.