Every Day Life, later simply known as EDL, was a Christian rapcore group. The band became identified with the straight edge movement, which advocates abstinence from sex, drugs and tobacco.
The band's first two albums were pulled from Christian bookstores. Their videos were played on MTV, their albums entered the college radio charts, and they were nominated for a Dove Award.
The Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music describes the band as having been "the first group in Christian music to address political issues in a responsible manner." The band wrote about issues of social and economic justice within Christianity and in the larger world.
Larry Norman was an influence for the band, with the lyricist telling one interviewer that "He wrote about the issues... just as Steve Taylor did, and just as Rez Band did when they started. These artists who originally started talking about the issues of Christianity now have no place in the market, because now the market has become songs of confirmation. And it almost makes it seem as though something we're doing is unheard of, and maybe not even Christian." HM jokingly remarked that the Chick tract "Angles?", which describes the evils of Christian rock, had been inspired by the band.