Skinhead
Years active | 1960s-present |
---|---|
Country | United Kingdom |
Major figures | Hoxton Tom McCourt |
Influences | Mod, rude boy |
Influenced | Suedeheads, Oi!, Trojan skinhead, White power skinhead, SHARP, Sharpies, hardcore punk |
A skinhead or skin is a member of a subculture that originated among
, and button-down collar shirts, usually slim fitting in check or plain. The movement reached a peak at the end of the 1960s, experienced a revival in the 1980s, and, since then, has endured in multiple contexts worldwide.The rise to prominence of skinheads came in two waves, with the first wave taking place in the late 1960s in the UK. The first skinheads were working class youths motivated by an expression of
The late 1970s and early 1980s saw a revival or second wave of the skinhead subculture, with increasing interaction between its adherents and the emerging punk movement. Oi!, a working class offshoot of punk rock, soon became a vital component of skinhead culture, while the Jamaican genres beloved by first generation skinheads were filtered through punk and new wave in a style known as 2 Tone. Within these new musical movements, the skinhead subculture diversified, and contemporary skinhead fashions ranged from the original clean-cut 1960s mod- and rude boy-influenced styles to less-strict punk-influenced styles.[5]
During the early 1980s, political affiliations grew in significance and split the subculture, demarcating the
History
Origins and first wave
In the late 1950s the post-war
Working class mods chose practical clothing styles that suited their lifestyle and employment circumstances: work boots or army boots, straight-leg jeans or Sta-Prest trousers, button-down shirts and braces. When possible, these working class mods spent their money on suits and other sharp outfits to wear at dancehalls, where they enjoyed soul, ska, and rocksteady music.[1][8]
Around 1966, a
In addition to retaining many mod influences, early skinheads were very interested in
Skinhead culture became so popular by 1969 that even the rock band Slade temporarily adopted the look as a marketing strategy.[14][15][16] The subculture gained wider notice because of a series of violent and sexually explicit novels by Richard Allen, notably Skinhead and Skinhead Escapes.[17][18] Due to largescale British migration to Perth, Western Australia, many British youths in that city joined skinhead/sharpies gangs in the late 1960s and developed their own Australian style.[19][20]
By the early 1970s, the skinhead subculture started to fade from popular culture, and some of the original skins dropped into new categories, such as the look making a comeback.
Second wave
In the late 1970s, the skinhead subculture was revived to a notable extent after the introduction of
Eventually different interpretations of the skinhead subculture expanded beyond Britain and continental Europe. In the United States, certain segments of the hardcore punk scene embraced skinhead styles and developed their own version of the subculture.[26]
Bill Osgerby has argued that skinhead culture more broadly grows strength from specific economic circumstances.[a] In a BBC interview, he remarked "In the late 70s and early 80s, working class culture was disintegrating through unemployment and inner city decay and there was an attempt to recapture a sense of working class solidarity and identity in the face of a tide of social change."[27]
Germany
By the 1980s street fights regularly broke out in
Style
Hair
Most first wave skinheads used a No. 2 or No. 3 grade clip guard cut (short, but not bald). From the late 1970s, male skinheads typically shaved their heads with a No. 2 grade clip or shorter. During that period, side partings were sometimes shaved into the hair. Since the 1980s, some skinheads have clipped their hair with no guard, or even shaved it with a razor. Some skinheads sport sideburns of various styles, usually neatly trimmed.
By the 1970s, most female skins had mod-style haircuts. During the 1980s skinhead revival, many female skinheads had feathercuts (The Chelsea, a
Clothing
Skinheads wore long-sleeve or short-sleeve
Many skinheads wore
Many traditionalist skinheads wore braces (suspenders), in various colours, usually no more than 1" in width, clipped to the trouser waistband. In some areas, braces much wider than that may identify a skinhead as either unfashionable or as a white power skinhead. Traditionally, braces were worn up in an X shape at the back, but some Oi!-oriented skinheads wore their braces hanging down. Patterned braces – often black and white check, or vertical stripes – were sometimes worn by traditional skinheads. In a few cases, the colour of braces or flight jackets were used to signify affiliations. The particular colours chosen have varied regionally, and had totally different meanings in different areas and time periods. Only skinheads from the same area and time period are likely to interpret the colour significations accurately. The practice of using the colour clothing items to indicate affiliations became less common, particularly among traditionalist skinheads, who were more likely to choose their colours simply for fashion.
Hats common among skinheads include:
Traditionalist skinheads sometimes wore a silk handkerchief in the breast pocket of a Crombie-style overcoat or tonic suit jacket, in some cases fastened with an ornate stud. Some wore pocket flashes instead. These are pieces of silk in contrasting colours, mounted on a piece of cardboard and designed to look like an elaborately folded handkerchief. It was common to choose the colours based on one's favourite football club. Some skinheads wore button badges or sewn-on fabric patches with designs related to affiliations, interests or beliefs. Also popular were woollen or printed rayon scarves in football club colours, worn knotted at the neck, wrist, or hanging from a belt loop at the waist. Silk or faux-silk scarves (especially Tootal brand) with paisley patterns were also sometimes worn. Some suedeheads carried closed umbrellas with sharpened tips, or a handle with a pull-out blade. This led to the nickname brollie boys.
Female skinheads generally wore the same clothing items as men, with addition of skirts, stockings, or dress suits composed of a three-quarter-length jacket and matching short skirt. Some skingirls wore fishnet stockings and mini-skirts, a style introduced during the punk-influenced skinhead revival.
Footwear
Most skinheads wear
In recent years, other brands of boots, such as
, have become popular with many skinheads. Female or child skinheads generally wear the same footwear as men, with the addition of monkey boots. The traditional brand for monkey boots was Grafters, but nowadays they are also made by Dr. Martens and Solovair.In the early days of the skinhead subculture, some skinheads chose boot lace colours based on the football team they supported. Later, some skinheads (particularly highly political ones) began to use lace colour to indicate beliefs or affiliations. The particular colours chosen have varied regionally, and have had totally different meanings in different areas and time periods. Only skinheads from the same area and time period are likely to interpret the colour significations accurately. This practice has become less common, particularly among traditionalist skinheads, who are more likely to choose their colours simply for fashion purposes.
Suedeheads sometimes wore coloured socks (for example, red or blue rather than black or white).[21]
Music
The skinhead subculture was originally associated with
The most popular music style for late-1970s skinheads was
In the late 1970s, after the first wave of punk rock, many skinheads embraced Oi!, a working class punk subgenre.[43] Musically, Oi! combines standard punk with elements of football chants, pub rock and British glam rock.[44] The Oi! scene was partly a response to a sense that many participants in the early punk scene were, in the words of The Business guitarist Steve Kent, "trendy university people using long words, trying to be artistic ... and losing touch".[45] The term Oi! as a musical genre is said to come from the band Cockney Rejects and journalist Garry Bushell, who championed the genre in Sounds magazine.[44][46][47] Not exclusively a skinhead genre, many Oi! bands included skins, punks and people who fit into neither category. Notable Oi! bands of the late 1970s and early 1980s include Angelic Upstarts, Blitz, the Business, Last Resort, The Burial, Combat 84 and the 4-Skins.[10]
American Oi! began in the 1980s, with bands such as U.S. Chaos, The Press, Iron Cross, The Bruisers and Anti-Heros.[48][49][50] American skinheads created a link between their subculture and hardcore punk music, with bands such as Warzone, Agnostic Front, and Cro-Mags. The Oi! style has also spread to other parts of the world, and remains popular with many skinheads. Many later Oi! bands have combined influences from early American hardcore and 1970s British streetpunk.
Among some skinheads,
Although many
Racism, anti-racism, and politics
The early skinheads were not necessarily part of any political movement, but as the 1970s progressed, many skinheads became more politically active and acts of
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, however, many skinheads and suedeheads in the United Kingdom rejected both the far left and the far right. This attitude was musically typified by Oi! bands such as Cockney Rejects, The 4-Skins, Toy Dolls, and The Business. Two notable groups of skinheads that spoke out against neo-Nazism and political extremism—and instead spoke out in support of traditional skinhead culture—were the Glasgow Spy Kids in Scotland (who coined the phrase Spirit of '69), and the publishers of the Hard As Nails zine in England.[61][62]
In the late 1960s, some skinheads in the United Kingdom (including
On the far left of the skinhead subculture,
See also
- SHARP - Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice
- List of skinhead films
- White power skinhead – Members of a neo-Nazi, white supremacist and antisemitic offshoot of the skinhead subculture
- Trojan skinhead – Cultural identity in the UK
- Ultras – Fanatical association football fans
Sources
- Brown, Timothy S. (1 January 2004). "Subcultures, Pop Music and Politics: Skinheads and "Nazi Rock" in England and Germany". Journal of Social History. 38 (1): 157–178. S2CID 42029805.
- Hebdige, Dick (1979). Subculture: The Meaning of Style. London, New York: Routledge. OCLC 1087981277.
Notes
- ^ Bill Osgerby is Emeritus Professor of Media, Culture and Communication at London Metropolitan and author of a number of books on youth culture. See #Further reading
References
- ^ a b c d e Brown 2004.
- ^ ISBN 9780313350818. Archivedfrom the original on 1 December 2020. Retrieved 3 January 2020.
- ISBN 9781135083731. Archivedfrom the original on 1 December 2020. Retrieved 3 January 2020.
- ISBN 978-1134755554. Archivedfrom the original on 1 December 2020. Retrieved 3 January 2020.
- ^ Godfrey, John (September 1988). "Ska Party". Skinheadheaven.org.uk. Archived from the original on 7 April 2010. Retrieved 27 February 2010.
- ISBN 978-0-7119-68134.
- ISBN 978-0-85965-173-8.
- ^ Edwards, Dave. Trojan Mod Reggae Box Set (Liner notes). London: Trojan Records. TJETD020.
- ^ Old Skool Jim. Trojan Skinhead Reggae Box Set (Liner notes). London: Trojan Records. TJETD169.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-898927-10-5.
- ^ a b c "Britain: The Skinheads". Time. 8 June 1970. Archived from the original on 21 May 2013. Retrieved 23 May 2010.
- ^ a b "Smiling Smash: An Interview with Cathal Smyth, a.k.a Chas Smash, of Madness". Archived from the original on 19 February 2001. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
- ^ a b de Koningh, Michael. "Reggae In Your Jeggae: The Phenomonen of the Skinhead Movement and Reggae Music". Reggaereggaereggae.com. Archived from the original on 17 December 2008. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
- ^ "Straight From His Own Gob – Noddy Holder interview". Soundchecks.co.uk. Archived from the original on 5 April 2005. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
- ^ "Ambrose Slade: The Wolverhampton group that became Slade". Brumbeat.net. Archived from the original on 13 August 2012. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
- ^ "h2g2 – Slade – the band". BBC. Archived from the original on 5 May 2009. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
- ^ Mean Streets, Jon. "Joe Hawkins: Not just an Oppressed-song". Archived from the original on 5 May 2007. Retrieved 11 April 2007.
- ^ "British Hell's Angel and Skinhead novels of the 1970s". Stewarthomesociety.org. Archived from the original on 20 April 2012. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
- ^ "The Sharpies — Cult Gangs of the Sixties and Seventies". Abc.net.au. Archived from the original on 24 September 2008. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
- ^ "Arts & Culture - ABC News". www.abc.net.au. Archived from the original on 29 October 2008.
- ^ a b c de Konigh, Michael (2004). Suedehead Reggae Box Set (Liner notes). London: Trojan Records. TJETD003.
- ^ "Suedeheads". Film Noir Buff. Archived from the original on 4 June 2012. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
- ^ S2CID 144461518.
- ISBN 978-1860645556.
- ISBN 978-1134755547.
In 2009 Paul Lazarus and Phil downsborough put on an event in Margate in Kent "the Big 40, the fortieth anniversary of Skinhead" which was attended by Skinheads from Britain, the USA, Europe, Australia and Japan The event ran on a yearly basis until 2012
- ^ "Rage with the Machine: A new breed of patriotic punks gets in the pit for Bush". Stuffmagazine.com. 1 November 2006. Archived from the original on 7 May 2008.
- ^ Geoghegan, Tom (12 April 2007). "Under the skin". BBC News Magazine. Archived from the original on 17 August 2017.
- JSTOR 488465.
- ^ Peters, Alex (28 December 2020). "Former 80s skinheads reflect on the significance of their Chelsea haircuts". Dazed. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
Capturing many of the faces in the scene was photographer Derek Ridgers. Armed with a camera, in the 70s and 80s Ridgers found himself on the front lines of the subcultures that emerged during that time, compiling a definitive record of the kids defining the aesthetics of a movement.
- ^ Bose, Mahasweta (22 February 2022). "Chelsea Haircut: Bring an Edge to your Style". Getarazor. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
- ^ John, Natasha (22 December 2021). "9 Types of Chelsea Haircuts to Enhance Your Looks". HairstylesFeed. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
- ^ Crow, Sarah (25 September 2018). "Women's Haircuts: 17 That Instantly Make You Look Older". Best Life. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
- ^ Brolley, Brittany (7 February 2019). "Haircuts You'll Regret In 10 Years". The List.
- ^ Panse, Sonal (21 September 2022). "What Is a Chelsea Haircut?". Beauty Answered. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
- ^ "5 Things You Didn't Know About the Chelsea Cut". Re-Edition Magazine. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
- ^ a b "Blasphemy Black Metal Skinheads T-Shirts". Archived from the original on 24 April 2015. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
- ^ Hebdige 1979, p. 58.
- ^ "RICHARD H KIRK Interview". Themilkfactory.co.uk. Archived from the original on 17 May 2011. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
- ^ "The 2-Tone discography". 2-tone.info. Archived from the original on 17 November 2019. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
- ^ "2 Tone Records - 2 Tone & Related Bibliography". 2-tone.info. Archived from the original on 27 February 2010. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
- ISBN 0-313-33158-8
- ^ "The Specials.com". Archived from the original on 28 March 2009.
- ^ Dalton, Stephen, "Revolution Rock", Vox, June 1993
- ^ a b "Oi! – The Truth by Garry Bushell". Archived from the original on 30 August 2009.
- ISBN 0-09-190511-7
- ISBN 1-84454-054-5
- ^ "Cockney Rejects". Oisite.tripod.com. Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
- ^ "The Press a tribute page". Maninblack.org. Archived from the original on 8 September 2010. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
- ^ "Dementlieu Punk Archive: Washington, DC: Iron Cross interview from If This Goes on 2". Dementlieu.com. Archived from the original on 21 April 2018. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
- ^ "Oi! American Oi! : Anti-Heros". 17 January 1999. Archived from the original on 17 January 1999.
- ^ Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult (2013), p. 73
- ^ "Metal Archives - Satanic Skinhead Propaganda". metal-archives.com. Archived from the original on 14 May 2017. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
- ISBN 0-922915-94-6.
- ^ "WNP — Memoirs of a Street Soldier Part 8". Aryanunity.com. Archived from the original on 17 February 2012. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
- ^ "Skrewdriver- A Fan's View". Punk77.co.uk. Archived from the original on 26 November 2010. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
- ^ "Skrewdriver- Press Cuttings". Punk77.co.uk. Archived from the original on 4 July 2010. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
- ^ "Diamond in the Dust - The Ian Stuart Biography". Archived from the original on 27 April 2009. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
- ^ "Skinhead". Encyclopedia Britannica. 15 January 2024.
- ^ Osgerby, 1998, 65
- ^ "Crucified Skinhead, Hate Symbols Database". Anti-Defamation League. Archived from the original on 8 September 2019. Retrieved 15 December 2019.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-898927-45-7.
- ^ "Ska Party". Skinheadheaven.org.uk. Archived from the original on 7 April 2010. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
- ^ "Monty Montgomery of the Pyramids/Symarip interview". Archived from the original on 29 September 2005. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
- ^ "REDSKINS — The Interview, 1986". Sozialismus-von-unten.de. Archived from the original on 26 February 2010. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
- ^ "REVOLUTION TIMES HOMEPAGE - Revolution Times-Interview aus Autonom # 17". Archived from the original on 27 October 2009. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
- ^ Groundwater, Colin (10 June 2020). "A brief history of ACAB". GQ.
- ^ "ACAB". Anti-Defamation League.
- ^ "Skinhead Nation: The Big Apple Bites Back". 9 July 2007. Archived from the original on 9 July 2007.
Further reading
- Brake, Mike (1974). "The skinheads: An English working class subculture". Youth & Society. 6 (2): 179–200. S2CID 146496118.
- Daniel, Susie; McGuire, Peter; et al. (1972). The Paint House: Words from an East End Gang. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. OCLC 480732329.
- Davis, John (1990). Youth and the condition of Britain: images of adolescent conflict. Conflict and change in Britain series - a new audit. London: Athlone Press. ISBN 9780485800012.
- Osgerby, Bill (1998). Youth in Britain since 1945. Making contemporary Britain. Oxford, Malden (Mass.): Blackwell. ISBN 9780631194767.
- Osgerby, Bill (2004). Youth Media. Routledge introductions to media and communications. London: Routledge. ISBN 9780415238076.
- Pearson, Geoff (1976). "'Paki-Bashing' in a North East Lancashire Cotton Town: A case study and its history". In Geoff Mungham; Geoffrey Pearson (eds.). Working Class Youth Culture. London, Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul. p. 50. ISBN 9780710083746.
- ISBN 978-1-84513-480-8.
Skinheads in Russia
- Worger, Peter (2012). "A mad crowd: Skinhead youth and the rise of nationalism in post-communist Russia". Communist and Post-Communist Studies. 45 (3–4): 269–278. .
- Victor Schnirelmann, «Чистильщики московских улиц»: скинхеды, СМИ и общественное мнение. ["Sweepers of Moscow Streets": Skinheads, Media, and Popular Opinion] М.: Academia, 2007. 116 стр.