Mod origins
In the late 1950s,
Great Britain's entrenched
class system limited most working class people's educational, housing, and economic opportunities. However, Britain's post-war
economic boom led to an increase in
disposable income among many young people. Some of those youths invested in new fashions popularized by
American soul groups, British
R&B bands, certain movie actors, and
Carnaby Street clothing merchants.
[1]These youths became known as the
mods, a youth subculture noted for its
consumerism — and devotion to fashion, music and
scooters.
[2] Mods of lesser means made do with practical styles that suited their lifestyle and employment circumstances:
steel-toe boots, straight-leg
jeans or
Sta-Prest trousers, button-up shirts, and braces (called
suspenders in the USA). When possible, these working-class mods spent their money on suits and other sharp outfits to wear at dancehalls, where they enjoyed
soul,
ska,
bluebeat and
rocksteady music.
[3][
edit] Split with the mods
Around 1965, a
schism developed between the peacock mods, who were less violent and always wore the latest expensive clothes, and the hard mods (also known as
gang mods), who were identified by their shorter hair and more working-class image.
[4] Also known as lemonheads and peanuts, these hard mods became commonly known as skinheads by about 1968.
[5]Their shorter hair may have come about for practical reasons, since long hair can be a liability in industrial jobs and a disadvantage in streetfights. Skinheads may also have cut their hair short in defiance of the more bourgeois
hippie culture popular at the time. In addition to retaining many mod influences, early skinheads were very interested in
Jamaican rude boy styles and culture, especially the music: ska, rocksteady, and early
reggae (before the
tempo slowed down and lyrics became focused on topics like
black nationalism and
Rastafarianism).
[6]Skinhead culture became so popular by 1969 that even the rock band
Slade temporarily adopted the look, as a marketing strategy.
[7] The subculture gained wider notice because of a series of violent and sexually explicit
novels by
Richard Allen, notably Skinhead and Skinhead Escapes.
[
edit] Offshoots and revivals
By the 1970s, the skinhead subculture started to fade from popular culture, and some of the original skins dropped into new categories, such as the
suedeheads (defined by the ability to manipulate one's hair with a comb), smoothies (often with shoulder-length hairstyles), and bootboys (with mod-length hair; associated with gangs and
hooliganism).
[8] [9] Some fashion trends returned to mod roots, reintroducing
brogues,
loafers, suits, and the
slacks-and-
sweater look.
In the mid-1970s, the skinhead subculture was revived to a notable extent after the introduction of
punk rock. Skinheads with even shorter hair and less emphasis on traditional styles grew in numbers and grabbed media attention, mostly as a result of their involvement with
football hooliganism. These skinheads wore
punk-influenced styles like higher boots than before (14-20 eyelets) and tighter jeans (sometimes splattered with
bleach). However, there were still several skinheads who preferred the original mod-inspired styles. Eventually different interpretations of the skinhead subculture expanded beyond The UK and Europe. One major example is that in the
United States, certain segments of the
hardcore punk scene embraced skinhead style and developed its own version of the subculture.
[
edit] Racism and anti-racism
In the late 1960s, some skinheads (including
black skinheads) had engaged in
Paki bashing (random violence against
Pakistanis and other
South Asian immigrants).
[10][11] However, there had also been
anti-racist and
leftist skinheads from the beginning, especially in areas such as
Scotland and
Northern England.
[12] [13] In the 1970s, the
racist violence became more politicized, with the involvement of
far right organizations like the
National Front and
British Movement, which included many skinheads among their ranks. Those organizations' positions against blacks and
Asians appealed to many
working class skinheads who blamed
immigrants for economic and social problems. This led to the public's misconception that all skinheads are
neo-Nazis.
In an attempt to counter this
stereotype, some skinheads formed anti-racist organizations.
Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice (SHARP) started in the USA in 1987, and
Anti-Racist Action (ARA) began in 1988 as an anti-racial movement, not a political movement.
[14] SHARP spread to the UK and beyond, and other less-political skinheads also spoke out against neo-Nazis and in support of traditional skinhead culture. Two examples are the Glasgow Spy Kids in Scotland (who coined the phrase Spirit of 69), and the publishers of the Hard As Nails
zine in England.
[15]
