The subculture of skinheads originated in 1960’s England among working class youths. They originated from Mods. Mods (from modernist) is a subculture that centred on consumerism, they had a devotion to fashion, music and scooters and when the psychedelic 60’s hit England the mods split into a wide variety of fashions including skinheads and hippies. Hard/Gang Mods otherwise known as lemonheads or peanuts had shorted hair and a more working class image and this is where skinheads derived from in 1968.
Early skinheads were interested in the Jamaican rude boy style, culture and music- Ska, rocksteady and early reggae although as the tempo to reggae slowed and the lyrics began to focus on topics like Black Nationalism and the Rastafarian movement skinheads disfavoured it.
So skinheads were firstly influenced by British mods but also by Jamaican rude boys.
In the 1960s both black and white skinheads engaged in violence against South Asian immigrants. This was commonly called “paki-bashing:” A ritual aggressive ‘defence’ of social and cultural homogeneity of community against outsiders. There is no acceptable reason for this violence although it could be partly because of the visibility of South Asians in the neighbourhood through shop and property ownership in comparison to West Indians but also due to the different cultural patterns for example willingness to defend self again in comparison to West Indian youth. This same violence was also shown towards homosexuals or all males who looked ‘odd’ by skinhead standards and was called “queer-bashing.” Although there was also anti racist skinheads from the beginning of the subculture, especially evident in Scotland and northern England.
In the early 1970’s skinheads began to fade from popular culture and new categories formed such as suedeheads, smoothies and bootboys.But By the late 1970s skinheads were revived through punk rock and punk and new Oi! skins and punk-skinheads were born . They often have shorter hair and more tattoos — and wear items such as high boots, tight jeans, T-Shirts and flight jackets.
The skinhead culture centres on community and territory and can be seen as a symbolic attempt to recreate aspects of their ‘parent culture.’ Core values of traditional working class culture was expressed though dress, style and activities. Skinheads practised demarcation and defence of ‘patch’ by marking boundaries with painted slogans and mobs were organised on a territorial basis. Within the lower working class young there was a clear us and them consciousness. The skinheads felt oppressed by authority shown by police, in schools and by “anyone with a badge on.” There was a sense of being in the middle of oppressive and exploitive forces produced a need for solidarity. Football and the violence around it provided skinheads an arena for expression and a place to exhibit the collective masculine self conception of the group. Often colours of scarves and laces on boots would correspond to the wearers football colours.
Today the label skinhead is subject to much misunderstanding and confusion, increased only by the radically different meanings associated with the term in different cultures and classes.