Subcultures, pop music and politics: skinheads and "Nazi rock" in England and Germany

Journal of Social History, Fall, 2004 by Timothy S. Brown

Whatever the political outlook of Oi!--most of the band members protested vigorously against being tarred with the fascist brush, and Gary Bushell went to great lengths to clear the Oi! name in the pages of Sounds--the music played an important symbolic role in the politicization of the skinhead subculture. By providing, for the first time, a musical focus for skinhead identity that was "white"--that is, that had nothing to do with the West Indian immigrant presence and little obvious connection with black musical roots--Oi! provided a musical focus for new visions of skinhead identity. (27) With the emergence of Oi!, a skinhead, could, in theory, completely avoid or negate the question of the subculture's black roots. In practice, few did so, on the one hand recognizing that ska--like boots and shaved heads--was a fetish item of skinhead identity, and on the other, seeing no reason to deprive themselves of the enjoyment of the music and social scene around ska gigs. Nor was the lyrical content of Oi! without potentially right-wing implications. Although some of its themes--working-class pride, repression, and the bad luck of the down-and-out--gave it much in common with other genres like country and the blues, others--like violence ("Aggro") and soccer hooliganism--could easily be interpreted in extreme right-wing terms. In providing a musical expression of skinhead identity that was exclusively white (and, unlike punk and ska, almost exclusively male), and in foregrounding violence as a pillar of the working-class lifestyle, Oi! provided a point of entry for a new brand of right-wing rock music.

As Oi! came to signify "white music," the relationship between cause and effect was reversed: rather than skinheads adopting right-wing beliefs and expressing them in music, musicians with right-wing beliefs began to adopt the skinhead scene--white, male, violent and patriotic--as a field for their self-expression. These musicians brought new musical influences to bear on Oi!, creating a hybrid form of "skinhead rock" that would maintain its affiliation with the scene long after it ceased to bear any resemblance to the "street punk" sound out of which Oi! developed. Two key bands--Skrewdriver from England, and the Bohse Onkelz ("Evil Uncles") from Germany--exemplify this process. Although different from each other in crucial ways, the two bands represent critical points of articulation between the Nazi rock genre and the skinhead Oi! scene out of which it developed, and illustrate the process by which new identities were created through the process of cultural transmission. London's Skrewdriver was the earliest and most influential of the "Nazi rock" bands. Its leader, Ian Stuart Donaldson, did more than anyone else to forge connections between right-wing rock music and the skinhead scene, and between the skinhead scene and the radical right. An ardent admirer of Adolf Hitler, Donaldson's understanding of the skinhead subculture had little to do with skinhead reggae or the black-white connections from which it sprang, a fact that is hardly surprising given that Donaldson was a musician with right-wing views long before becoming a skinhead. (28)