Hardcore skinheads are

skinhead A skinhead is a member of a subculture which originated among working class youths in London, England, in the 1960s and soon spread to other parts of the United Kingdom, with a second working class skinhead movement emerging worldwide in th ...

s who mainly associate with

hardcore Hardcore, hard core or hard-core may refer to: Arts and media Film * ''Hardcore'' (1977 film), a British comedy film * ''Hardcore'' (1979 film), an American crime drama film starring George C Scott * ''Hardcore'' (2001 film), a British documen ...

and sometimes heavy metal instead of Oi!, ska,

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest att ...

or other

music genre A music genre is a conventional category that identifies some pieces of music as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions. It is to be distinguished from '' musical form'' and musical style, although in practice these terms are som ...

s associated with the skinhead

subculture A subculture is a group of people within a culture that differentiates itself from the parent culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures develop their own norms and values regarding cultural, poli ...

. Starting in the early 1980s, there were many skinheads in the

New York hardcore New York hardcore (also known as NYHC) is both the hardcore punk music created in New York City and the subculture and lifestyle associated with that music. New York hardcore grew out of the hardcore scene established in Washington, D.C., by ban ...

scene, although

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...

and

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

also had strong scenes. Skinheads became prevalent towards the end of the first wave of hardcore, and this continued through the

youth crew Youth crew is a music subculture of hardcore punk, which was particularly prominent during the New York hardcore scene of the late 1980s. Youth crew is distinguished from other punk styles by its optimism and moralistic outlook. The original yout ...

era of hardcore. Many of the key New York skinhead hardcore bands were influenced by the burgeoning

crossover thrash Crossover thrash (often abbreviated to crossover) is a fusion genre of thrash metal and hardcore punk. The genre lies on a continuum between heavy metal and hardcore punk. Other genres on the same continuum, such as metalcore and grindcore, ...

scene. In the early 1990s, there was a steep decline in the involvement of skinheads in the hardcore scene as more of them moved on to the American Oi! scene. However, these American Oi! bands were distinct from their British forerunners because they were influenced by the American hardcore sound. The White Power Skinhead scene also produced several hardcore bands in the late 1980s and 1990s like Blue Eyed Devils, Angry Aryans, No Alibi, Steelcap and H8 Machine. These bands are sometimes referred to as hatecore.

Style and clothing

Although characterised by some of the same items as British skinhead fashion ( flight jackets;

Ben Sherman Ben Sherman is a British clothing brand selling shirts, sweaters, suits, outerwear, shoes and accessories predominantly for men. Ben Sherman designs sometimes feature the Royal Air Force roundel which is often called the mod target. In its beg ...

shirts or

Fred Perry Frederick John Perry (18 May 1909 – 2 February 1995) was a British tennis and table tennis player and former world No. 1 from England who won 10 Majors including eight Grand Slam tournaments and two Pro Slams single titles, as well ...

shirts; rolled up jeans; suspenders; and combat boots or

Dr. Martens Dr. Martens, also commonly known as Doc Martens, Docs or DMs, is a German-founded British footwear and clothing brand, headquartered in Wollaston in the Wellingborough district of Northamptonshire, England. Although famous for its footwear, D ...

boots,) hardcore skinhead dress is considerably less strict than traditional skinhead style. Items that have been popular in the hardcore skinhead subculture include: leather jackets, army jackets, windbreaker jackets, hooded sweatshirts, bandanas, white "wifebeater" shirts, looser jeans (perhaps torn at the knee), heavy chains worn as belts, and construction or rigger's gloves. Trainer

sneakers Sneakers (also called trainers, athletic shoes, tennis shoes, gym shoes, kicks, sport shoes, flats, running shoes, or runners) are shoes primarily designed for sports or other forms of physical exercise, but which are now also widely used fo ...

, in particular Adidas Sambas, have been popular. They often have shaved heads or

mohawks The Mohawk people ( moh, Kanienʼkehá꞉ka) are the most easterly section of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy. They are an Iroquoian-speaking Indigenous people of North America, with communities in southeastern Canada and northern Ne ...

Bibliography

* Blush, Steven and Petros, George; '' American Hardcore: A Tribal History''; Los Angeles, CA :

Feral House Feral House is an American book publisher founded in 1989 by Adam Parfrey and based in Port Townsend, Washington. Early history The company's first book was '' The Satanic Witch'' (1989; originally published in 1971 by Dodd, Mead & Company) by ...

: Distributed by Publishers Group West, 2001.

References

{{skinhead Skinhead