Hardcore skinheads are

skinhead A skinhead or skin is a member of a subculture that originated among working-class youth in London, England, in the 1960s. It soon spread to other parts of the United Kingdom, with a second working-class skinhead movement emerging worldwide i ...

s who mainly associate with hardcore and sometimes heavy metal instead of

Oi! Oi! is a subgenre of punk rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The music and its associated subculture had the goal of bringing together punks, skinheads, and other disaffected working-class youth. The movement wa ...

ska Ska (; , ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a w ...

soul The soul is the purported Mind–body dualism, immaterial aspect or essence of a Outline of life forms, living being. It is typically believed to be Immortality, immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that ...

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. Genre is to be distinguished from musical form and musical style, although in practice these terms are sometim ...

s associated with the skinhead

subculture A subculture is a group of people within a culture, cultural society that differentiates itself from the values of the conservative, standard or dominant culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures ...

. 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 (sociology), lifestyle associated with that music. The scene established many aspects that are fixtures of hardcore ...

scene, although

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

and

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

also had strong scenes. Skinheads became prevalent towards the end of the first wave of hardcore, and this continued through the youth crew 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 emerged in the mid-1980s, when hardcore punk bands, such as Suicidal Tendencies, Cryptic Slaughter, Corrosion of Conformity and Dir ...

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 has been described as an 'iconic British brand'. Ben Sherman designs sometimes feature the Royal Air Fo ...

shirts or

Fred Perry Frederick John Perry (18 May 1909 – 2 February 1995) was a British tennis and table tennis player and former World number 1 male tennis player rankings, world No. 1 from England who won 10 Majors, including eight Grand Slam (tennis), ...

shirts; rolled up jeans; suspenders; and combat boots or Dr. Martens 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, baseball caps, white "wifebeater" shirts, looser jeans (perhaps torn at the knee), heavy chains worn as belts, and construction or rigger's gloves. Trainer

sneakers Sneakers (American English, US) or trainers (British English, UK), also known by a #Names, wide variety of other names, are shoes primarily designed for sports or other forms of physical exercise, but are also widely used for everyday casual ...

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

mohawks The Mohawk, also known by their own name, (), are an Indigenous people of North America and the easternmost nation of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy (also known as the Five Nations or later the Six Nations). Mohawk are an Iroquoi ...

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. Feral House is known for its taboo and provocative publications, but has had significant influence in both underground circles an ...

: Distributed by Publishers Group West, 2001.

References

{{skinhead Skinhead