Trojan skinheads (also known as traditional skinheads or trads) are individuals who identify with the original British 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 ...

of the middle 1960s, when ska,

rocksteady Rocksteady is a music genre that originated in Jamaica around 1966. A successor of ska and a precursor to reggae, rocksteady was the dominant style of music in Jamaica for nearly two years, performed by many of the artists who helped establish ...

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...

, and

soul music Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in African-American culture, African-American African-American neighborhood, communities throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Catchy rhythms, stressed by handclaps ...

were popular, and there was a heavy emphasis on mod-influenced clothing styles. Named after the

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

Trojan Records Trojan Records is a British record label founded by Jamaican Duke Reid, Lee Gopthal and Chris Blackwell in 1968. It specialises in ska, rocksteady, reggae and dub music. The label currently operates under the Sanctuary Records Group. Th ...

, these skinheads identify with the subculture's

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

n rude boy and British

working class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

roots. Because of their appreciation of music played by

black people Black is a racial classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid- to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin and often additional phenotypical ...

, such as skinhead reggae (also referred to as boss reggae), the movement's philosophy tends to be either non-

racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

and

apolitical Apoliticism is apathy or antipathy towards all political affiliations. A person may be described as apolitical if they are uninterested or uninvolved in politics. Being apolitical can also refer to situations in which people take an unbiased p ...

, or

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

or anti-racist, unlike the white power skinheads.. Trojan skinheads usually dress in a typical 1960s skinhead style, including items such as button-down Ben Sherman shirts, Fred Perry polo shirts, braces, fitted suits, cardigans, tank tops, Harrington jackets and Crombie-style overcoats. Hair is generally between a 2 and 4 grade clip-guard (short, but not bald), in contrast to the shorter-haired punk-influenced Oi! skins of the 1980s.

Spirit of '69

The phrase ''Spirit of '69'' is used by traditional skinheads to commemorate what they identify as the skinhead

heyday Heyday may refer to: * ''Heyday'' (The Church album), 1986 * ''Heyday'' (Fairport Convention album), 1987 * Heyday (song), a 2000 song by Mic Christopher * ''Heyday'' (novel), a historical novel by Kurt Andersen * Heyday Books, an independent ...

in 1969. The phrase was popularized by a group of Scottish skinheads called the

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

Spy Kids, a play on the Glaswegian pronunciation of spike heads. A skinhead history book entitled ''Spirit of 69: A Skinhead Bible'' was written by George Marshall, a skinhead from Glasgow, in the early 1990s.

Related musicians

* Laurel Aitken * Desmond Dekker *

Judge Dread Alexander Minto Hughes (2 May 1945 – 13 March 1998), better known as Judge Dread, was an English reggae and ska musician. He was the first white recording artist to have a reggae hit in Jamaica, and the BBC has banned more of his songs from ...

* The Ethiopians * Tommy McCook * Derrick Morgan * The Pioneers * Symarip * The Upsetters * The Melodians

Footnotes

External links

Trojan RecordsRoots Of The Skinhead (video)Ska Party
- article about traditional skinheads
Spy Kids Electronic copy of Spirit of '69: A Skinhead Bible
{{Skinhead Skinhead Ska History of subcultures