Oi! punk ideology

Encyclopedia : O : OI : OIP : Oi! punk ideology

The general ideology of the Oi! movement in British punk rock was a sort of quasi-socialist working class populism. Lyrical topics included unemployment, workers' rights, police harassment and government oppression. They also covered less-political topics like street violence, football, sex and alcohol.

It first congealed with the arrival of bands such as Sham 69, Menace and Cock Sparrer. Influences also came from more well-known bands like The Clash and The Jam, who expressed themes that working-class youths could relate to. The first bands that could truly be considered Oi!, such as the Angelic Upstarts, The 4-Skins and The Cockney Rejects, held to this street-level populism, which tended to be less articulate than the Clash or Jam. The ideology was articulated and codified by writer Garry Bushell in the pages of Sounds magazine, and by poet Gary Johnson in the original Oi! compilation records.

Neo-fascist organizations like the National Front picked up on the Oi! movement and tried to manipulate it for their own ends, with bands like Skrewdriver (whose initial material was not racist). This branded the Oi! movement with a reputation for racism, which unfairly tarnished acts that were not racist, even those that were blatantly anti-racist.

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.