OI!

'Oi!' is a working class street-level subgenre of punk rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the 1970s.^[1]
The music and associated subculture had the goal of promoting unity between punks, skinheads and other non-aligned working class youths (sometimes called ''herberts''). The Oi! movement was partly a response to a sense that many participants in the early punk rock scene were, in the words of The Business guitarist Steve Kent, "trendy university people using long words, trying to be artistic...and losing touch".^[2] Originally the music style was called 'street punk', 'streetpunk', 'new punk' or 'real punk'.^[3] Other terms that have been used at certain points are 'street rock', 'street rock 'n' roll', 'Oi!/street punk' and 'streetpunk/Oi!'.^[4][5] In 1980, writing in Sounds, rock journalist Garry Bushell labeled the movement ''Oi!'', taking the name from the garbled "Oi!" that Stinky Turner of the Cockney Rejects used to introduce the band's songs. The word ''Oi!'' is an old Cockney expression, simply meaning ''hey!'' or ''hello!''
Oi!-related clothing items include (but are not limited to) traditional British punk and skinhead-oriented items such as: leather jackets (sometimes customized with paint and metal spikes or studs); flight jackets; Harrington jackets; denim jackets, or vests; T-shirts (usually with images or text related to the skinhead or punk subcultures); Ben Sherman or Fred Perry polo shirts, button-down shirts or sweaters; jeans (sometimes splattered with bleach); bondage trousers; bullet belts; studded leather belts; braces; spiked or shaven hairstyles (including mohawks, bihawks, and trihawks, often dyed); combat boots or Dr. Martens boots; and flat caps.

Contents

History

Controversy

Sound samples

Notable Oi! bands

Footnotes

External links

History

The Oi! genre began in the latter part of the 1970s, fusing the styles of early punk bands such as The Clash and the Ramones; early British rock (i.e. the Rolling Stones, The Who); football chants; pub rock (i.e.101ers, Eddie and the Hot Rods); and glam rock bands (i.e. Slade, Sweet). The first Oi! bands included Sham 69, Cock Sparrer, Cockney Rejects and Angelic Upstarts, although some of them were around for years before the word Oi! was used to describe their style of music. The original wave of Oi! bands was followed by groups such as The Business, The Gonads, The Last Resort, The 4-Skins, Blitz, Combat 84, Infa Riot, The Blood, Condemned 84 and The Oppressed.^[6] The general ideology of the original Oi! movement was a rough sort of quasi-socialist working class populism. Lyrical topics included unemployment, workers' rights, police harassment and government oppression.^[2] They also covered less-political topics like street violence, football (with chants), sex and alcohol. Although Oi! has become to be considered mainly a skinhead-oriented genre, the first Oi! bands were mostly comprised of punk rockers and people who fit neither the skinhead nor punk label.
The Oi! movement lost momentum in the United Kingdom, but Oi! scenes formed in continental Europe, North America, Asia and other continents. In the United States, the Oi! phenomenon was mirrored by the hardcore explosion of the early 1980s, especially by bands such as U.S. Chaos, Agnostic Front, Iron Cross and S.S. Decontrol. Although similar in spirit and influence to Oi! (particularly in the earlier stages), hardcore expounded itself in an American middle class (rather than working class) fashion as its influences spread.
Other notable bands that have been influenced by the original Oi! scene include: The Press, Anti-Heros, The Templars, Oxblood, Wretched Ones, Those Unknown, Pressure Point, The Bruisers, Dropkick Murphys, Oxymoron, Paris Violence, Street Dogs, Roger Miret and the Disasters, the GC5 and Hard Skin.
In the mid-1990s, there was a revival of interest in Oi! music in the UK, with new bands emerging such as Pressure 28, Another Mans Poison, Boisterous, Argy Bargy, Straw Dogs, and older bands receiving more recognition. Many of the original UK Oi! bands have reunited to perform and/or record in the 2000s, and some of them never broke up in the first place. Some of those bands are: Peter and the Test Tube Babies, Cock Sparrer, Angelic Upstarts, The Business, Cockney Rejects, Red Alert and Sham 69 (who announced another breakup in late January 2007).

Controversy

Because some fans of Oi! were involved in white power organisations such as the National Front and the British Movement, some histories of rock music dismiss Oi! as racist.^[2] However, none of the bands associated with the original Oi! scene promoted racism in their lyrics. Some Oi! bands, such as the Angelic Upstarts and The Oppressed were associated with left wing politics and anti-racism.^[3][10] The mainstream media associated Oi! with far right politics following a concert by The Business, The Last Resort and The 4-Skins on July 4, 1981 at the Hamborough Tavern in Southall. Asian youths firebombed the tavern, mistakenly believing that the concert was a neo-Nazi gathering, partly because some audience members had written National Front slogans around the area.^[2]
In the aftermath, many Oi! bands condemned racism and fascism. These denials were met with cynicism from some quarters because of the ''Strength Thru Oi'' compilation album, released May 1981. Not only was its title a supposed play on a Nazi slogan (''Strength Through Joy'') but the cover featured Nicky Crane, a British Movement activist who was serving a four-year sentence for racist violence. Garry Bushell, who was responsible for compiling the album, insists its title was a pun on The Skids album ''Strength Through Joy''. He also denied knowing the identity of the skinhead on the album's cover until it was exposed by the ''Daily Mail'' two months later.^[12] Bushell, who was a socialist at the time, noted the irony of being branded a far-right activist by a paper who "had once supported Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts, Mussolini's invasion of Abyssinia, and appeasement with Hitler right up to the outbreak of World War Two." ^[12] Many believe the Mail's attack on Oi! - later disowned by Simon Kinersley, the journalist who wrote it - was related to the fact that Sounds was owned by the Daily Express group.

Sound samples

To download a song, right click on the download link and select 'save target as'.

★ "British Oi! Is Fighting Back" by Bakers Dozen:
click here to download

★ "Flashback" by Splinter:
click here to download

Notable Oi! bands

★ The 4-Skins

★ Angelic Upstarts

★ Blitz

★ The Blood

★ Oxymoron

★ The Business

★ Cock Sparrer

★ Cockney Rejects

★ The Exploited (early days)

★ Hard Skin

★ The Oppressed

★ Peter and the Test Tube Babies

★ Sham 69

★ Splodgenessabounds

Footnotes

1. Dalton, Stephen, "Revolution Rock", ''Vox'', June 1993
2. Robb, John (2006). ''Punk Rock: An Oral History'' (London: Elbury Press). ISBN 0-09-190511-7
3. http://www.garry-bushell.co.uk/oi/index.asp
4. http://uk.real.com/music/genre/Oi_Street_Punk/
5. http://www.garry-bushell.co.uk/autobiography/INDEX.ASP
6. Spirit of '69 - A Skinhead Bible, , George, Marshall, S.T. Publishing, , ISBN 1-898927-10-3)
7. Robb, John (2006). ''Punk Rock: An Oral History'' (London: Elbury Press). ISBN 0-09-190511-7
8. Robb, John (2006). ''Punk Rock: An Oral History'' (London: Elbury Press). ISBN 0-09-190511-7
9. http://www.garry-bushell.co.uk/oi/index.asp
10. http://www.skinheadnation.co.uk/oi!.htm
11. Robb, John (2006). ''Punk Rock: An Oral History'' (London: Elbury Press). ISBN 0-09-190511-7
12. www.garry-bushell.co.uk/oi/index.asp
13. www.garry-bushell.co.uk/oi/index.asp

External links

★ History of Oi! by Garry Bushell

★ Punk and Oi! in the UK -includes interviews and news about Oi! bands

★ Oi! the Web Site -includes information about the original Oi! compilation albums

★ Chapter on Oi! in Skinhead Nation