Oi!

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Subgenre of punk rock

title: "Oi!" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["oi!", "punk-rock-genres", "1970s-in-music", "1980s-in-music", "20th-century-music-genres", "english-styles-of-music", "scottish-styles-of-music", "welsh-styles-of-music", "skinhead", "working-class-culture-in-the-united-kingdom"] description: "Subgenre of punk rock" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oi!" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Subgenre of punk rock ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox music genre"]

FieldValue
nameOi!
other_namesNew punk (early)
stylistic_origins
cultural_originsLate 1970s – early 1980s, United Kingdom (particularly the East End of London)
derivativesTough guy hardcore
subgenresPunk pathetique
other_topics
::

::callout[type=note] the music genre ::

| name = Oi! | other_names = New punk (early) Real punk (early) | stylistic_origins = | cultural_origins = Late 1970s – early 1980s, United Kingdom (particularly the East End of London) | derivatives = Tough guy hardcore | subgenrelist = | subgenres = Punk pathetique | fusiongenres = | regional_scenes = | other_topics =

Oi! (originally known as new punk or real punk) is a subgenre of punk rock that emerged in the United Kingdom, particularly the East End of London in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The term was originally coined by Sounds magazine writer Garry Bushell in August 1979. The music and its associated subculture aimed to unite punks, skinheads, and generally disaffected working-class youth.

The movement was partly a response to the perception that many participants in the early UK punk scene were, in the words of The Business guitarist Steve Kent, "trendy university people using long words, trying to be artistic... and losing touch." The movement was later associated with conservative and far-right ideologies.

Notable acts included Sham 69, Cock Sparrer, Angelic Upstarts, the 4-Skins, the Business, Anti-Establishment, Blitz, the Blood and Combat 84.

History

During the late 1970s, oi! was originally referred to as "new punk", the term was coined by Sounds magazine writer Garry Bushell who published the article "Cockney Rejects and the Rise of New Punk" on 4 August 1979. The style would also be referred to as "real punk". The movement emerged after the perceived commercialisation of punk rock and new wave. Oi! fused the sounds of first wave punk bands with influences from the 1960s British Invasion groups, the mod subculture, football chants, drinking songs, and English pub rock. Although Oi! has come to be considered mainly a conservative or skinhead-oriented genre, the movement initially emerged purely as a reaction to the fracturing of the early UK punk scene and aimed to bring together disenfranchised working-class youth.

In 1978, Bushell argued "New Punk" artists such as the Angelic Upstarts had more relevance than "New Musick". Bushell would be an early supporter of Oi! as a reaction to the artistic intellectualization of punk, with "new punk" followers expressing appreciation for his support of "real kids" bands and his refusal to be an "intellectual snob".

First-generation Oi! bands such as Sham 69 and Cock Sparrer were around for years before the word Oi! was used retroactively to describe their style of music. In 1980, writing in Sounds magazine, rock journalist Garry Bushell labelled the movement Oi!, taking the name from the garbled "Oi!" that Stinky Turner of Cockney Rejects used to introduce the band's songs. The word is a British expression meaning hey. In addition to Cockney Rejects, other bands to be explicitly labeled Oi! in the early days of the genre included Angelic Upstarts, the 4-Skins, the Business, Anti-Establishment, Blitz, the Blood and Combat 84.

The prevalent ideology of the original Oi! movement was a rough brand of working-class rebellion. Lyrical topics included unemployment, workers' rights, harassment by police and other authorities, and oppression by the government. Oi! songs also covered less-political topics such as street violence, football, sex, and alcohol.

Some Oi! bands―such as Sam McCrory and Johnny Adair's Offensive Weapon―and fans were involved in white nationalist organisations such as the National Front (NF) and the British Movement (BM), leading some critics to dismiss the Oi! subgenre as racist.

Rock Against Communism (RAC) was a partial development from white power/white supremacist movements, which had musical and aesthetic similarities to Oi! Although due to Cold War fears the genre had appealed to some punk rock bands distinct from original Oi! in that they opposed all totalitarianism, it was not connected to the Oi! scene. Timothy S. Brown writes:

Garry Bushell, the journalist who promoted the Oi! genre, argued that the white power music scene was "totally distinct from us. We had no overlap other than a mutual dislike of each other".

The mainstream media increased its claims that Oi! was linked to far-right racist politics after an Oi! concert at the Hambrough Tavern in Southall on 4 July 1981 ended with five hours of rioting, 120 people being injured and the tavern being burnt down. Before the concert, some audience members had written NF slogans around the area and bullied Asian residents of the neighbourhood.

In response, local Asian youths threw Molotov cocktails and other objects at the tavern, mistakenly believing that the concert—featuring the Business, the 4-Skins and the Last Resort—was a neo-Nazi event. Although some of the concert-goers were National Front or British Movement supporters, none of the performers were white power music bands, and the audience of approximately 500 people included skinheads, black skinheads, punk rockers, rockabillies, and non-affiliated youths.

In the aftermath of that riot, 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 in May 1981. Not only was its title a play on a Nazi slogan "Strength Through Joy", but the cover featured Nicky Crane, a skinhead BM activist who was serving a four-year sentence for racist violence. Crane later disavowed his alignment with the far right after revealing he was gay.

Bushell, who compiled the album, stated its title was a pun on the Skids' album Strength Through Joy, and that he had been unaware of the Nazi connotations. He denied knowing the identity of the skinhead on the album's cover until it was exposed by the Daily Mail two months after the release. Bushell, a socialist at the time, noted the irony of being branded a far-right activist by a newspaper that "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."

After the Oi! movement lost momentum in the United Kingdom, Oi! scenes formed in continental Europe, North America, and Asia. Soon, especially in the United States, the Oi! phenomenon mirrored the hardcore punk scene of the late 1970s, with American Oi!-originating bands such as the Radicals, U.S. Chaos, Iron Cross, Agnostic Front, and Anti Heros. Later American punk bands such as Rancid and Dropkick Murphys have credited Oi! as a source of inspiration.

In the mid-1990s, there was a revival of interest in Oi! music, leading to older Oi! bands receiving more recognition in the UK and bands such as The Business being discovered by young, multiracial skinheads in the US. In the 2000s, many of the original UK Oi! bands reunited to perform and/or record.

References

Bibliography

References

  1. (13 April 2012). "Skinheads: A Guide to an American Subculture (Guides to Subcultures and Countercultures)". Greenwood.
  2. "HARDCORE PUNK".
  3. Dalton, Stephen. (June 1993). "Revolution Rock".
  4. Bushell, Garry. (1981). "[[Dance Craze]]". [[Nu Image Films]].
  5. Robb, John. (27 February 2006). "Punk Rock: An Oral History". [[Ebury Publishing]].
  6. Bushell, Garry. (24 January 1981). "Oi! – The Debate".
  7. "COCKNEY REJECTS".
  8. Bushell, Garry. (26 April 2010). "Hoolies: True Stories of Britain's Biggest Street Battles". John Blake.
  9. Marshall, George. (1 December 1991). "Spirit of 69: A Skinhead Bible". S.T. Publishing.
  10. (2024-04-22). "Terror chiefs Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair and Sam McCrory hailed as trailblazing punks in new book".
  11. "Oi! – The Truth by Garry Bushell".
  12. Worley, Matthew. (2013). "Oi! Oi! Oi!: Class, Locality, and British Punk". [[Oxford University Press]].
  13. Petridis, Alexis. (18 March 2010). "Misunderstood or hateful? Oi!'s rise and fall". [[The Guardian]].
  14. (26 July 2005). "Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations: Parties, Groups and Movements of the Twentieth Century". [[Continuum International Publishing Group.
  15. Brown, Timothy S.. (2004). "Subcultures, Pop Music and Politics: Skinheads and "Nazi Rock" in England and Germany". Oxford University Press.
  16. Marshall. 1991
  17. Renton, Dave. (4 May 2006). "When We Touched the Sky: The Anti-Nazi League, 1977–81". New Clarion Press.
  18. {{harvnb. Marshall. 1991
  19. Kelly, Jon. (6 December 2013). "Nicky Crane: The secret double life of a gay neo-Nazi". [[BBC News]].
  20. Finnegan, William. (23 November 1997). "THE UNWANTED".

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oi!punk-rock-genres1970s-in-music1980s-in-music20th-century-music-genresenglish-styles-of-musicscottish-styles-of-musicwelsh-styles-of-musicskinheadworking-class-culture-in-the-united-kingdom