Music

It is difficult to imagine a youth cult without its own type of music. 
   Music serves to identify and unify members of the group, as well as to 
   entertain. The teds had rock and roll, called the Devil's Music by some 
   American clergy. The mods had soul, the Motown sound and beat music. It 
   was necessary for the earl skins to obtain a separate musical identity. 
   They did this by adopting the Jamaican music which the black communities
   in South East London had brought from their home land and which was 
   popular music of the Rude Boys. In Jamaica a separate style of music had 
   developed    distinct from the 
   jazz, the rhythm and blues and the soul music from North America. This 
   music had nagging, echoing, and simple upbeat. It has been described as 
   clamming, pelvic and throbbing. "So gummy that you could throw it 
   against a wall and it would stick," It was known as ska, blue beat or 
   rock steady, and collectively as reggae. Reggae music was not organized like    
   the popular commercial music of 
   the big groups and their imitators. Few white musicians were involved. 
   Reggae was played in discos with sound systems which accentuated the 
   beat. Interest was central on the music rather the performer. Disc 
   jockeys added a "voice" to formerly instrumental discs which would    be 
   recorded again for the second version of the same record. Two disc 
   jockeys would complete with each other in the clubs, taking turns to 
   do their voice-over on the discs. Recordings were put out by small companies    
   and would have limited 
   sales compared to popular commercial discs. Harry Hawke recalls that it 
   was the aim of skinhead devotees of this music to keep up with the 
   latest releases and consequently white-label, i.e. pre-release, copies 
   of records were the mark of skin who knew his music. Although this was not the    
   music of the star performers, some names 
   became established. There was Desmond Dekker, Laurel Aitken, (who claimed 
   to be the father of ska), Bob Marley, Harry J and the All-Stars. Prince 
   Buster, who was a former boxer, was another leading name. Amongst the 
   groups, there were The Maytals, The Upsetters, The Skatellites and The 
   Ethiopians. A discography for the years 1968-78, compiled by Harry Hawke, 
   occurs later in this book and lists some of the better dance records of 
   the time. The white youths joined the blacks who were already fans of this 
   music. Reggae was poor man's music and its themes were drawn from the 
   ghettoes of Trenhtown, Jamaica. "54-46 - That's my number", for example,    
   is a reference to a prisoner's number. Songs spoke of drink, drugs, 
   injustice and the underdog fighting back, although some were simply 
   love songs. This was not the rich pap of the commercial world and there 
   was little money in it for the artists. Producers had originally started 
   off as sound-men and moved into recording a studio product made 
   specifically for dancing. Named dances would come and go and vary 
   greatly from club to club. The bouncy, jumpy beat in reggae was adopted by the    
   skins and later 
   some specific skinhead records were published. The "Skinhead Moonstomp"    
   (1969) is probably the best known. It urged skins to " I want all you 
   skinheads to get up on your feet, put your braces together and your boots 
   on your feet and give me some of that oooold mooonstompin!" but it was    
   a crude attempt to satisfy the skinhead market. Other records aimed 
   directly at skins were also pretty poor. (Harry Hawke describes them as 
   now sounding bad beyond belief). The best records required more skill than just    
   stompin' around. To 
   dance to them throughout the night required a great deal of energy and 
   agility. The former came from "blues" (amphetamines) as it was common    
   for dances to go on from Saturday into Sunday. Another import from Jamaica was    
   Rastafarianism, which was a mystical 
   cult based on the accession of Haille Selassie to the throne of Ethiopia 
   and concerning the downfall of the white colonial races (Babylon). The 
   music of the Rastas was dub reggae, with a heavy slow beat less 
   suitable for dancing. Eventually, it became the main type of music 
   played by the sound systems, as its popularity grew among the young 
   blacks who abandoned skinhead reggae. Dub reggae had themes dealing 
   with the overthrow of Babylon and which were openly hostile to the 
   white world. It dealt with Rastafarian spiritual entities such as Jah 
   or with ganja (marijuana) whish were not part of the skinhead scene. 
   The association of skins and blacks in common form of music had come to 
   an end.