skinhead4

What is Oi!?

Oi! is the label which Gary Bushell (a British journalist) gave to the
    late seventies/early eighties streetpunk bands who refused to be a
    part of the plastic punk (call it the ancestor of MTV punk) that was
    big at the time. Nowadays Oi! is thought of as a melodic, old school
    type of punk but it was originally more of a movement than a sound.

    The grandfathers of Oi! are Sham 69. They were one of the first bands
    to take punk to a level higher than just shock value. They used their
    music as a working class protest.

    The classic Oi! band is the Cockney Rejects (who were the first band
    to use the chant oi! in their music). Their 'ruck n roll' attitude (we
    ruck n you roll) pretty much sums up the oi! stance, non-political,
    working class, proud music.

    A lot of bigger punk bands were also originally identified with the
    oi! movement (i.e. the Exploited who as 'skinhead herberts' are on Oi!
    the Album).

    Oi! is streetpunk, oi! is working class kids winning, oi! is punx and
    skins together, oi! is oceans of beer and mountains of pride.....

    Buy an Oi! comp and it'll change yer life.

Oi! is a melodic type of punk-rock which originated in Britain around 1980
and has since spread throughout the world. The forefathers of Oi! (Sham 69,
Menace, The Lurkers, Slaughter And The Dogs, Cockney Rejects, Cock Sparrer,
Angelic Upstarts, etc.) played what some of the smarter press of the time
dubbed, "real-punk" (i.e. punk-rock with a message/theme of "social
realism"). A lot of the press who courted the original wave of punk-rock,
wholly ignored or wrote-off what was soon to be called Oi! as "thug-rock,"
and thus insured unfair treatment of the genre right from the get-go.

Around 1980, bands like the 4-Skins (East London), Infa Riot (North
London), The Last Resort (Herne Bay), Red Alert (Sunderland), The Business
(South London) and Blitz (Manchester) began to pop-up all across Great
Britain. This phenomenon of strikingly similar-minded, yet unrelated bands
was quickly clumped together as "Oi!" by Sounds journalist Gary Bushell,
taking the name from the classic Cockney Rejects song, "Oi! Oi! Oi!"
Bushell not only gave Oi! its name, he compiled and gave the world the
first Oi! compilation, "Oi! The Album" (released by EMI injunction with
Sounds magazine). "Oi! The Album" -- though not a truly stellar record or
even completely representative of the Oi! genre of the time -- set the
precedent for the compilation as an important part of the Oi! movement, as
witnessed by the release of countless Oi!-focused compilations world-wide
ever since its release. Musically, Oi! is generally distinguished by
anthemic melodies, terrace-style backing vocals and a pace/tempo more
suitable for pogoing and singing along, than slam-dancing and stage-diving.
Together with ska and reggae, Oi! forms the musical focus of the
traditional skinhead subculture, and together with hardcore and classic
punk-rock, it forms the musical focus of the punk subculture.

The impact of the early '80s, English Oi! scene could be felt the
world-over, with Oi! bands and scenes popping-up globally, kick-started by
bands like Iron Cross in the U.S., Bohse Onkels in Germany, Komitern Sect
in France, Cobra in Japan, Nabat in Italy and so on. This is barely
mentioning the huge impact Oi! had on the U.S. hardcore scene, evidenced by
such classic American hardcore bands like Agnostic Front, 7 Seconds, Youth
Brigade and Negative Approach citing Oi! as a huge influence, as well as
covering many brickwall standards.

Sociologically, Oi! is a coalition of street-punks and skinheads, and
emphasizes working-class concerns and themes: labor, fighting, shagging,
drinking, pride, self-respect and generally having a laugh -- the "politics
of life" or the "politics of the street." Being rooted among the
working-class, street kids and the powerless, authentic and traditional Oi!
rejects the authoritarian and conservative politics of the extreme right as
well as the knee-jerk, reactionary politics of the extreme left.

         Oi! is having a laugh and having a say.
           Oi! is bigger than any uniform.
           Oi! is sharp in brain and dress.
           Oi! is you and me... Winning.
           Oi! is thinking for yourself.
           Oi! is pride and self-respect.
           Oi! is the beat of the street.
           Oi! is working class protest.
           Oi! is youth eternal.
           Oi! is youth enrage.
           Oi! is a way of life.

Select major British Oi! bands (past and present) include: A.B.H,
Another Man's Poison, Anti-Establishment, Anti-Social, Attak, The
Betrayed, Blitz, Braindance, The Blaggers, Boisterous, The Business, The
Burial, Cock Sparrer, Cockney Rejects, Combat 84, Condemned 84, Crashed
Out, Criminal Class, Crux, Distortion, The Ejected, The 4-Skins, The
Gonads, Gundog, Infa-Riot, Indecent Exposure, Intensive Care, The Last
Resort, Last Rough Cause, Major Accident, The Oppressed, Pressure 28,
Prole, Red Alert, The Samples, Section 5, Short'n'Curlies, Straw Dogs,
The Strike, Subculture & Vicious Rumors.

Select major American Oi! bands (past and present) include: The Anti-Heros
(GA), The Authority (CA), Battle Cry (NY), Best Defence (PA), The
Bruisers (MA), Boot Party (CA), Bottom Of The Barrel (NY), Bovver
Wonderland (CA), Broken Heroes (NJ), Chapter 21 (Chicago), Ducky Boys
(MA), First Strike (NY), Forced Reality (CT), Headwound (NJ), Iron Cross
(DC), Immoral Discipline (DC), Limecell (PA), Lower Class Brats (TX),
Moonstomp (GA), Niblick Henbane (NJ), 90 Proof (TX), Oxblood (NY),
Patriot (NC), The Press (NY), Pist'n'Broke (MI), Pledge 84 (NY), The
Radicts (NY), The Service (WI), Stars And Stripes (MA), Stormwatch (DE),
The Templars (NY), The Toughskins (CA), U.S. Chaos (NJ), Those Unknown
(NJ), The Uprise (PA), The Wretched Ones (NJ) & Youth Defence League
(NY).

Select major International Oi! bands (past and present) include: Agent
Bulldog (Sweden), Angry Ducks (Japan), The Bad Vultures (Japan), Becks
Pistols/Pobel Und Gesocks (Germany), Bitter Grin (Canada), B.T.M.
(Poland), Camera Silens (France), Cobra (Japan), Crikey Crew (Japan),
Dose Brutal (Brazil), The Fuck Ups (Norway), Gruesome (Japan), The
Herberts (France), Impact (Canada), Klasse Kriminale (Italy), Kohu-63
(Finland), Kidnap (France), Komitern Sect (France), Die Lokalmatadore
(Germany), The Magnificent (Holland), Mata Ratos (Portugal), Nabat
(Italy), Oxymoron (Germany), The Pride (Holland), The Quick And The Dead
(Australia), Rezystencja (Czech), Sideburns (Japan), Snix (France), The
Stage Bottles (Germany), Tolbiac's Toads (France), The Vacant Lot
(Canada), Vanilla Muffins (Switzerland), Virus 27 (Brazil), Warrior Kids
(France), The West Side Boys (France), Zakarrak (Spain) & Zona A
(Slovakia).

Other bands which move on the fringes of Oi! include: The Adicts, Angelic
Upstarts, Anti-Nowhere League, Barbed Wire, Blaggers ITA, Blanks 77, The
Blood, The Casualties, Chron Gen, The Crack, Dropkick Murphys,
Exploited, Frankie Flame, Garotos Podres, Lurkers, The Macc Lads,
Menace, 999, Oi Polloi, One Way System, The Partisans, Peter and the
Test Tube Babies, Toy Dolls, Red London, Redskins, Resistance 77, Rose
Tattoo, (early)7 Seconds, Sham 69, Slaughter And The Dogs, Splodge,
Stiff Little Fingers, Special Duties, The Suspects, The Swingin' Utters,
Vice Squad, The Violators & Youth Brigade.

Some Oi!-focused record labels (past and present) include: Bird, Bleach,
Bronco Bullfrog, Carry On Oi!, Captain Oi!, Chaos Productions, Dim, Do A
Runner!, Dojo, DSS, Force Majeure, GMM, Hammer, Havin' A Laugh,
Headache, Helen Of Oi!, Kickback, Knock-Out, Link, Longshot, No Future,
Oi! Records, One By One, PunkCore, Riot City, Scumfuck, Sta-Press,
Step-1, S.P.E., Teenage Rebel, T.K.O., wins, Vulture Rock & Walzwerk.