What are Rude Boys, Rude Girls, and Rudies?

Rude boys, mostly associated with the 2-tone craze are still a very common sight at your local ska shows. The Rude Boy movement has a long history.

The street-tough young men of Kingston, Jamaica used to dress in the newest, heppest clothes out of all the people at the Kingston local dance hall. They were known as the "Rude Boys," rude.. meaning "Cool." The police saw the rude boys as thugs, but they viewed themselves as heroes, and of course, they were cool as hell. most people saw it as a way of rebelling against the poor and oprressive conditions in which they grew up in.

Towards the end of the 70's, the Second Wave of British Ska bands, such as Madness and the Specials, the image of the rude boy was reinvented...instead of a thug image, he was a fun loving guy who dressed in the stylish 2-tone suit and pork-pie hat. Also, during the late 70's - mid 80's, we have also seen the rising up of the rude girl (pretty sweet, huh?). Anyway, this movement also died down until it was revived with the Third Wave of Ska in the USA during the late 80's.

Today, the rude boy image is someone who is totally into the Ska scene. He/She has a good sense of the roots as well as their individual sense of ska fashion. Although you wont see too many people in suits with pork pies at ska concerts, there will always be some who want to dress rude and remember the roots.