Skinhead origins can be traced back to the mid-to-late 1960s in England. These youths took their inspiration from the original Mods (Modernists for long), and the Jamaican Ska scene, which had found a new home within the underground London club circuit.
The term "Skinhead" refers to the shaved head appearance favoured by these youths, who have taken to calling each other, jokingly, "cue ball", "egghead", and so on. A significant percentage of the
original skins were ex-Mods (read: hard Mods) who had grown
disillusioned with the commercialization of their scene. However,
musical preferences did not differ really from that of the Mods,
as skins loved Jamaican Ska/Rocksteady, Northern Soul, Motown/Soul, just to name a few. Yet the style of dress did broaden somewhat, with Fred Perry's, Sta-Prest trousers, mixing
with Crombie overcoats, smart suits, boots and braces. Sportswear
such as Lonsdale, Ben Sherman, Fred Perry, were all associated with skinheads, as well as Mods, and they're still worn to this day.
In the late-60s, skinheads were largely apolitical, preferring
to leave politics aside in favour of unity with their mates. However, this does not mean politics did not exist at that time,
because there has always been skins with political beliefs, be it
anarchist, socialist, communist, or whatever. Right-wing
infiltration of the movement didn't occur until the mid-1970s when fascist organizations like National Front decided skins
would be ideal stormtroopers in their genocidal plans.
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