(or rudie) is a slang term that originated in 1960s Jamaican street culture, and that is still used today. In the late 1970s, there was a revival in England of the terms
. The use of these terms moved into the more contemporary
movement as well. In the UK, the terms
and rude girl are used in a way similar to gangsta, yardie, or badman. In the 1960s, the Jamaican diaspora introduced
and fashion to the UK, which influenced the mod and skinhead subcultures. In the late 1970s, the term
Specials and their record label
2 Tone Records instigated a brief but influential
ska revival. In this spirit,
The Clash contributed "Rudie Can't Fail" on their 1979 album, London Calling.
In
Jamaica, the rude boys and rude girls were young Jamaican thugs from the ghettos, fallen into delinquency and sowing terror, some being real gangsters. In rage against the institutions, the economic fatality, they spit out their resentment of unemployment, injustices, and the immobility of capitalist
society. Quite the opposite of teddy boys. They regularly go to sound systems where they sometimes play for a living.
In Great Britain, the rough boys listen mainly to
ska music, which is characterized by groups like Madness or
The Specials, which cover certain famous tracks of Prince Buster, recorded with Two-Tone Records, the "revival" of Jamaican
ska, after the wave of the
punk movement which saw the resurgence of former Jamaican artists, like Laurel Aitken, nicknamed the godfather of
ska. They mingled with English mods in the 1960s, which gave birth to
skinheads. the skinhead movement is, therefore, in its origins and in its traditions, a mixed and multicultural movement; it is not uncommon to see black
skinheads in
1969 although many white
skinheads will become politicized on the
far right thereafter.
Printed in USA
