The Rude Boys

A part of the reading that really stuck out to me was the information on "the rude boys." The book states that " the most disturbing phenomenon of this period, from the perspective of the status quo, was the emergence of the rude boys. As White points out, the term covers a wide range of individuals, 'from the anarchic and revolution minded youth of the poorer classes to the young political 'goons,' ... and Rasta-spawned 'cultural' rude boys who rejected the aping of white standards and continued existence of 'white bias.'"The rude boys "united in their attitude of defiance and posture of toughness" (pg 109). In uniting, music was created. The lyrics of rock steady songs, which is like ska but slower and with more bass and drums, spoke about the rude boys. The lyrics usually were in celebration of the "rude boy" attitude towards the world.

In doing some research on the rude boys, I first went to wikipedia, which states that "The first rude boys in the 1960s were associated with the poorer sections of Kingston, Jamaica, where ska, then rocksteady were the most popular forms of music. They dressed in the latest fashions at dancehalls and on the streets. Many of these rude boys started wearing sharp suits, thin ties, and pork pie or Trilby hats; inspired by United States gangster movies, jazz musicians and soul music artists. In that time period, disaffected unemployed Jamaican youths sometimes found temporary employment from sound system operators to disrupt competitors' dances (leading to the term dancehall crasher). This — and other street violence — became an integral part of the rude boy lifestyle, and gave rise to a culture of political gang violence in Jamaica. As the Jamaican diaspora grew in the United Kingdom during the 1960s, rude boy music and fashion, as well as the gang mentality, became a strong influence on the skinhead subculture.^"

^{The way of dress described here is interesting and very different from the Rastafarian dress, along with their influences ( US vs. Africa) The rude boys are interested in what is new, cool, and Western ( US, rather than African) while the Rastas are into their past and roots from Africa/Ethiopia. Both groups were protesting but in different way. The great part about both groups protests were that they involved music ( but the rude boys used violence as well). The rude boys seem to be disliked by the overall population in Jamaica because of their attitudes and how they acted. At first the Rastafarians were not liked nor tolerated by the government/establishments in Jamaica but that definitely changed over time- I don't think the same is true for the rude boys. I think they stand apart from the Rastafarians mainly because they tried to stir up trouble and use violence to solve their problems.}