Let’s face it, today’s working class has plenty to be angry about. The list of grievances could go on forever. If you’re stewing in socioeconomic rage and are looking for a musical outlet, you’re in luck. In the late ’70s, the British punk rock scene gave rise to a new brand of the genre simply called Oi!. These working-class bands weren’t interested in the outrageous fashion or lofty philosophical concepts that populated punk at the time. They were regular guys who were overworked, angry, and wrote songs for other people like them.
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Oi! combines punk rock with 1960s British rock and pub rock to create a singular form of working-class rebellion. Lyrical topics include police harassment, government oppression, unemployment, poverty, and life on the street. Many of the genre’s bands take on those topics from an anti-fascist and anti-racist position. The bands below largely fall into that category.
Sham 69
Sham 69 formed in 1975 and quickly became one of the most successful punk bands in England. They released several singles that cracked the top 20 on the UK Singles Chart and are still active despite several lineup changes and one hiatus. The band moved away from the punk rock sound on their third album, Adventures of the Hersham Boys, but they kept the working-class anger that got countless fans hooked.
The Business
Where many bands in the genre aligned with political causes, The Business was happy to keep an eye on making straight-forward working-class punk rock. Their lyrics touched on issues like unemployment, street violence, drinking, and more. They also recorded several songs about football (soccer) and football culture. One of their most popular songs was “England 5 – Germany 1,” which was the score of a 2001 World Cup Qualifier in 2001. It was an anthem for English football fans for a time.
Stage Bottles
The Stage Bottles came out of the anti-fascist skinhead scene of Frankfurt, Germany, in the early ’90s. They started as a close-knit group of friends with a passion for good tunes, good times, and fighting Neo-Nazis. There have been several lineup changes since the band’s formation, but the sound and focus of the band remain the same: fast, melodic, working-class, and anti-racist punk rock.
Cockney Rejects
The Cockney Rejects are widely credited with inspiring the genre’s name with their 1980 song “Oi, Oi, Oi.” They formed in the late 1970s as a working-class answer to the “art school punk rock” that populated the British scene at the time. They struck a chord with inner-city youth at the time and would go on to inspire generations of punk rock bands with high-profile acts like Green Day and Rancid citing them as major influences.
Featured Image by Ian Dickson/Shutterstock
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