Punk and London Bands

By Ben King

A blog exploring how Black culture and identity changed Britains pop culture and music throughout the 20th century.

Blog 2: The 1960s

In the last blog post, we explored the style of music brought over by Windrush as well as the challenges that were faced by the non-white migrant communities in the 1950s, this included the introductions of calypso, but also the growth of discrimination and tensions towards commonwealth migrants. One event, in particular, left a large mark on how politics and Black culture would evolve in the following decades, this of course was the race riots and the anti-black riots in 1958. With a large amount of support shown for the anti-black riots came a decade of the Labour and Conservative parties progressively surrendering to racism through fear of losing seats in parliament.[1]

This meant that the 60s was full of one immigration Act after another, all of which harmed the lives of non-white migrants. These started with the Common Wealth Immigrants Bill in 1962, which restricted the number of settler migrants and meant that employment vouchers had to be issued to settlers, with a clause that meant if a migrant was to commit a crime within five years of arriving, they were to be deported. With this act, Blackness was officially equated with second-class citizenship.[2] This bill was taken further, with the whitepaper of Immigration in 1965 which limited employment vouchers to only be given only to skilled workers and professional people, further restrictions meant that there was a limit of 8,500 vouchers being available. Discrimination, at this time, was taken out of the streets and made a place in government.[3] This can be seen with the examples of Peter Griffiths and Enoch Powell, who’s ‘rivers of blood speech’ made on April 20th 1968 riled some of the working-class to believe his racist views.

However, while taking all this into account, the impression that Black culture and music had on British youth could not be doubted. By the time of the mid-1960s Calypso music started to fade out and was replaced with Jamaican Ska music, this music was popular in places such as dance halls among the urban Jamaican youth popular culture as it celebrated old island traditions.[4] As the Ska became more popular within youth culture it started to form the ‘so-called Rude Boy, a suit-and-tie hooligan bent on turf protection and the defiance of adult authority’[5] However, there was still traces of Calypso in music at the time, this can be seen with examples such as The Steward Family, with their gospel-style singing that was a mixture of American country gospel singing with Calypso rhythms.

Towards the end of the 60s saw second-generation Windrush, born in Britain with a very different attitude towards racism.[6]

  [1] Peter flyer, Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain (London: Pluto Press, 2010), 381.

[2] Flyer, Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain, 382.

[3] A. Sivananden, A Different Hunger: Writings on Black Resistance (London: Pluto Press, 1982), 105.

[4] Joseph Heathcott, “Urban Spaces and Working-Class Expressions across the Black Atlantic: Tracing routes of Ska,” Radical History Review issue 87 (2003): 184.

[5] Heathcott, “Urban Spaces and Working-Class Expressions across the Black Atlantic: Tracing routes of Ska,” Radical History Review No 87 (2003): 184.

[6] Jon Stratton, “Skin deep: ska and reggae on the racial faultline in Britain, 1968-1981,” Popular Music History Vol 5 No 2 (21 Nov 2011): 194.