By the end of the 1970s, punk in Britain was splintering into
several distinct strains, most of them quite "arty". Oi! music was an attempt to keep punk a populist, street-level
phenomenon, and most of it came from the working class of South
London and the cockney East End.
Taking its name from the
Cockney Rejects song Oi! Oi! Oi! (before which it was
simply known as 'street-punk'), Oi! was loud, brutal, and extremely
simple. In essence, it was punk rock that was most at home in a rowdy
pub (similar to hardcore but not quite as extreme).
The Oi!
movement was marked by strenuously collectivist politics and
chanted, football-cheer choruses.
Unfortunately, Oi! acquired
a bad reputation when it was adopted by racist skinheads aligned
with the neo-fascist National Front organisation and followers of
the genre were universally labelled as an unruly contingent of
violent, rightwing hooligans.
Most bands - and many skinheads - took pains to distance
themselves from this unsavoury element, especially after a number
of violent incidents at live gigs, but a few genuine
white-supremacist bands (most notoriously Skrewdriver) were enough
to give Oi! a stigma which it never completely shed.
The band that brought Oi! and street-punk to prominence in
1978-79 was Sham 69, and they in turn gave career pushes to
Oi!
stalwarts like the Angelic Upstarts and the
Cockney Rejects.
When The 4-Skins, The Last Resort and
The Business played a gig
at the Hamborough Tavern in Southall in 1981, the gig was
surrounded by rioting Asian youths. The acres of hysterical
newsprint that ensued drowned out any chance of Oi! music getting
a fair hearing, ever.
 What contributed further to Oi!'s undoing was the movement's
utter hostility to the middle classes in general, and the
trendy left in particular (see The Business' anthem, Suburban
Rebels). So as well as incurring the wrath of the right-wing
establishment, Oi! also alienated the left-wing of the middle
class media whose backing had seen the punk bands through their
own particular backlash five years earlier.
The mid-90's punk revival led to a renewal of interest in Oi!
and many favourite early albums were reissued, with a number of
new bands popping up both in the UK and overseas.
The voice of Oi!! is
calling you
With a message that is true
Punky herberts straight and skin
All of you come on in
Let them twist our every
word
But we're gonna be heard
Cos Oi! ain't about having a fight
Oi! ain't ever about black v. white
The voice of Oi! is
unity
No them and us, just you and me
United is the thing to be
Power to the people, not anarchy
Think how strong we will
be
United against society
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