Raggare

Last updated

Two stereotypical raggare at the Power Big Meet 2005 Two genuine raggare at Power Big Meet 2005.jpg
Two stereotypical raggare at the Power Big Meet 2005
When no American tailfins are available, raggare are sometimes forced to improvise, like using a Mercedes. Heckflosse190D.jpg
When no American tailfins are available, raggare are sometimes forced to improvise, like using a Mercedes.
A lot of raggare on the roof of a 1960s car during Power Big Meet in 2005 60's car with lots of raggare on the roof at Power Big Meet.jpg
A lot of raggare on the roof of a 1960s car during Power Big Meet in 2005

Raggare is a subculture found mostly in Sweden and parts of Norway [1] [2] and Finland, [3] and to a lesser extent in Denmark, Germany, and Austria.[ citation needed ] Raggare are related to the American greaser and rockabilly subcultures and are known for their love of hot rod cars and 1950s American pop culture. Loosely translated into English, the term is roughly equivalent to the American "greaser", English "rocker", and Australian "Bodgie" and "Widgie" culture; all share a common passion for mid-20th-century American cars, rockabilly-based music and related fashion (blue-collar in origin, consisting of the likes of white T-shirts, loose fitting denim trousers with rolled cuffs, and canvas top sneakers such as Keds or Converse Chucks, or low-topped boots of an industrial nature).[ original research? ]

Contents

While the raggare movement has its roots in late 1950s youth counterculture, today it is associated mainly with middle-aged men who enjoy meeting and showing off their retro American cars. However, the subculture retains its rural and small-town roots as well as its blue collar and low brow feel. The original phenomenon unleashed moral panic but the contemporary raggare subculture tends to be met with amusement or mild disapproval by mainstream society.

Description

Influences

The Raggare subculture's influences are American popular culture of the 1950s, such as the movies Rebel Without a Cause with James Dean, and American Graffiti . [2]

Cars

Cars are an important part of the subculture, especially V8-powered cars and other large cars from the United States. [4] Statistically, the most common raggare car (Swedish : raggarbil) is the 1960s Pontiac Bonneville.[ citation needed ] They are plentiful, classic, relatively cheap, and have a huge backseat so the Raggare can pile in all of their friends. Raggare have been described as closely related to the hot rod culture, but while hotrodders in the US have to do extensive modifications to their cars to stand out, raggare can use stock US cars and still stand out compared to the more sober Swedish cars. [4] Some raggare also drive European cars from the 1950s, 1960s and the 1970s.

According to an estimate by one Swedish car restorer, there are more restored 1950s American cars in Sweden than in the entire United States [5] and although only two 1958 Cadillac convertibles were sold in Sweden there are now 200 of them in Sweden. [5] Between 4000 and 5000 classic US cars were at one point imported to Sweden each year. [5]

The latest generation of raggare, the so-called pilsnerraggare such as the club Mattsvart who was the subject of the 2019 documentary "Raggarjävlar" ("Greaser scum") [6] do not show much interest in restoring vintage cars, instead opting for driving around in trashed old US cars, drinking alcohol and playing loud music, not necessarily the rockabilly and classic rock traditionally preferred by raggare. [7]

Fashion

The clothes and hairstyle are that of 1950s rockabilly. Blue jeans, cowboy boots, white T-shirts, sometimes with print (also used to store a pack of cigarettes by folding the sleeve), leather [8] or denim jacket. The hair is styled using Brylcreem or some other pomade.

Symbols

The display of the battle flag of the Confederate States is popular in the subculture, as followers embrace the rebellious message of the flag, without any affiliation, nor racist or left-wing events. [9]

History

Formation of the raggare culture was aided by Sweden staying neutral during World War II and untouched by the war. As a result, Sweden's infrastructure remained intact and export economy boomed, which made it possible for the working-class Swedish youth to buy cars, in contrast to most of Europe, which needed to be rebuilt. [10]

When raggare first appeared in the 1950s, they caused a moral panic with concerns about the use of alcohol, violence, high-speed driving, and having sex in the back seat. Raggare gangs were seen as a serious problem. [11] The film Raggare! covered the issue in 1959.

One especially infamous raggare gang was Stockholm-based "Road Devils", formed in the late 1950s by Bosse "Gamen" Sandberg (1939-1994), which was very heavily publicized in the press. The name of the gang originated from a 1957 movie Hot Rod Rumble, which featured a gang by the same name. [12] [13]

Later, raggare often got into fights with hippies and punks, [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] something described in the punk rock song "Raggare Is a Bunch of Motherfuckers" by Rude Kids [19] (and later re-recorded by Turbonegro). When The Sex Pistols played in Sweden on 28 July 1977, a group of raggare waited outside and cornered some young girls who came out from the show. The girls had safety pins through their cheeks, and the raggare ripped them out of their faces. The band was upstairs drinking beer when they heard about it. Sid Vicious wanted to go down and fight, and someone else suggested they should get the limousine and run them over. In the end, the gig promoter called the police. The Hjo band Reklamation was forced to cancel a gig after threats from raggare. [20] Also, Rude Kids was forced to cancel a sold-out gig as the police didn't have the manpower to offer protection against raggare. When Rude Kids played in Stockholm the police had to bring in seven police cars to stop the raggare. [21] When The Stranglers played in Sweden, their followers were caught making Molotov cocktails, and the police intervened after a fight broke out. [22]

In 1996, the Swedish post office issued a stamp featuring raggare. [23]

Public image

Raggare with customised Opel Rekord P2, a popular choice due to its resemblance to the Cadillacs of the late 50s 60's car with flames and raggare on the roof at Power Big Meet 2005.jpg
Raggare with customised Opel Rekord P2, a popular choice due to its resemblance to the Cadillacs of the late 50s

Because of their mostly rural roots, retro-aesthetics and attitude towards sex, raggare are often depicted as poorly educated and financially unsuccessful. A famous example is the 1990s TV series, "Ronny and Ragge", a pair of stereotypical raggare who cruise around in a beat-up Ford Taunus. There are several periodic gatherings for raggare around Sweden. The Power Big Meet is the most famous, and is also one of the biggest American car meets in the world.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stray Cats</span> American rockabilly band

Stray Cats are an American rockabilly band formed in 1979 by guitarist and vocalist Brian Setzer, double bassist Lee Rocker, and drummer Slim Jim Phantom in the Long Island town of Massapequa, New York. The group had numerous hit singles in the UK, Australia, Canada, and the U.S. including "Stray Cat Strut", "(She's) Sexy + 17", "Look at That Cadillac", "I Won't Stand in Your Way", "Bring It Back Again", and "Rock This Town", which the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has listed as one of the songs that shaped rock and roll.

Psychobilly is a rock music fusion genre that fuses elements of rockabilly and punk rock. It's been defined as "loud frantic rockabilly music", it has also been said that it "takes the traditional countrified rock style known as rockabilly, ramp[ing] up its speed to a sweaty pace, and combin[ing] it with punk rock and imagery lifted from horror films and late-night sci-fi schlock,... [creating a] gritty honky tonk punk rock."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lowrider</span> Customized car with a lowered body

A lowrider or low rider is a customized car with a lowered body that emerged among Mexican American youth in the 1940s. Lowrider also refers to the driver of the car and their participation in lowrider car clubs, which remain a part of Chicano culture and have since expanded internationally. These customized vehicles are also artworks, generally being painted with intricate, colorful designs, unique aesthetic features, and rolling on wire-spoke wheels with whitewall tires.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hot rod</span> American car with a large engine modified for linear speed

Hot rods are typically American cars that might be old, classic, or modern and that have been rebuilt or modified with large engines optimized for speed and acceleration. One definition is: "a car that's been stripped down, souped up and made to go much faster." However, there is no definition of the term that is universally accepted and the term is attached to a wide range of vehicles. Most often they are individually designed and constructed using components from many makes of old or new cars, and are most prevalent in the United States and Canada. Many are intended for exhibition rather than for racing or everyday driving.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greaser (subculture)</span> 1950s and 60s youth subculture in the United States

Greasers are a youth subculture that emerged in the 1950s and early 1960s from predominantly working class and lower-class teenagers and young adults in the United States and Canada. The subculture remained prominent into the mid-1960s and was particularly embraced by certain ethnic groups in urban areas, particularly Italian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Latin Americans.

<i>Bōsōzoku</i> Japanese youth subculture

Bōsōzoku is a Japanese youth subculture associated with customized motorcycles. The first appearance of these types of biker gangs was in the 1950s. Popularity climbed throughout the 1980s, peaking at an estimated 42,510 members in 1982. Their numbers dropped dramatically in the 2000s, with fewer than 7,297 members in 2012. Later in 2020 a Bōsōzoku rally that used to attract thousands of members only had 53 members, with police stating that it was a long time since they had to round up that many people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kustom Kulture</span> American subculture

Kustom Kulture is the artworks, vehicles, hairstyles, and fashions of those who have driven and built custom cars and motorcycles in the United States of America from the 1950s through today. It was born out of the hot rod culture of Southern California of the 1960s.

The 20th century saw the rise and fall of many subcultures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winklepicker</span> Style of footwear

Winklepickers or winkle pickers are a style of shoe or boot worn from the 1950s onward, especially popular with British rock and roll fans such as teddy boys. The feature that gives both the boot and shoe their name is the very sharp and long pointed toe, reminiscent of medieval footwear and approximately the same as the long pointed toes on some women's high-fashion shoes and boots in the 2000s. They are still popular in the goth, raggare and rockabilly subcultures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rocker (subculture)</span> Biker subculture members in the United Kingdom

Rockers are members of a biker subculture that originated in the United Kingdom during the late 1950s and was popular in the 1960s. It was mainly centred on motorcycles and rock 'n' roll music. By 1965, the term greaser had also been introduced to Great Britain and, since then, the terms greaser and rocker have become synonymous within the British Isles, although used differently in North America and elsewhere. Rockers were also derisively known as Coffee Bar Cowboys. Their Japanese counterpart was called the Kaminari-Zoku.

Rocker or rockers may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rat rod</span> Style of vehicle customization

A rat rod, as usually known today, is a custom car with a deliberately worn-down, unfinished appearance, typically lacking paint, showing rust, and made from cheap or cast-off parts. These parts can include non-automotive items that have been repurposed, such as a rifle used as a gear shifter, wrenches as door handles, or hand saws as sun visors. Whether or not so appointed, the rat rod uniquely conveys its builder’s imagination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teddy Boys</span> Members of a British youth subculture

The Teddy Boys or Teds were a mainly British youth subculture of the early 1950s to mid-1960s who were interested in rock and roll and R&B music, wearing clothes partly inspired by the styles worn by dandies in the Edwardian period, which Savile Row tailors had attempted to re-introduce in Britain after the Second World War.

<i>Ass Cobra</i> 1996 studio album by Turbonegro

Ass Cobra is the third full-length studio album by Norwegian punk rock band Turbonegro. It was first released in May 1996, with subsequent reissues in the following years. The album title and cover art is a reference to the AC Cobra sports car and Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the punk subculture</span>

The history of the punk subculture involves the history of punk rock, the history of various punk ideologies, punk fashion, punk visual art, punk literature, dance, and punk film. Since emerging in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia in the mid-1970s, the punk subculture has spread around the globe and evolved into a number of different forms. The history of punk plays an important part in the history of subcultures in the 20th century.

Alternative fashion or alt fashion is fashion that stands apart from mainstream, commercial fashion. It includes both styles which do not conform to the mainstream fashion of their time and the styles of specific subcultures. Some alternative fashion styles are attention-grabbing and more artistic than practical, while some develop from anti-fashion sentiments that focus on simplicity and utilitarianism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Workwear</span> Clothing that is worn in the exercise of a service profession, a craft or an engineering profession

Workwear is clothing worn for work, especially work that involves manual labour. Often those employed within trade industries elect to be outfitted in workwear because it is built to provide durability and safety.

Zoku (族) is a Sino-Japanese term meaning tribe, clan, or family. As a suffix it has been used extensively within Japan to define subcultural phenomena, though many zoku do not acquire the suffix.

Bodgies and widgies refer to a youth subculture that existed in Australia and New Zealand in the 1950s, similar to the rocker culture in the UK or Greaser culture in the United States. Most bodgies rode motorbikes but some had cars, many of which were hotted-up with accessories such as mag wheels and hot dog mufflers. Males were called bodgies and females were called widgies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pompadour (hairstyle)</span> Hairstyle

The pompadour is a hairstyle named after Madame de Pompadour (1721–1764), a mistress of King Louis XV of France. Although there are numerous variations of the style for men, women, and children, the basic concept is having a large volume of hair swept upwards from the face and worn high over the forehead, and sometimes upswept around the sides and back as well.

References

  1. The Police Journal, v. 38 1965, page 58
  2. 1 2 OA: Råning og ragging på utstilling
  3. "Historiaa". Stadin Raggarit (in Finnish). Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  4. 1 2 Automobilities by Mike Featherstone, Nigel. Thrift, John Urry. p. 189
  5. 1 2 3 Sweden's car kings: 'greasers' cruising in vintage US wheels
  6. ""Raggarjävlar" inviger dokumentärfilmfestival".
  7. ""Vi gör det vi älskar men det sticker i folks ögon"". 6 September 2019.
  8. Crime and Its Correction: An International Survey of Attitudes and Practices by John Phillips Conrad, p. 126
  9. Jalopnik: Your Guide To Europe's Weirdest Car Culture: Raggare
  10. "Raggare Love Hot Rods and Rock 'n' Roll".
  11. Statistics on Delinquents and Delinquency by Walter Albin Lunden, p. 134
  12. "Raggare Love Hot Rods and Rock 'n' Roll". www.vice.com. Retrieved 12 February 2022.
  13. Berglind, Sten (2005). Raggare : rebellerna som skakade Sverige (in Swedish). Bokförlaget Max Ström. ISBN   9171260080.
  14. Arbetaren: Raggaren lever än
  15. England's dreaming: les Sex Pistols et le punk by Jon Savage, Denys Ridrimont, p. 435
  16. Aftonbladet: Raggare rövade bort punkare
  17. Dala Demokraten: Förföljelserna mot oss hårdnar
  18. Vermlands Folkblad: Vi törs inte gå ut på kvällarna
  19. The Guardian: Raggare: the Swedish rock'n'roll cult comes of age
  20. SLA: Unga musiker i Hjo hotade med stryk, 3 mars 1979
  21. Aftonbladet: Raggare stoppar punkband
  22. "GT: Tvingades fly från raggarna". Archived from the original on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 13 October 2010.
  23. Consumption: Critical Concepts in the Social Sciences by Daniel Miller, p. 155
  24. "P.F. Commando – Svenne Pop E.P. 7″". Killed by Death Records.
  25. Vecko Revyn, Nr 30, 25 July 1979
  26. https://tempofestival.se/program/raggarjavlar/ [ dead link ]