The rudeboy culture originated in the ghettos of Kingston, coinciding with the popular rise of rocksteady music, dancehall celebrations and sound system dances. Disaffected unemployed urban 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 rudeboy lifestyle, and often gave rise to gangs. Many of these rudies started wearing sharp suits, thin ties, and pork-pie or Trilby hats, inspired by United States gangster movies and soul music groups. With growing emigration in the late 1960s, the rude boy culture and its music, ska and rocksteady, spread to the United Kingdom where it became a strong influence on the Skinhead subculture.
The Specials, Madness, The Selecter, Bad Manners, The Beat, The Piranhas, The Skadows, Mark Foggo's Skasters, NO Sports, Dr. RingDing, The Busters, Skaos, The Toasters, The Skatalites, Desmond Dekker, The Jamaicans, El Bosso & Die Ping Pongs, The Butlers, Madness, Ska Trek, The Ventilators, Derrick Morgan, The Skalatones, Spitfire, Skarface, Aggrolites...