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Rockers are members of a subculture that started in the United Kingdom in the 1960s among motorcycle riding youths. Before that time, young motorcyclists had not been grouped together and labelled as such. more...

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The term was originally applied in a derogatory manner, but was later adopted by those same youths.

Rockers are different from greasers, rockabillies, Teddy Boys, psychobillies and punks. However, rockers in the 1960s were commonly referred to as greasers or grease as an insult by mods and skinheads, and today the British use of the terms greasers and rockers are fairly interchangeable.

Origins and characteristics

The rocker subculture came about due to factors such as the end of Post-World War II rationing in the UK and a general rise in prosperity for working class youths, the recent availability of credit and financing for young people, the influence of American popular music and film, the construction of race track-like new arterial ring roads around British cities, and the development of transport cafes (pronounced "caffs" by rockers of that period) that became their natural haunts. These factors coincided with a peak in British motorcycle engineering. Although rocker-style youths existed in the 1950s, they were known as the Ton Up Boys because ton-up was English slang for driving 100 mph (160 km/h). It wasn't until the 1960s that they became known as rockers and they were immersed into rockabilly music and fashions and began to be known as much for their devotion to rock and roll music as they were for their motorcycles. One image that epitomises the look and spirit of the rocker is Marlon Brando's portrayal of "Johnny" in the 1954 Columbia Pictures movie The Wild One.

Rockers generally bought standard factory-made motorcycles and stripped them down, tuned them up and modified them to appear like racing bikes. They raced them on public roads and travelled to cafes such as The Ace Cafe, Chelsea Bridge tea stall, Ace of Spades, Busy Bee and Johnsons. Largely due to their clothing styles and dirtiness, the rockers were not widely welcomed by venues such as pubs and dance halls. This attitude remained prevalent in the UK until the early 1990s, when there was a notable change in the demographics of motorcycle riders in the country. Rockers were generally reviled by the British motorcycle industry and general enthusiasts as being bad for the industry and the sport. Originally, many rockers opposed recreational drug use, and according to Johnny Stuart,

hey had no knowledge of the different sorts of drugs. To them amphetamines, cannabis, heroin were all drugs - something to be hated. Their ritual hatred of Mods and other sub-cultures was based in part on the fact that these people were believed to take drugs and were therefore regarded as sissies. Their dislike of anyone connected with drugs was intense.

Read more at Wikipedia.org