Swedish Greasers 50s & 60s Part 2 - Raggare

Описание: Raggare are greasers who are as important to Sweden's national identity as meatballs, ABBA, and blue-eyed blonds. This is despite the fact that the raggare subculture is all about the appropriation of American cars, rock 'n' roll, and tough-guy leather jackets. And it's become so commonplace in Sweden that nobody looks twice when greasy-haired small-towners cruise by blasting oldies while waving the Confederate flag from their classic hot rods on their way to the biggest American car show in the world: the annual Power Big Meet in Västerås.

In high summer, deep in the Swedish countryside, you could easily believe Rebel Without a Cause or The Wild One are being remade. The quiffs, classic cars and 1950s clothes aren't for show, however. These people aren't costumed extras, they are raggare, members of the largest pop-culture tribe in Sweden, and one of the most influential in Scandinavia.

Rock'n'roll never died for the raggare: they are still devoted to the music, the fashion, the aesthetics. For 50 years they have kept its spirit alive, but where rock'n'rollers in other countries have dwindled into small groups, in Sweden they have gone from strength to strength -- there are now estimated to be half a million of them.

The first raggare would travel in convoy from one hick town to the next to beat lumps out of each other and ogle the women. There are still organised raggare brawls, but the movement is part of the mainstream now, its most visible manifestation the cheap 50s and 60s US cars the raggare still drive and the vintage clothes they wear. You can have three generations of raggare within the same family, and there was no more eloquent statement of raggare respectability than the 12 kronor commemorative raggare stamp issued by the Swedish post office a few years back.