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The
rise in popularity of reggae music in the 1980s and the
worldwide fame of singer and songwriter Bob Marley prompted
an interest in dreads internationally. The anti-establishment
philosophy of Rastafari, echoed in much of the reggae of
the time, had a particular resonance for left-leaning youth
of all ethnicities — especially and primarily among
African-Americans and other blacks, but among counterculture
whites as well. It is among these groups that dreadlocks
have become most popular.
Like
the afro, locks also can have social and political implications.
For some peoples of African descent, locks are a statement
of racial or ethnic pride. Some see them as a repudiation
of Eurocentric values represented by straightened hair.
For some, the rejection of ideas and values deemed alien
to African peoples (which dreadlocks embody) sometimes can
assume a spiritual dimension. Similarly, others wear dreads
as a manifestation of their black nationalist or pan-Africanist
political beliefs and view locks as symbols of black unity
and power, and a rejection of oppression, racism and imperialism.
While most Rastafari sects welcome all ethnicities and the
history of dreadlocks attributes the hairstyle to almost
all racial and ethnic groups, some blacks who attach strong
racial meaning to dreads disapprove of the wearing of dreads
by nonblacks, viewing such practice as a form of cultural
appropriation.
In
white counterculture, dreads have become popular among groups
such as the "anti-globalisation" movement and
environmental activists (such as Swampy, well-known in the
1990s). One issue of SchNEWS, an English anarchist newsletter,
described the coming together of striking dockworkers and
green protestors as "Docks and dreadlocks come together".
Some people also describe them as "neo-hippies."
Rastafari
and British film director and musician Don Letts, explained
the punk-dread unity, which emerged in Great Britain during
the early 1970s, in terms of a shared sense of a rebellion
against the establishment and established norms.
Apart
from anti-establishment politics and spiritual reasons,
some Whites have cited reasons for adopting dreadlocks to
honor and cherish Celtic or Viking tribal identity.
Raver
with multi-colored, woolen and synthetic dreadlocksWithin
other youth subcultures, dreads also can be a means of creative
self-expression, a symbol of individualism and a form of
rebellion against traditional ties and restrictions. For
example the members of the Cybergoth movement in Europe
setting out to shock with creative hair displays like wildly
coloured dread wigs, "dread falls" and elaborate
extensions complemented by dramatic make-up to oppose representations
of authority and conformity.
Dreadlocks
are also becoming increasingly popular and fashionable
in the metal music scene.
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