‘Tighten Up’: the compilation album which sparked a subculture revolution
Compilation albums are not often afforded much importance within the pages of musical history. Often, mainly among purists, compilations are seen as far less important than full studio albums. They are the last resort of record labels hoping to make a few quid while removing some of the artistic freedoms of the artists featured on the comps. However, some compilation albums have taken on lives of their own, eclipsing the original projects that they are made up of. One such release is Tighten Up, the budget-friendly reggae album released by Trojan Records in 1969.
The impact of Trojan Records on the cultural landscape of the UK cannot be overstated. Following the introduction of the Windrush generation post-war, there was a growing population of Caribbean immigrants who had been invited across to help rebuild the country. As these families settled down in the country, there soon became a great need for quality Jamaican ska, rocksteady and boss reggae releases within the UK so that the generation of Windrush could still celebrate the vibrant culture of their home nation within the dreary surroundings of 1960s Britain.
From its inception in 1968, Trojan released the finest Jamaican music it could get its hands on. An unexpected effect, however, was that these records started getting bought, not just by those who had come across from the West Indies, but by working-class white British kids too. So, the record label sought to capitalise on this newfound market by constructing a compilation album titled Tighten Up, featuring some of the best tracks from Jamaica in one budget-friendly place. Taking its title from the opening track by Untouchables, the record sold well enough to spawn a cultural revolution.
As the hippie subculture of the late 1960s began to die down and the mods and rockers became old, a new generation of kids in Britain was looking for an identity. With Black and white kids growing up side-by-side in England for the first time on a widespread level, it was something of an inevitability that this new subculture would feature a marrying of those two disparate cultures. Trojan Records, and Tighten Up in particular, was pivotal in fostering this new scene, which quickly became known as ‘skinhead’.
The skinhead subculture has an incredibly tumultuous history, later being hijacked by far-right hate groups like the National Front and becoming synonymous with the neo-Nazi punk of ‘Oi!’ bands like Skrewdriver. Originally, though, the movement was born from a multi-racial appreciation for ska music and Jamaican culture, brought about largely by the release of Tighten Up.
Tighten Up was so successful that it spawned a total of six volumes, running from 1969 until 1974. For what was marketed as a ‘budget compilation’, the impact of the series was huge. When punk music came around in 1976, the best groups of the scene were often noted for their love of reggae music, with bands like The Clash imbuing their sound with the distinctive rhythm of ska, which potentially would not have happened without the accessibility of Tighten Up not to mention the fact that the vitally important 2-Tone movement of the post-punk period was built largely upon the old-school ska featured on these Trojan albums.
Even today, over 50 years since the release of the first volume of Tighten Up, the records remain hailed as some of the finest releases of the early skinhead period. The album gets repressed very regularly, suggesting a continued demand for the record. If there are any other compilation albums that have enjoyed the same continued relevance and popularity or have had the same impact on the cultural fabric of an entire nation, then none of them spring to mind.
