Raggare

Raggare (Norwegian: Råner) is a subculture found mostly in Sweden and parts of Norway,Finland,Denmark, Germany, Austria and Russia. Raggare are related to the greaser subculture and are known for their love of hot rod cars and 1950s American pop culture.

While the raggare movement has its roots in late 1950s youth counterculture, today it is associated mainly with middle aged men who enjoy meeting and showing off their retro American cars. However, the subculture retains its rural and small town roots as well as its blue collar and low brow feel. The original phenomenon unleashed moral panic but the contemporary raggare subculture tends to be met with amusement or mild disapproval by mainstream society.

The Raggare subculture's influences are American popular culture of the 1950s, such as the movies Rebel Without a Cause with James Dean, and American Graffiti.

Cars are an important part of the subculture, especially V8-powered cars and other large cars from the USA. Statistically, the most common raggare car (Swe raggarbil) is the 1960s Pontiac Bonneville. They are plentiful, classic, relatively cheap, and have a huge backseat so the Raggare can pile in all of their friends. Raggare have been described as closely related to the hot rod culture, but while hotrodders in the US have to do extensive modifications to their cars to stand out, raggare can use stock US cars and still standout compared to the more sober Swedish cars. Some raggare also drive European cars from the 50's, 60's and the 70's.

Due to Raggare culture there are more restored 1950s American cars in Sweden than in the entire USA and although only two 1958 Cadillac convertibles were sold in Sweden there are now 200 of them in Sweden. Between 4000 and 5000 classic US cars are imported to Sweden each year.

The clothes and hairstyle are that of 1950s rockabilly. Blue jeans, cowboy boots, white T-shirts, sometimes with print (also used to store a pack of cigarettes by folding the sleeve), leather or denim jacket. The hair is styled using Brylcreem or some other pomade.

...
Wikipedia