To a considerable degree, the emergence of modern hate music can be attributed to British singer Ian Stuart Donaldson (often referred to by white supremacists as Ian Stuart), who began as a punk rocker but by the 1980s had transformed himself and his band, Skrewdriver, into explicit promoters of racism and white supremacy. 

Stuart found an audience in the emerging skinhead subculture in Great Britain (and later in the U.S.).  Ironically, the dominant form of music among skinheads at the time, Oi! (originally known as streetpunk), itself was initially influenced by Caribbean reggae.  But Stuart provided energy and direction for a growing number of racist skinheads (a minority of all skinheads), who, following in Stuart's footsteps, formed bands of their own.  By the early 1980s, white power bands in Europe and the U.S. played racist Oi!, racist hardcore punk (often called hatecore), and racist metal music.  

During the ensuing decade, hate music (often called "WP music," or "white power music," and "R.A.C.," or "Rock Against Communism") increased its hold among young racists around the world.  When Ian Stuart Donaldson died in an auto accident in 1993, he became a white supremacist icon.  He did not live to see the transformation of his legacy, however.  Within a few years of his death, the emergence of the World Wide Web radically altered the world of hate music, making it dramatically more accessible, more global, more visible, and more lucrative.