How 2-tone changed British society forever

The Windrush: A cultural melting pot

Britain in the late 1970’s was a pretty bleak place to be. Areas were struck by economic decline, hit particularly hard was Coventry.

Out of the dissatisfaction harbouring from the absence of work opportunities and urban decline, 2-tone was born; a fusion of Jamaican Ska music and British punk. 1948 saw the beginning of the ‘Windrush’ where hundreds of men, women, and families from the Caribbean arrived in Coventry and surrounding areas with the hopes of rebuilding the country after the second world war, inviting skilled workers to help do so. Integrating West Indies with British culture would go on to create an explosion of the new and exciting 2-tone sound.

White children were now living next door to black families, taking influence from the music they had bought over from the West Indies. Relationships would form through being neighbours but also by people meeting through industrial work like working in factories. The integration that occurred because of the Windrush created a melting-pot of cultural influences that has since inspired society forever with multicultural influences shaping British music and fashion ever since.

The fusion of Ska with Punk music kept the political overtone from the punks, with pioneers like The Specials embracing the crumbling economic situation around them to inspire their lyrics which spoke on topics like unemployment and racism. Don Letts, a British film director and DJ and musician spoke about The Specials calling them “the most politicised” saying ; 

“The band is multi-racial and they signposted the way that UK culture was heading; that it was the people behind multiculturalism that would make England great again”.

2-tone can be considered as a factor of Britain becoming ‘great again’ with its new age attitude that did not tolerate any form of racism. Uniting black with white youth culture through music was the start of a new era, 2-tone gigs were made inclusive for black and white people, something we don't even think about now, but have 2-tone to thank. The merging of races within the UK, because of sharing the same interest in a new form of music, created a safe environment for black people which they were not used to at the time.

Rock Against Racism

Inclusivity is heavily emphasised today but Britain back in the 1970’s was yet to experience this of this magnitude. Just before 2-tone took shape, in the late 1960s to 1970s anti-immigration attitudes spawned a new wave of bigotry and neo nazis. In 1976 the movement Rock Against Racism (RAR) emerged due to the riots and racist attacks across the U.K. because of the growing support of far-right policies.

Between 1976 and 1982 Rock Against Racism organised concerts and carnivals across the UK bringing white and black youth together to discourage racism. The largest and most famous event was an open-air concert in London’s Victoria Park in 1978 where 100,000 people politically marched 6 miles with anti-racist signs. The Clash, a UK Punk band and UK reggae group Steel Pulse were amongst the lineup of artists who performed for the RAR movement.

Pauline Black from the original 2-tone band The Selector said:

“Rock Against Racism” was white people finally waking up to the fact that, oh my God, there’s racism here!” mocking how long it took Britain to finally do something about the racial discrimination within the country.

A United Country

White bands performing beside black bands for RAR was undeniably a step forward, but what 2-tone did was fuse the two together. Instead of just supporting each other, 2-tone saw the sudden wave of multiracial bands coming together due to their shared love of music. The upbeat tempo and politically charged message in 2-tone meant it had commercial appeal so the sound was enjoyed across the whole of the UK becoming a widespread phenomenon very quickly. It was played in all the popular venues and clubs so it made it impossible to not know about it. Not only was 2-tone tackling racial biases but it also challenged gender biases with bands like The Selector having a black female, Pauline Black wearing a suit and singing about injustice.

Now multi-cultural and/or mixed-gendered bands are not a rarity which could be down to 2-tone’s influence on the music scene of improving attitudes towards racism and inequality. Despite 2-tone’s surprisingly short life, only really having its prominence in the early 80’s ( plateauing until 1985), it has left its mark on British society. Today’s equivalent of 2-tone is Rap music, often derived from young artists who come from an economically challenged background. Rap is similar to 2-tone in that it confronts racism and has an anti-government stance that strikes a chord with current youth culture.

Lynval Goldin from The Specials said 

“We were the voice of a generation and I’m a proud man to be the voice of that generation.” Britain will forever remember 2-tone’s voice as the outlet for political unrest that had a huge impact on the uniting of white British culture with other ethnic cultures.