“2 Tone” described the ska revival that raced out of the U.K. at the end of the ‘70s and brought Madness, The Specials, The English Beat and The Selecter to the world. 2 Tone also meant the movement’s retro porkpie-hat style and the coming together of black and white youth as well as the record label by that name, which propelled ska into prominence. The label was founded by Jerry Dammers of The Specials, who imagined it as a British Motown. Although that dream never materialized, he sold a lot of records for a few years and changed a few minds.
With Too Much Too Young, prolific British music writer Daniel Rachel offers a detailed chronicle of the label’s rise and fall, its social origins and its legacy. 2 Tone was born amidst the implosion of ‘70s Britain, with workers on strike, blatantly racist marches in the streets, rampant unemployment and the pervasive sense that Johnny Rotten was right. Maybe there was “no future for you.”
Dammers and his mates found their future in the ska revival that blended punk energy with Jamaican roots. The music conveyed messages about bigotry and injustice. Rachel acknowledges that 2 Tone was not Utopia. Egos justled on stage and violence erupted in the audience. But the music, according to the memories Rachel collected, swayed many young people against the racist National Front.
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