Rocksteady, Ska & Two-Tone

From Kingston to Coventry, ska’s journey into Britain reshaped both sound and style. Built on its signature offbeat rhythm, the guitar skank landing between the beats, ska emerged in Jamaica in the late 1950s as a fusion of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and R&B. It was music of movement and exchange, shaped by sound system culture and carried across the Atlantic with the Windrush generation.

By the mid-60s, ska slowed into rocksteady, deeper, heavier, more soulful, before evolving again into reggae. In Britain, these sounds found new life. In the late ’70s, Two-Tone, led by bands like The Specials, Madness, and The Selecter, re-energised ska with punk urgency, turning it into a soundtrack for a generation navigating race, identity, and resistance.

Two-Tone wasn’t just music, it was a uniform. Monochrome palettes, sharp tailoring, loafers and boots became symbols of unity and defiance, worn on dancefloors and city streets alike.

This edit brings together pieces informed by that lineage, a curated selection shaped by the visual language and attitude of ska and Two-Tone, reinterpreted through Underground’s lens.