The Specials - Rat Race

What this video is

Released on 16 May 1980 as a double A-side with 'Rude Buoys Outa Jail' on 2 Tone Records, 'Rat Race' arrived at the height of the 2-Tone movement's commercial and cultural power. Written by guitarist Roddy Byers, the song is a fierce critique of educational conformity and capitalist labour — themes acutely resonant in Thatcher-era Britain, where youth unemployment was surging and the social contract was fracturing.…

Why it matters

A canonical document of 2-Tone, the genre that fused Jamaican ska and rocksteady with British punk and new wave, originating in Coventry in the late 1970s. 'Rat Race' demonstrates the movement's hallmark qualities: staccato ska rhythm guitar, off-beat horn stabs, socially pointed lyricism, and a…