Ska

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Name	Ska
Stylistic origins	Jamaican mento and calypso; American jazz and rhythm and blues
Cultural origins	Late 1950s Jamaica
Instruments	Guitar, bass guitar, trumpet, trombone, saxophone, piano, drums, organ
Popularity	Highest in early 1960s; wide popularity in Jamaica & notable popularity in United Kingdom; notable revivals in 1970s/1980s UK and late-1990s North America
Derivatives	Rocksteady, reggae
Fusiongenres	2 Tone, ska punk, ska jazz
Regional scenes	Japan, Australia
Other topics	Third wave ska, list of ska musicians, rude boy, mod, skinhead, Suedehead

Ska (, Jamaican ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. It is characterized by a walking bass line accented with rhythms on the upbeat. In the early 1960s, ska was the dominant music genre of Jamaica and was popular with British mods. Later it became popular with many skinheads.

Music historians typically divide the history of ska into three periods: the original Jamaican scene of the 1960s (First Wave), the English 2 Tone ska revival of the late 1970s (Second Wave) and the third wave ska movement, which started in the 1980s (Third Wave) and rose to popularity in the US in the 1990s.

Etymology

There are different theories about the origins of the word ska. Ernest Ranglin claimed that the term was coined by musicians to refer to the "skat! skat! skat!" scratching guitar strum. Another explanation is that at a recording session in 1959 produced by Coxsone Dodd, double bassist Cluett Johnson instructed guitarist Ranglin to "play like ska, ska, ska", although Ranglin has denied this, stating "Clue couldn't tell me what to play!" A further theory is that it derives from Johnson's word skavoovie, with which he was known to greet his friends. Jackie Mittoo insisted that the musicians themselves called the rhythm Staya Staya, and that it was Byron Lee who introduced the term 'ska'.

Ernest Ranglin described the difference between the R&B; and the ska beat is that the former goes "chink-ka" and the latter goes "ka-chink". and Louis Jordan.

" guitar rhythm, named onomatopoetically for its sound.]]

The stationing of American military forces during and after the war meant that Jamaicans could listen to military broadcasts of American music, and there was a constant influx of records from the US. To meet the demand for that music, entrepreneurs such as Prince Buster, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, and Duke Reid formed sound systems. As jump blues and more traditional R&B; began to ebb in popularity in the early 1960s, Jamaican artists began recording their own version of the genres. The style was of bars made up of four triplets but was characterized by a guitar chop on the off beat - known as an upstroke or skank - with horns taking the lead and often following the off beat skank and piano emphasizing the bass line and, again, playing the skank.

One theory about the origin of ska is that Prince Buster created it during the inaugural recording session for his new record label Wild Bells.

The first ska recordings were created at facilities such as Studio One and WIRL Records in Kingston, Jamaica with producers such as Dodd, Reid, Prince Buster, and Edward Seaga. However, rocksteady's heyday was brief, peaking in 1967. By 1968, ska evolved again into reggae.

2 Tone

The 2 Tone genre, which began in the late 1970s in the areas in and around the city of Coventry in England, was a fusion of Jamaican ska rhythms and melodies with punk rock's more aggressive guitar chords and lyrics. While the majority of early American ska bands continued in the musical traditions set by 2-Tone and the Mod revival such as the Untouchables from Los Angeles, bands such as Fishbone also from Los Angeles (formed 1979), The Mighty Mighty Bosstones from Boston (formed 1985) and Operation Ivy from Berkeley (formed 1987) pioneered a sub-genre known as ska punk, a fusion of ska and punk rock which typically downplayed ska's R&B; influence in favor of faster tempos and guitar distortion.

On the East Coast, the first well-known ska revival band was The Toasters, who played in a 2 Tone-influenced style and helped pave the way for the third wave ska movement. In 1981, The Toasters' frontman Robert "Bucket" Hingley created Moon Ska Records, which became the biggest American ska record label.

The Uptones jump-started California's Bay Area ska scene in 1981 when the band, consisting of Berkeley High School students, went on to play sold-out shows throughout the San Francisco Bay Area for seven years. Their 1984 self-titled record was released on Howie Klein's 415 label. The Uptones' punk-influenced ska has been cited as inspiring California bands Operation Ivy, Rancid, and Sublime. In 2002 The Uptones reformed and continue to record and play live shows on the west coast.

Orange County, California had one of the biggest and most influential third wave ska scenes, which originated in the early 1990s. For about a decade, Orange County was the starting point for many successful third wave ska bands. Some of these ska bands had a great deal of commercial success, albeit short-lived. The Hippos and Save Ferris enjoyed commercial success with the albums Heads Are Gonna Roll and It Means Everything, respectively. Both acts were featured in several major motion picture soundtracks during the 1990s. The Aquabats have remained one of the few original Orange County ska bands who still play today. However, the band generally doesn't play in a ska style in their two most recent releases, Charge!! and Hi-Five Soup!. The same applies to Goldfinger, who, despite once being an active forerunner in the scene, dropped the ska sound in 2001.

In the early 1990s, the Ska Parade radio show helped popularize the term third wave ska and promoted many Southern California ska-influenced bands, such as Sublime, No Doubt, Reel Big Fish, and Let's Go Bowling. In 1993, the ska-core band The Mighty Mighty Bosstones signed with Mercury Records and appeared in the film Clueless, with their first mainstream hit "Where'd You Go?" Around this time, many ska-influenced songs became hits on mainstream radio, including "Spiderwebs" by No Doubt, "Sell Out" by Reel Big Fish (which reached #10 in the Billboard Modern Rock charts in 1997) and "The Impression That I Get" by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones.

In 1993 Luis P. Correa founded Steady Beat Recordings in Los Angeles, CA. The label focused more on the Jamaican 60s style of the music and was a counter balance to the sounds coming out of Orange County at the time. Inspired by the originators such as The Skatalites with a purely West Coast gritty LA feel mixed with more Jazz and Latin influences the label became the epicenter of sorts for the more traditional sounding scene bubbling up in the LA area. Bands including Hepcat, Ocean 11, Yeska, The Allentons, King Willy, Mobtown, See Spot and more continue to thrive today.

In 1994, Matt Collyer of The Planet Smashers' founded the third wave ska label Stomp Records. In 1996, Mike Park of Skankin' Pickle founded Asian Man Records, which was the biggest west coast United States third wave ska label. Also in 1996, the band Less Than Jake started the record label Fueled by Ramen, which featured many lesser known third wave ska bands, and later became the home of successful pop-punk bands like Fall Out Boy and Paramore. In 1997, Brett Gurewitz (of Bad Religion and Epitaph Records fame) and Tim Armstrong founded Hellcat Records, which mostly featured punk bands, but also featured several ska and ska punk acts.

By the late 1990s, mainstream interest in third wave ska bands waned as other music genres gained momentum. Moon Ska Records folded in 2000, but Moon Ska Europe, a licensed affiliate based in Europe, continued operating in the 2000s, and was later relaunched as Moon Ska World. In 2003, Hingley launched a new ska record label, Megalith Records.

Footnotes

Further reading

Neville Staple (2009) Original Rude Boy, Aurum Press. ISBN 978-1-84513-480-8

See also

List of ska musicians

Skank (dance)

Australian ska

Rude boy

External links

[ Allmusic] Section about third wave ska

Ska's Third Wave Article from Furious.com

SKAlovers.de Ska website for Germany, Austria and Switzerland

Ska Website with news of Ska in Wales and UK

Ska Information & Fan Zine

Category:Ska Category:Jamaican music