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First, I know...that line is actually about hip hop. But you know what?! Before hip hop was ever "dead", people were always saying ska was dead. I can't tell you how many times I have heard people say "you still listen to ska? I was way into it in high school, but i don't like it anymore." What I find really funny is most of those people were into ska AFTER the third wave craze...which reached its pinnacle during MY highschool years. And the people that tell me this are generally younger than me! So what exactly is it about ska that drives people away? I mean, for me, ska was a natural progression as I became MORE knowledgeable and intellectual about music. Reggae is something I listened to in middle school; ska was its better (and we won't even get into the debate about how it can be seen as two separate trends that simply have similar roots since they both came from Jamaican Mento, with ska breaking off into rock steady which eventually lead to reggae).
Okay, we'll step back here because knowing some of you, you are like "3rd wave ska? what the fuck is the difference?" Here is a quick synopsis for you. But please note, I am not even going to go into the racial and political movements associated with the genres...that is a whole different story which is a great topic but beyond the scope of this blog.
First Wave Ska: finding it's roots in the Mento music genre of Jamaica, as the American invasion of R&B came in, the two genres fused to form ska. It took the beats and bass of American R&B and mixed it with the guitar strum that emphasizes the up of the second, third and fourth beat of Mento. When you think of the First Wave of Ska, generally you think of such artists as The Skatalites and Bunny and Skitter. Here's a Skatalites video for you to get the idea:
Second Wave Ska: ahhh... Two Tone Era. Here is some amazing music! It was the fusion of Jamaican ska rhythms and melodies with the lyrical content and aggressive guitar chords of 70s punk that took place in the UK. They were all about racial unity. Bands like The Specials, The (English) Beat, Bad Manners, The Selecter, so on and so forth...and for those of you who are like "whatever, I listen to other British bands;" many artists who become huge (like the Police) started out as ska bands. And Elvis Costello produced the first Specials record, so he was a major part of the scene! Unfortunately when you mixed the working class skinheads (not what you think of as skinheads here, not racist, but pretty much dressed the same) with the Rude Boys, well, violence would break out in the dancehalls and people stopped booking ska. Sadly, it went away for awhile.
Here are some videos from the Specials, Bad Manners, and, The Selecter:
The Specials
The Selecter
Third Wave Ska: in short, third wave is a fusion of the two tone ska of the second wave with modern punk rock. Its much faster and can oftentimes sounds just like punk rock but with horns. Just like the 2nd wave, it features brass instrumentsand a heavily-accented offbeat. Skankin Pickle, Op Ivy, Mustard Plug, Reel Big Fish, No Doubt (pre-Tragic Kingdom), Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Catch 22/Streetlight Manifesto...and you even has bands like the Slackers, Hepcat, and the Aggrolites that continued to play 60s style ska. This was probably the pinnacle of ska popularity wise, as it became huge in the US between 1995 and 1998. By the early 2000s, a lot of the bands broke up, and there really haven't been too many new ones coming into existence...however some of them are still rocking. You can go see the Aquabats, the Reel Big Fish, Streetlight Manifesto, and a handful of others even to this day. SM even has an album that is about to come out and RBF put out an awesome live record last year... Here are some videos from Streetlight manifesto, Reel Big Fish, Tim Armstrong, Skankin Pickle, and the Slackers so you can see what it is like:
Streetlight Manifesto
Skankin Pickle
oh look how young mike park is!!
And all of that music is amazing...so I do not really understand how someone who listens to crappy, untalented bands can't even see the good qualities in ska, even if they do not like it. I can recognize talent even if I do not like the music. But more importantly, Ska is still here, so keep listening. You can go see Streetlight Manifesto, Reel Big Fish, The Slackers, Monkey, etc... I mean, come on, the Aggrolites are playing Bumbershoot!! And more importantly, even if you are not a ska fan, the shows are FUN! You can dance and skank all day. the Bad Mannner/Monkey show I went to a few weeks back was amazing. I was skankin my ass off....YES ME, THE ONE WHO DOESNT DANCE!! It was awesome times. So broaden your mind...even if you were once a fan and are not anymore, give it another try. You just might like it. And even if you don't, at least you will have one hell of a time!! So get on that internet and start illegally downloading ska song songs...and if you like them go buy them!
All this has made me want to go to a Streetlight Manifesto show.
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