dont look at me like that
 

wats ska?

i have absolutely no idea! i mean i know it's a genre, probably like punk?? i dunno for sure, sorry. and yeah i guess we both look like idiots now

poo, i saw a response and was hoping u could clear it up. o well at least im not the only one.

ugh. Ill explain later im to lazy to type right now. For now know this Less than jake, Catch 22, Reel Big fish are all NOT ska. Punk is also not ska.

OK this is an abriged history of ska.

Ska is a genre of music that evolved out of American rock, doo wop,jazz and Jamaican Calypso and mento in the 60s'. Like most African American music it was off kilter and focused on the upbeat of the guitar. The sound the guitar made was described as "ska" hence the title ska. Ska was an instant hit amongst Jamicans who were liberated from Britain and needed music to celebrate too. It was especially popular amongst the poor and downtrodden Jamican youth. These kids would form gangs and were called "rude boys". They dressed sharp and could be hired to destroy dance halls and recording studios these people were called "dance hall crashers" . Anyway Ska was Freaking HUGE in Jamica at the time. This is commonly refered to as the "first wave" of ska. Famous bands in this era include The skatalites, Alton Ellis, laurel Aitken, Duke Reid, and Prince Busters all stars. Anyway this was all super duper fun fun fun, but soon enough ska lost its popularity in the Jamaican mainstream around 67-68' which i said to mark the end of the first wave of ska.

Thats your lesson for now, Ill type more about the rest of the ska "waves" along with my biased opinions and band picks later.

ok, kids, you are now dismissed

what are the typical, set sounds of ska then?

Kind of hard to describe how something sounds. As much as i hate the description think of your favorite reggae tune, take away background vocals, lighten up the bass, add more horns, turn up the guitar, take away some of the organ shuffle. Or just download a song any of the bands I mentioned. Alton Ellis's push wood is a prime example as is anything by the skatalites.


Lesson two.

The second wave of ska happened mainly in the UK in the mid/late 70's into the mid 80s'. baisically all of these poor jamiacan kids went over to europe in search of work. Naturally they brough there music with them. As Jamican rude boys met up with there new comrads in the working class something happened. The rudeboy became influenced by the faster rythms of the British working class's new found love, punk. And the skinhead instantly took a likeing to ska. So a new form of ska with less emphasis on horns and stict melody was formed. Naturally it was a bit faster and some say more energetic than its predesecor traditional ska. This is also when the whole checkerboard thing took off. Europe had high racial tensions but the working class formed a sort of black and white racial unity. To display this the checkeboard look went crazy. That and the new record label called "2-tone" records was formed by The Specials jerry Dahmers. Hence the second "wave" of ska is refered to as the 2-tone movement. Some of the more famous better loved ska bands the really exemplfy the 2-tone sound are Bad manners, The Specials, Potato 5, Maroon town, The Selector, Judge dread, Volcanoes, and the ska dows.

O boy third wave ska is coming up what excitment.....

these should give you a pretty good idea of ska

out all night
drunken master

hwy don't entirely know what ska is either so don't feel bad