For this Focus, we’re looking at the 3 waves of Ska music.
Ska originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s as a precursor to rocksteady and then reggae. Like reggae, the rhythmic emphasis in ska is on the off-beat. Ska songs also often feature a walking bass line. Compared to reggae, ska songs tend to have a faster tempo, more upbeat lyrics and more use of horns and other brass instruments.
The “first wave” of Ska music was simply the original genre described above and is also referred to as “Jamaican ska”. As an example from that wave, I’ve included Demond Dekker’s 1970 number 2 hit You Can Get It If You Really Want, originally written by Jimmy Cliff. You might also like to check out 1969’s classic instrumental Liquidator by Harry J Allstars (aka Harry Johnson & the All Stars).
The “second wave” of Ska is the “2 Tone” genre, originating in Coventry and named after 2 Tone Records, founded in 1979. The name refers to a desire to move beyond the racial segregation that was common in the music industry and society at the time: Many of 2 Tone’s groups were distinctive in including a mix of black, white and multiracial musicians. The striking black-and-white 2 Tone logo features a distinctive checkerboard pattern as well as a man wearing what is now the quintessential ska-revival outfit (black suit, white shirt, pork pie hat, etc).
The most famous band associated with 2 Tone is Madness, although they only released one single with the 2 Tone label, and their musical output has covered a much wider range of styles than just ska-revival. I’ve instead illustrated this second wave here with two songs by other groups: On My Radio by The Selecter and Nelson Mandela by Special A.K.A, the second iteration of Coventry band The Specials.
The “third wave” of Ska primarily refers to “Ska punk”. Just as 2 Tone bands were influenced by the original punk rock of the 1970s, so Ska Punk bands such as The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Rancid fused together the brass and rhythms of ska with the punk music of the 1990s. I often think of Ska Punk as a sub-genre of Pop Punk (which we’ll cover in a future newsletter), but it actually has a harder sound. For poppier examples of third-wave ska, you can turn to one of the many ska-punk cover versions as I’ve done here for our final Focus song, Save Ferris’s excellent cover of Come On Eileen. You can expect some similar covers in future “Even better than the real thing” features in this newsletter.