Genre story · Other
Ska
A Jamaican beat that changed popular music long before punk musicians learned to play it.
Ska grew from the recording studios, sound systems and dance halls of Jamaica around the late 1950s and early 1960s. Musicians working with American rhythm and blues, mento and jazz gradually developed a more distinctive local pulse. The style was closely tied to the optimism and social changes around Jamaican independence in 1962, although no one individual can be credited with inventing it. Prince Buster, Derrick Morgan and the Skatalites represent different important aspects of its early history.
The rhythm arrives between beats
Guitars and keyboards place clipped chords on the offbeats while the bass walks or drives through the song. Horn lines can add melodic punch, but plenty of ska is led by singers or rhythm sections. In the mid-1960s the music changed toward the slower sound called rocksteady; reggae developed later along related lines. Britain's 2 Tone revival and the international ska-punk movement returned to this Jamaican vocabulary with different audiences and new musical priorities.
Beyond its punk descendants
Ska is not a variety of punk. Ska-Punk and Skacore are later fusions; 2 Tone brought ska together with late-1970s British pop and punk culture. The distinction keeps the original Jamaican musicians and recording industry at the center of the story.
Listening landmarks
- 1964The SkatalitesSka AuthenticAn early Studio One-era album associated with central Jamaican studio musicians.
- 1963Prince BusterI Feel the SpiritA singer and producer helping shape early ska's identity.
- 1979The SpecialsThe SpecialsA later British revival, included as a development rather than an original Jamaican release.