Sunday, July 27, 2008

Ska

Ska (pronounced /ska/ or in Jamaican Patois /skja/) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was a precursor to rocksteady and reggae.[1]

Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. It is characterized by a walking bass line, accented guitar or piano rhythms on the offbeat. In the early 1960s, ska was the dominant musical genre of Jamaica, and it was also popular with British mods. Many skinheads, in various decades, have also enjoyed ska (along with reggae, rocksteady and other genres).[2][3][4][5] Music historians typically divide the history of ska into three periods: the original Jamaican ska scene of the 1960s, the 2 Tone ska revival that started in England in the late 1970s, and the third wave ska movement, which started in the 1980s.

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