Ska

Offbeat guitar, walking bass and horns came from 1960s Jamaica and returned to Britain in 1979.

Related

ContemporarySyncopationTrumpetElectric guitar

Ska joined the syncopated guitar, walking bass and horn sections of Jamaican dance music, taking shape in Kingston in the early 1960s.

Origins and era

Around Jamaican independence in 1962, Kingston sound systems and studios sped up American rhythm and blues and added local folk material and horns, producing ska. Coxsone Dodd's Studio One and Duke Reid's Treasure Isle were the main rooms, the Skatalites the core backing band, and Prince Buster and Desmond Dekker left early classics. In the late 1960s the tempo slowed into rocksteady and reggae. In 1979 Jerry Dammers in Coventry founded the 2 Tone label, joining ska to punk energy.

What you hear

Guitar chops upward on the offbeats, a short stroke after every beat, the pattern usually called the skank. Bass walks, often crossing an octave within the bar; horns state the theme, with saxophone and trombone common. Tempos run 140 to 170 BPM, drums stay relatively simple, and voices alternate between a lead singer and group response. 2 Tone versions are faster and harder, with punk directness in guitar and voice. The snare lands on two and four and the kick leaves room for the bass, while guitar offbeats interlock with short horn phrases in call and response. Voices often double the horn line. 2 Tone singles used black-and-white sleeves and matching suits, making the look part of the style.

Key figures

Don Drummond and Tommy McCook of the Skatalites defined the instrumental line-up, and Prince Buster brought storytelling and humour into the studio. Desmond Dekker carried ska into the British market, Jerry Dammers and the Specials made 2 Tone a mixed-race scene, Madness reached television with a comic image, and the Beat and the Selecter each brought a different city accent.

Lineage

Jamaican mento, American rhythm and blues and jazz horns feed in; rocksteady, reggae, 2 Tone and the 1990s third wave come out. It was also the first wave of Caribbean immigrant music in Britain, and dance steps and clothing travelled with the records. The American third wave of the 1990s joined horns to punk guitar and made ska-punk a live format. Its offbeat vocabulary also entered pop and Latin music.

Common misunderstandings

The common claim is that ska is a kind of reggae. Chronologically it comes first, and reggae evolved from it at a slower tempo. Another is that 2 Tone is the origin of ska, when it was a reworking of 1960s Jamaican recordings. Treating ska as fast party music also misses its social lyrics and immigrant experience. Treating it as purely Jamaican is equally wrong, since British and American scenes changed its tempo and line-up.

Sources

• Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae（Rough Guides, 2004），用于核对金斯敦录音室与年代
• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., entry Ska，用于交叉核对风格特征

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.