the.com/ska
reggae on a triple espresso, played by people who really love trombones.
means A Jamaican popular music genre, the upbeat ancestor of rocksteady and reggae, marked by a walking bass line, a chopping offbeat guitar or piano rhythm, and prominent horns.
from The word's exact origin is uncertain, which is fitting for a sound born of accident and improvisation. The most repeated story credits Jamaican guitarist Ernest Ranglin, who is said to have described the scratchy offbeat strum onomatopoeically as 'ska, ska, ska' — though even Ranglin's own accounts have varied. Other tales tie it to a greeting or a band name. What's solid: ska emerged in Jamaica around the late 1950s and early 1960s, blending American R&B and jazz heard on radio with Caribbean mento and calypso. Beyond that first syllable, honesty demands we admit the rest is murky.
- origin
- born in 1950s Jamaica, predates reggae and rocksteady
- three waves
- Jamaica, then British 2 Tone, then American punk-ska
- the offbeat
- guitars chop only the upstroke, called the skank
- 2 tone
- black-and-white checkers symbolized racial unity in music
- the dance
- skanking looks like running while fighting invisible bees