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British Ska: A Rising Genre
Two-tone ska was a big deal in the UK. Two-tone was the “follow-up” to the original ska that originated in Jamaica. Ska was a big hit amongst certain groups in the UK, and two-tone was the end result. I’m sure most of you will know of The Specials, for example. But anyway, two tone isn’t the focus of this post.
When two-tone died, a third wave of ska arrived. This third wave was often dubbed “ska punk” due to the fact it was a lot more heavy, and, well, punl-influenced that the previous genres of ska (which is understandable, since ska is what caused the formation of punk, and these genres originated before the punk movement). Third wave ska most contained American bands. Most third wave ska bands are still American. Reel Big Fish. Catch 22…the list is endless. A lot of America third wave ska however is basically punk with a horn section and seems to have completely abandoned the sound of the original stuff. Many die-hard ska fans find such music (eg Less than Jake) being dubbed ska a little hard to swallow, but all genres have these sorts of issues. British ska seems to be a little different. The third wave in the UK never really happened to much of a scale until the 2000s. These day it seems more and more bands are forming. Largely I believe the rise in popularity is due to political anger. Many third wave British ska bands have lyrics related to the rise of fascism in the UK, and many make a big deal of celebrating multicultural society. It seems the rise of popularity of the third wave is very similar to the rise in popularity of punk in the UK in the ’70s. American third wave ska is often lighthearted…I guess the British don’t do lighthearted so well, but they sure do ska well. Here are a couple of select videos:
Examples of some of these bands (if you’re interested) are Sonic Boom Six, The King Blues, King Prawn, Imperial Leisure, Random Hand and Howards Alias.
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