Why ska is dead

But, as audiences matured, tastes shifted towards a more serious sound and ska had to adapt or die — but, it sort of did both. The pure, cheerful music from the two tone era evolved from its ska-pop roots into something more recognisable, the dancehall sound that artists like Shaggy, Rihanna and even Drake have adapted into their own songs. Sublime confronted serious themes in their own ska-punk style: youth, drinking, relationships, selling out for success, racial divides, friendship, date rape and prostitution.

Sublime was survived by a band in ruins, but others rose to help ease the burden of a Brad-less new world — groups like Streetlight Manifesto, Reel Big Fish and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones worked to fill the void. In the end, those happy-go-lucky days that Sublime thrived in had ended and the era of third wave ska ceased to exist. But, the real killer of ska was not the death of iconic artists or the collapse of crucial labels like Moon Ska Records — it was our post-irony culture that killed the offbeat.

Festivals emerged in the early s, hoping to revive the genre and initiate what would be a fourth wave of ska; the most notable of these to be part of that post-irony movement was the Ska is Dead tour in North America.

Ska is Dead survived for nearly a decade, empowered by the nostalgia of rudeboys and rudegirls across their US and UK tours. But, their major tours ended in , splintering into smaller groups and events scattered across the map in places where ska could still draw a crowd. I eventually came to the conclusion that, if you have to ask if ska is dead… it probably is.

Bar Stool Preachers. Call Me Malcolm. Popes Of Chillitown. Ska is not dead. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. The new crop of bands reflect a generations-long consumption of ska music, where each wave builds off the sounds of the one prior. As a result, third-wave bands now perform alongside the fans who grew up listening to their music.

The Interrupters, who played the first week of Coachella this year, also grew from this L. A family band fronted by the slickly growling vocals of Aimee Allen, The Interrupters formed in and gained significant following for their Tim Armstrong-produced album Fight the Good Fight, a ska-tinged punk record that sounds like Rancid circa The past year and a half has been particularly prolific for established ska bands, many of whom released new records.

Let's Dance! Ska-punk band Buck-O-Nine just released its first record in 12 years, while L. Many of those bands -- particularly in Los Angeles -- are made up Latino and Chicano musicians, and supported by fans with similar ethnic backgrounds.

With a few exceptions including members of No Doubt, Hepcat, Viernes 13 and Fishbone , the majority of third wave band performers were white, and most with the notable exception of female-fronted groups Save Ferris and Dance Hall Crashers were male.

In New York , third wave bands like The Slackers continue to play their unique brand of ska and tour extensively. Musicians who grew up listening to them have riffed off those sounds to create ska-influenced groups who traffic in the sounds of rocksteady and reggae, including The Far East , Boomshot! People have identified the things that have given those original groups their individuality and built on that.

God bless the youth for keeping it alive. Any kind of music any us has ever done has always been ska-adjacent. At the end of the day, what kind of music do I want to play for the rest of my life? This is it! And I can honestly say that.

As a result of that earnestness, fans remain incredibly loyal to the ska bands that blew the soundtrack to their teenage lives. Morden sees ska as an antidote to a globally dark time.

Although many ska bands steer clear of politics in their music, the genre is inherently political. Developed at the dawn of Jamaican independence in the s, ska blended indigenous rhythm with international sounds, then took flight across the globe. This tiny little island that spent so many years under colonization has culturally colonized the rest of the planet. Indeed, some of the biggest contemporary ska scenes are outside of Jamaica and the US.

Following in the footsteps of Jamaica and Britain, Mexico has a strong soundsystem culture which keeps a love of traditional ska alive. Roberto Torres, aka Robbie Studio, runs King Crab Sound System and is an official cultural representative of the Jamaican community in Mexico; he hosts ska and rocksteady events every weekend. A lot of people come and soundsystems are a very serious issue. There are many things that have been forgotten in Jamaica, but for us here, they are very important. This music touches your soul; it can make you cry, it makes you change your mood.

There are ska bands playing traditional sounds and ska-punk in the Netherlands , Italy , Ireland , Germany and beyond.