1. Explain the history of the genre, how it started,etc.
2. Your favourite bands and singers.
3.What do you like about the genre (the rythms, themes,etc.)
Word count: 230.
During my youth and young adulthood I spent many time learning about different music genres, and experimenting with them. The great thing about music is that the more you immerse into some artist, it leads you to different genres and you end by listening to a great diversity of styles.
I want to talk about a particular genre that I enjoyed a lot some years ago. It is original ska. When people think of ska today, they either think of two-tone Ska, which is the most popular brand. The Skatalites was one of the first bands to be labelled as such, although the music was created in Jamaica many years before, as an uptempo mix of pop songs of the 50's and 60's, adapted by the people of Kingston. The first songs contain traces of Rythm and blues and the Calypso influence of the island.
Many first Ska artist later became Reggae icons, such as John Holt, Peter Tosh and even Bob Marley, who in his youth was part of a ska singing quartet.
The music and culture began to influence British music at the beginning of the 70's, since Jamaican immigrants brought their music and culture. Rude boy culture influenced much of the fashion and music taste of the first youth culture, who later became Mods, or even the first Skinheads (not the Nazi ones, that's a whole different story).
The first band who integrated both black and white ska musicians were The Specials, who introduced ska culture to future generations.
What I like a lot about this particular Genre is how it shows the organic development of popular music acrross cultures and countries. Unlike modern globalized music industry, ska was a style that started from the youth and underprivileged.
Here are two examples of the origins of ska music:
The Paragons
The Specials
