Ska

I have chosen the genre Ska to research about because I have never really heard of it before and it’s not something I used to so I think it will be good to concentrate on something that is out of my comfort zone. I also feel that it will help me widen my variety of genres that I am able to perform.

Ska emerged in the 1950s in Jamaica but advanced in the ‘60s. It didn’t evolve from any other musical style or movement but it actually came before rocksteady and reggae. It is said that the original root of Ska is from when Prince Buster had created it at the start of the recordings for his new record label Wild Bells. Duke Reid had funded the sessions to get half of the songs released. Even though ska was developed in the ‘50s, it became trendy again in the ‘80s in Britain. There were bands such as Madness, The Specials and The Beat. In the 1990s a new kind of music was created by some bands to make Ska-punk, which is Ska and Punk rock music
It usually has a fast tempo, if it is any slower then it would more likely be classed as Reggae. The chord are played in 4/4 time. The chosen guitar chord is played on the downbeat and a ghost note is played on the upbeat , which is done by slightly lifting the left hand off the fret. The piano can also play shor chords on the off-beat. Many instruments can be used to play Ska, such as guitars, basses, drums and pianos. The singer does a Jamaican style of singing called “toasting”- which is when they make sounds, repeat words, invent rhymes, and shout into the microphone. The lyrical theme of Ska is generally just carefree. Musicians typically dress in hats and suits, but lots of Ska bands wear black and white checkered clothes. The pattern symbolizes the way that Ska music has a mix of Black and White musicians and styles of music. Doc Martens are quite popular too. Around the time of the Ska-punk appearance, bands began to dress in