Ska (
pronounced /ska/ or in
Jamaican Patois /skja/) is a
music genre that originated in
Jamaica in the late 1950s and was a precursor to
rocksteady and
reggae.
[1]Ska combined elements of
Caribbean mento and
calypso with
American jazz and
rhythm and blues. It is characterized by a
walking bass line, accented
guitar or
piano rhythms on the
offbeat, and in some cases, jazz-like
horn riffs. In the early 1960s, ska was the dominant musical genre of Jamaica, and it was also popular with
British mods. Many
skinheads, in various decades, have also enjoyed ska (along with reggae, rocksteady and other genres).
[2][3][4][5] Music historians typically divide the history of ska into three periods: the original Jamaican ska scene of the 1960s, the
2 Tone ska revival that started in
England in the late 1970s, and the
third wave ska movement, which started in the 1980s.