List of ska musicians

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This is a list of notable bands and musicians who performed primarily ska or ska-influenced music for a significant portion of their careers.

Contents

Original (starting in late 1950s)

2 Tone ska revival (starting in late 1970s)

Third wave ska (starting in early 1980s)

Post-third wave (starting in early 2000s)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ska</span> Music genre

Ska is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walking bass line accented with rhythms on the off beat. It was developed in Jamaica in the 1960s when Stranger Cole, Prince Buster, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, and Duke Reid formed sound systems to play American rhythm and blues and then began recording their own songs. In the early 1960s, ska was the dominant music genre of Jamaica and was popular with British mods and with many skinheads.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Mighty Mighty Bosstones</span> American ska punk band

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones were an American ska punk band from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1983. From the band's inception, lead vocalist Dicky Barrett, bassist Joe Gittleman, tenor saxophonist Tim "Johnny Vegas" Burton and dancer ("Bosstone") Ben Carr remained constant members. The band's final line-up also included drummer Joe Sirois, saxophonist Leon Silva, guitarist Lawrence Katz, keyboardist John Goetchius, and trombonist Chris Rhodes.

Rocksteady is a music genre that originated in Jamaica around 1966. A successor of ska and a precursor to reggae, rocksteady was the dominant style of music in Jamaica for nearly two years, performed by many of the artists who helped establish reggae, including harmony groups such as the Techniques, the Paragons, the Heptones and the Gaylads; soulful singers such as Alton Ellis, Delroy Wilson, Bob Andy, Ken Boothe and Phyllis Dillon; musicians such as Jackie Mittoo, Lynn Taitt and Tommy McCook. The term rocksteady comes from a popular (slower) dance style mentioned in the Alton Ellis song "Rocksteady", that matched the new sound. Some rocksteady songs became hits outside Jamaica, as with ska, helping to secure the international base reggae music has today.

Two-tone or 2 tone, also known as ska-rock and ska revival, is a genre of British popular music of the late 1970s and early 1980s that fused traditional Jamaican ska, rocksteady, and reggae music with elements of punk rock and new wave music. Its name derives from 2 Tone Records, a record label founded in 1979 by Jerry Dammers of the Specials, and references a desire to transcend and defuse racial tensions in Thatcher-era Britain: many two-tone groups, such as the Specials, the Selecter and the Beat, featured a mix of black, white, and multiracial people.

Ska punk is a fusion genre that mixes ska music and punk rock music. Ska punk tends to feature brass instruments, especially horns such as trumpets, trombones and woodwind instruments like saxophones, making the genre distinct from other forms of punk rock. It is closely tied to third wave ska which reached its zenith in the mid-1990s.

The swing revival, also called retro swing and neo-swing, was a renewed interest in swing music and Lindy Hop dance, beginning around 1989 and reaching a peak from the early/mid to late 1990s. The music was generally rooted in the big bands of the swing era of the 1930s and 1940s, but it was also greatly influenced by rockabilly, boogie-woogie, the jump blues of artists such as Louis Prima and Louis Jordan, and the theatrics of Cab Calloway. Many neo-swing bands practiced contemporary fusions of swing, jazz, and jump blues with rock, punk rock, ska, and ska punk music or had roots in punk, ska, ska punk, and alternative rock music.

<i>Devils Night Out</i> The Mighty Mighty Bosstones 1990 debut studio album

Devil's Night Out is the debut studio album by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. It was released in 1990 by Taang! Records. It was one of the first albums to mix ska and hardcore punk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Big D and the Kids Table</span> American ska punk band

Big D and the Kids Table is a ska punk band formed in October 1995 in Boston, Massachusetts when its members converged in college. Their first release was on their own Fork in Hand Records label, but have since teamed with Springman Records and SideOneDummy. The band has been noted for its strict DIY work ethic, such as engineering, producing, and releasing their own albums and videos and self-promotion of their own shows.

Derrick Morgan OD is a Jamaican musical artist who was popular in the 1960s and 1970s. He worked with Desmond Dekker, Bob Marley, and Jimmy Cliff in the rhythm and blues and ska genres, and he also performed rocksteady and skinhead reggae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ace Records (United Kingdom)</span> British record label

Ace Records Ltd. is a British record label founded in 1978. Initially the company only gained permission from the similarly named label based in Mississippi to use the name in the UK, but eventually also acquired the rights to publish their recordings. When Chiswick Records' pop side was licensed to EMI in 1984, Ace switched to more licensing and reissuing work. In the 1980s it also gained the licensing for Modern Records, and its follow-up company Kent Records, whilst in the 1990s, the company bought the labels including all original master tapes.

The Slickers were a Jamaican rocksteady and reggae group in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The Channel was a music venue located in Boston, Massachusetts, that was part of the underground arts community of South Boston.

The Players Band is an American 10-piece ska band formed in Baltimore in 1999. The band's musical style combines Jamaican ska, rock, and reggae, and is characterized by the use of upbeat horns and percussion. The band has performed over 500 live shows in various states, including; Maryland, Pennsylvania, Washington, DC, New York, Delaware, New Jersey, Long Island, Vermont, and Virginia. The Players Band has performed with acts such as Grammy Award Winner The Isley Brothers, Grammy Award Winner Toots & the Maytals, The B-52's, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Joe Strummer, Matisyahu, The English Beat, Third Eye Blind, Citizen Cope, Fishbone, The Toasters, The Skatalites, Reel Big Fish, The Pietasters, The Aggrolites, The Slackers, Rebirth Brass Band, Big D and the Kids Table, The Know How, King Django, The Scofflaws, Westbound Train, Eastern Standard Time, Junkyard Band and many others. Notable ska musicians who have performed on stage with The Players Band as guests include; Adam Birch, Jeff Richey, Buford O’Sullivan, Vinny Noble, Dr. Ring-Ding, Morgan Russell and H.R..

The Australian ska scene has existed since the mid-1980s, when it started enjoying the same sort of interest as it did in the United Kingdom, following the success of UK 2 Tone bands such as The Specials, The Beat and Madness.

The third season of the Theme Time Radio Hour premiered on Wednesday, October 8, 2008, the same week that saw the release of a new edition of the Bootleg Series, Tell Tale Signs. Somewhat eerily, given that it aired during the week of a worldwide financial crisis caused by the collapse of the credit markets, the first show's theme was "Money: Part 1".

Rude Records is an independent and international record label founded in 2000 and based in Milan, Italy. The label's artists are generally considered to fall under the genres of punk rock, pop punk, post-hardcore, and alternative rock. Over the years the company has signed agreements with various record labels, especially from the US, to handle promotion, marketing, and distribution of their releases in Europe. It has published over 150 albums by more than 60 artists.

<i>This Is Reggae Music: The Golden Era 1960–1975</i> 2004 box set

This Is Reggae Music: The Golden Era 1960–1975 is a reggae retrospective anthology issued as a 4-CD box set in 2004 by Trojan Records. The anthology, which was compiled by Colin Escott and Bas Hartong, is arranged in chronological order and features tracks by various artists, starting with mento and ska from the first half of the 1960s, then progressing to the slower rhythms of rocksteady and reggae, which both emerged later in the decade, continuing into the 1970s. Several of the acts featured are Derrick Morgan, Desmond Decker & the Aces, Toots & the Maytals, Jimmy Cliff, and Bob Marley and the Wailers.

This topic covers notable events and articles related to 2018 in music.

References

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