Ska has its origins in 1950s Jamaica, and came to the UK with an influx of West Indian immigrants in the 1950s and 1960s. Their kids rediscovered ska during the punk revolution of the mid-1970s, which led to what came to be called the Two Tone ska revival in the late 1970s and early 1980s. That second wave was fueled by the punk phenomenon, but only somewhat stylistically influenced by it; while you could hear a certain punky urgency in the music of, for example, the Specials and the Selecter, much of the Two Tone roster was working in more of a revival mode, playing in a style that was relatively faithful to the original Jamaican ska sound. But when a third wave hit around 1990, things were very different. For one thing, the third-wave ska revival was centered in the US rather than the UK; for another, the generation that turned its attention to ska this time was thoroughly steeped in hardcore punk and heavy metal, and saw no reason not to combine the two. This was the birth of ska-punk – a style that sometimes blended the heavily distorted guitars and headlong tempos of punk with the jump-up backbeats of ska, and sometimes alternated between the two styles. The pioneering Bay Area band Operation Ivy did a little of both, foreshadowing the later work of frontman Tim Armstrong with the more successful Rancid, while bands like Dance Hall Crashers and Skankin’ Pickle blended punk and ska a bit more seamlessly.
At the same time, a more tradition-minded ska revival was going on, centered in New York City. The Moon Ska label was headed by Rob “Bucket” Hingley, whose band the Toasters was the label’s flagbearer and tended towards a 1980s Two Tone style. Another traditionalist scene had developed in New York around the nucleus of Jeff “King Django” Baker and his label Stubborn Records. From Baker’s Version City studio, recordings by bands like the Stubborn All-Stars, the Slackers, and Skinnerbox emerged, most of them embracing old-school ska and reggae flavors. Regional scenes popped up around the US, including in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and even northern Utah. As such movements do, this one faded away after a few heady years, but ska has never completely disappeared from the pop music scene.
