Growing up in the Midwest, I didn't know anyone in HS that listened to ska. I stumbled across it on my own late-90s and early 00s in high school and college, and even co-founded a ska band in college. It was a great time (even as a guitarist), and grew a completely different set of musical skills and knowledge. In my late-30s now, I still enjoy it and have (finally) seen several ska bands in concert that I listened to 20 years ago, and the energy and atmosphere are always so fun. Sure, I love seeing virtuosic acts like Vai or the Aristocrats, but ska will always hold a fun place in my heart. And for what it's worth, I've always felt ska was a fringe/outsider genre and never "cool" in any way. Some bands made fun of that fact (like the Aquabats), but the close ties with punk (another fringe group) kept it on the edge, even if the songs tended to sound bright and cheery compared to their punk cousins.
Got into Ska in 96 when I saw Goldfinger, Reel Big Fish and The Urge all that summer. I played saxophone and only just picked up the guitar. I LOVED the guitar work in those bands and the musicality was all over the map. Those specific guitarists made me want to play better and understand the value of melodic playing. Plus, I have always been a default optimist, fun-loving person so it just fit my vibe. I've never given up my love of ska and eventually got into the darker/heavier ska too (Rx Bandits, Blue Meanies).
I got into Ska when I was in 7th grade in 96/97. You're definitely not wrong about the fact that people were quick to abandon it. One of the other things that happened right after the big ska craze was the Swing revival with Cherry Poppin Daddies, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Squirrel Nut Zippers, just to name a few. After listening to Reel Big Fish, Skankin Pickle or Less Than Jake, hearing the more mature music with horns probably had something to do with people updating their tastes.
Yes, Brian Setzer is a bad azz guitarist. My Brother saw him in LA early 90s when he played a small club with a jazz guys - working the big band project.
I was born in 1996, and in France, so there were no way I could live the Ska period Though I’m glad to hear I was born the year of the Ska Peak ahah Ska Punk is my absolute favorite genre of music, maybe some people gave up on it but as you and metal, I think Ska Punk will stay with me for life!
As a still young kid who played trombone for a good while and then switching to guitar, i actually enjoy the horns in ska, it in my opinion gave me a better view on what music is
Don't worry about 90's ska :) Go back to the original scene from the late 70's/early 80's: Madness, The Specials, The (English) Beat, The Selecter, et al. That was an awesome scene musically and also important socially for its racial integration of working-class kids in the UK.
The original scene was in Jamaica early to mid 60s. Lats 70s was a ska revival. The original ska was a Jamaican offshoot of american rhythm & blues/jump blues, especially the kind with a strong shuffle beat with the guitar on the offbeat. Where rhythm & glues was kinda layered with drums/bass, rhythm guitar, piano, horns and vocals all in their own layrr playingvdifferent things, in ska there drums/bass on the beat and everything else on the offbeat. Later in 66 the nusic slowed down and became rocksteady, with drumsz and bass getting beefed up there was reggae.
Since ska has roots that go back decades, it really isn’t just a passing fad. Good chance it’ll be back again. I do like upbeat stuff over doom and gloom.
Madness were good, specials had like three decent songs. Selecter and the best etc don't hold up for me. Also most those bands fused Ska, reggae and Punk in one way or another. Straight up pop ska is horrendous, and at this point is a parody of itself. Working class man from UK, born in '80
I think a lot of us hated this kind of music when we were teenagers because it sounded happy. And I can say that I at least was a very angry and unhappy teenager. But these days I can really get into that stuff
Especially fresh on the heels of grunge. The people into grunge in the 90s who directly transitioned to ska were subject to hatred and ridicule as they “sold out”. The people who liked ska in the 80s weren’t in that same age group, so it was a difference scene. Ska was very polarizing back then.
Mike, I really love your relentless pursuit of finding the positives in things. It's a very inspiring thing and it makes me wanna keep coming back for more.
Heard Sublime back in 96 and expand from there… Pie Tasters, Slackers, Aquabats, Expendables, Voo Doo Glow Skulls, Toasters, Madness, Specials, Desmond Dekker and Prince Buster!! So many dimensions to one genre.
I'm 47 and I appreciated the difference in musical composition that ska and swing brought in the late 90's. The horns are what got me into listening to classic jazz like Count Basie and Wynton Marsalis. I'm still a metal/hard rock/alternative/grunge fan, but I've also expanded my musical tastes over the years and incorporated some interesting genres into my listening habits. I'm glad you appreciate ska now. It's definitely got a different vibe than what you were accustomed to back then. :)
I feel ska ballads would be a lot of two tone ska 🕴️ The beat - Drowning The Specials - Do nothing Bad Manners - memory train Madness - It must be Love
5:45 Ska wasn't laughing at your sadness. Ska was trying to help you cheer up. It was showing you some sunshine. That's how I felt. It is also tied to the emergence of pop punk marking the end of Grunge. It was also planned by the record companies. They started the 90s with slacker self loathing, then Green Day and Weezer debuted the same month Kurt died. I find that significant, and I speculate that it may have been a factor in his suicide, but I can't substantiate that. I just find it strange that Kurt died the same month as 90s punk emerged.
It's funny because all of the reasons you hated ska are a negative variation of why I loved it! The horns created a completely new way to convey a melody over rock-ish music. That's my theory as to why there are so many ska covers of songs from the 80's and beyond. I also loved the happy vibe from the style, particularly because you can still sing incredibly bitter lyrics with it and make it work somehow. It was almost like injecting happiness into my misery. But I have to say, you are 100% right about the trendiness and how quick everyone was to abandon it. Of course, there are still some dedicated ska folks out (I like to think of myself as one), but they are far fewer and farther between than say metalheads or country fans.
I still love the first Goldfinger record. It's more punk than ska, but I still think it's awesome. And I saw Less Than Jake around 2000, and they were so much fun. The singer was dressed in drag, they had confetti cannons, toilet paper shooters and a guy dressed as a monkey who danced around the stage and breathed fire at the end of the show. I still listen to those two bands occasionally.
I was a punk rocker in high school when Ska blew up and absolutely hated it, I'm also from the Boston area so having to endure how big The Mighty Mighty Bosstones were only made it worse, Nothing kills the mood easier when someone turns off Discharge and puts on something that sounds like circus music. It helped bring me back to metal at the time.
i got into Citizen Fish cause i'd been a Subhumans and Culture Shock fan already, but i didn't really get into much else that was ska, maybe a little bit of Operation Ivy. i think i went on a morrissey smiths bauhaus depeche mode bender instead, but then i recovered and listened to mostly JAKS hollywood blood capsules, Assembly Line People Program, and Berlin Blondes. Maybe a little Alien Sex Fiend, although they might have been ska from outer space.
I love that exemplar you gave at the 5:45 minute-marker. It reminded me of The English Beat's 'Save It For Later' or something from the movie Kingpin starring Woody Harrelson.
It’s Superman by Goldfinger! Considered to be one of their best songs. You might know them for their cover of 99 Red Balloons featured in the movies Eurotrip and Not Another Teen Movie.
I was definitely a happy ska fan back in 96/97 when it hit - definitely more of a No Doubt, Goldfinger, Less Than Jake, Sublime and Reel Big Fish kind of fan. I think what a lot of people miss is that it's owed totally to reggae, which is another form of music I love. Basically, happy even when it's sad. Ska is simply reggae sped up - if you play pretty much any ska song slow, it becomes insta-reggae lol. At the end of the day for me, it was the ska bands that bridged into punk that got me going. I loved the guitar rock of Goldfinger or Tom Dumont's metal and classic taste in No Doubt. They bridged that gap well and brought a new layer to the Green Day/Blink/Offspring pop punk stylings. I can get a little sick of it with too much at a time these days, but I ate it up as a kid for its positive energy.
One of the courses I took at college was a history of music and we did talk about ska at one point, and it was really interesting because while I never got into the genre there were a lot of really good bands that came from that genre like No Doubt, Sublime, Rancid (the main aka bands I know and still occasionally listen to), Madness, Mighty Mighty Bosstones and guys like that
as a metal head, SKA seemed silly to me. There were a few tunes here and there, I never condemn an entire genre, but it was very few and far between for me. I still find a lot of it sound silly to me. I'm just not a bouncy music kind of guy I guess. and yes, from the 80's until now, I'm still a metal head.
I have adhd so for me, the more syncopation the better, regardless of the musical style. It still has to vibe/groove tho. So, ska has was a natural fit. It would always get me so hyped. I was really into suicide machines.
I'm only 30 so I didn't catch it during it's hay day, but I did go through a ska phase about 2 years ago before I converted to metal and shreddy solos haha 😊 Honestly I'd have to be in a certan mood for ska these days. But I think I will always have a place in my heart for it ❤
I was in high school when Sublime got big, and after that there was some other songs that I heard from the Mighty Bosstones, things like that. I can totally agree with you on how you felt about it. I honestly didn't really like any of it when it got big and was popular. I was into metal, and my metal journey went back in time at that point before it caught up to real time. It was like discovering the Black Album, then going back to Justice, and Puppets, and Lightning, Kill 'Em All, then fast forward to Load/Re-Load. I was disappointed in Load and Re-Load at the time. It took a few years, but I grew to appreciate those albums for that deep heavy blues that I now think is way heavier than I ever thought it was when it came out. Same way with the Ska music is that it took a while for it to grow on me. It's not something I want to listen to all the time like metal, but I do like it, and it has it's place for me. Honestly, I never even knew until recently what Ska music was. I just always called it a Regge/Rock mix.
As a former punk kid, i played in a hardcore band that all of a sudden around 96 was playing with a ton of ska bands at local shows..... honestly it was cringe even before that word was overused. We didnt quite "get it" apart from very select bands and songs. My friends and i used to say punk is to skateboarding like ska is to rollerblading.
I actually got into ska a little later. I was born in 1990 so I was too young to really get into it. A friend of mine introduced me to ska in 2005 and I’ve never looked back. There are many newer bands out there including my favorite The Interrupters. I also love metal and rock music, but ska will always have a special place in my heart.
Thanks for being so honest with us! I was never into ska either, i thought it was terribly annoying. I admit some of the progressions were catchy though.
Funny, I generally don't like ska but I'm literally on my way home from a Fishbone concert. But as you alluded to, they incorporate a lot of punk which I like. Great point about ska musicians getting onto a stage sooner. That was the case at my high school in the early 80s. We thought they were rock stars, even if we weren't really into the music.
For real it was a scenester genre, your experience was everyone's... The real key is accessibility : you did not need a black t shirt and long hair to enjoy metal... Hard Rock reaches mostly everyone... There's a good chance any random dude in line at the bus stop who's never worn a fedora couldn't tell you what ska was, much less start naming bands and songs. To this day at my nightclub whenever we have live music, when someone shouts "FREEBIRD" or especially "SLAYER!!!!"... everyone knows exactly what that is, even though most could not pick a Slayer song title out of a police lineup. Bonus points for showing 'Impression that i Get" for a CUT OFF MY LOW 3 STRINGS example... That was the first ska song i ever learned. TY guitar world!
PS I adore Reel Big Fish to this day, no matter how cringe the subject matter is in retrospect... Its still insanely fun to bang out Sell Out or Beer on a patio with an acoustic. I dont still pull that kinda joy from the Daddies or Zippers or Jake or whatever. Ska is like dubstep and mashups : theres certainly good stuff in the genre, but the bad to good ratio is abysmal to the point its not worth pursuing as a sane person.
So i started a little bit later into ska (say around mid 2000s) and it has a dear please in my heart. I think everyone has to find their music, and ska helped find a groove to dance to and enjoy. I still love ska and new bands that play it well, which is free and far between, but what did really gave me was freedom to be myself. Skanking at shows allowed me a freedom I never had at a concert that i carry along with me to this day.
Never thought of Sublime as Ska. they are Punk rock reggae and rap. i think they took advantage of skills and made a few songs with that feel but yeah i stand by that. fight me !
@@TheArtofGuitar for sure and when they played live that energy pushed them to play a bit fast giving that double time reggae feel. Good stuff hard for me to listen to now some music hits me like that. Most Ska though is boring or obnoxious i agree on the dislike. Filibuster out of Sacramento was awesome live when i saw them.
Streetlight Manifesto and Catch 22 are probably the only ska bands i enjoy, because their songs are a bit more dramatic, technical and mostly in Minor keys which give them a bit more depth imo.
In college, I was in a classic/alt rock band that somehow morphed into ska-surf-punk when our bassist (main songwriter) wanted some Permanent Vacation/Pump-era Aerosmith style horns for a song, and then we totally changed styles. This was while I was also in a Bay Area-style thrash band (as a primary songwriter). It was super fun, though, and really opened up my abilities as a guitarist to go from the James Hetfield School of Downpicking Fucking Everything™ to playing upbeat upstroke chord strokes...but a lot of the surf rock elements I brought into were Marty Friedman solo melodies played clean with an assload of reverb :) Also, the ability to skank and shred comes in really handy in my current 80s dance band. So yeah, I went from Heathen/Metallica to Aerosmith---err...ska-surf to metalcore to dance pop in the span of about 10 years. And loved every minute of it (except I quit the metalcore band because they couldn't keep up with what I was writing).
Ska, or I guess two-tone, never really went away in the UK. The number 1 single when I was born was Ghost Town by the Specials, and bands like them and Madness were never really off the mainstream radio when I was a kid. So the ska-punk thing that blew up in the 90's wasn't exactly a whole new thing, and when you compare it to, say, Bad Manners, the presentation was kind of tame. Not that Buster Bloodvessel skanking in nothing but y-fronts and Doc Martens is a great mental image, or anything.
Ska was never my favorite genre, but I do like some Sublime songs, and Leftöver Crack absolutely proves you can do some crazy, unpredictable things with it. Then there is the Suicide Machines. Ghost Town by The Specials also absolutely has an undeniably cool vibe to it.
Bud Gaugh is such a rad drummer though; the dude really is insane! (Never really liked Ska myself, and I agree with your take about the horns in heavy music) Mighty Mighty Bosstones always irritated me as well.
I was the same, but once I learned a few ska bass lines, I jumped ship almost immediately. As a bass player ska punk was just so much more fun to play and taught me way more about my instrument than hammering out roots in some grunge band.
Check out The Urge from St. Louis. They have their own ska sound that varies stylistically from song to song. Ska punk, ska metal, reggae, ska hip hop, and the horns don’t hide in the back. I truly appreciate bands that think out of the box…and they put on killer live shows to boot! PTMFUS!!!
Horns work for me if they're in the background or providing a sense of size or grandiose, or used as an introductory instrument. Behemoth and Dimmu Borgir use them sparingly but when they use them, you get this sense of being on like a LOTR battlefield. And if they're carrying a melody then they're by themselves, whereas if the heavy's playing, they're in the background or just holding some notes while the more intricate stuff plays below
if sublime is considered ska than thats as close as i got to listening to any of it. i was into grunge and metal in the 90s. still a metal head and still love my AIC and Soundgarden shit.
Mid 90's seem a strange moment for ska 'cause I was first introduced with Madness and The Specials back in 1980. Loved it but I was much more into bands like Led Zep, Thin Lizzy, Scorpions or Wishbone ash at the time. For me Ska was more some sort of musical passing trend.
Not a ska fan (I still don't like it at.......50+), but mine was country. I grew up in a family business where the shop radio was on the country station all day long. This was back in the 70s and 80s. Waylon, Willie, Charlie Rich, Charlie Pride, Hank Sr, Hank, etc. I was a hard rock/metal head and didn't have time for beer, trucks, people cheating on each other, and smoky bars. Also, I had little use for clean guitar in 3/4 time with the same chord pattern over and over. Then something clicked in me years later. I started to realize just how talented many of those guitar players were. EXTREMELY talented in the case of Western swing players. I have even made a private RUclips list of many of the old songs I heard growing up. These songs take me back to a time where the problems I had were nothing compared to today. What we call "old school" or "classic" country today brings back romanticized feelings and wishing for (what turned out to be) a much, much better and simpler time in my life. I'm not a fan of most modern country. Nashville is a glorified mess when it comes to country. To the point that even the old schoolers don't like it (or so it seems when you listen to them or read articles). Too poppy sounding. Not a fan of "bro country." As far as modern country or Red Dirt country, if it has a good rock, country rock feel, I'll give it a listen. Still a LOT of very talented guitar players, even in modern country. And I'm still a fan and player of nearly all the rock/hard rock/metal that I've listened to since I was a kid.......even tho I own a Gretsch guitar now. 😜 😂 And like Waylon said in Luchenbach, one of the things in life that make it worth living is guitars in tune. 🎸 😁
Never really got into ska, although at one point in life I even played guitar in a ska band. There were some bands I liked, Madness, No Doubt and Sublime for example. But most of the time it felt like "instant, fake happiness" to me. Well, nowadays I can enjoy ska more than in my teens, though its still not my favorite style of music. Great video, by the way!
Wait, what?? you said kids that went from Nirvana to ska. I guess I'm old! My era was the 2 tone ska revival bands from the late 70s like The Specials ("Ghost Town" is a classic). But ska itself goes back to the late 50s/60s...bands like The Skatelites, Desmond Dekker...and that music is pretty cool 😎.
Exactly! I saw a ska band in the UK just a week ago, who were bloody good and they played tracks from The Specials, Bad Manners, Madness, etc…. I was into 70's and 80's ska before rock…. If you ask anyone from the UK to name a ska band, they'd be naming one of these.
The Specials are great...and of course Fishbone. Never got into the 90s wave of Ska..the Bosstones were cool and No Doubt put on great show. NOFX was mixing punk and ska. But yeah, Green Day and Rancid brought out the worse of ska punk.
This brings back some uncomfortable memories! Late 90s is was reeeaaalllly into BMX and the whole skatepunk/ska thing went hand in hand with that, mostly from video soundtracks. In the UK, Britpop was huge (and probably the last "big thing" that I remember) and I hated it. Fast forward 25 years and I can't stand the stuff that I loved back then, and now think that the britpop stuff stood the test of time way better!
Most people's musical tastes change and grow as they age. I think it would be weird if someone still felt exactly the same way they did about music at 40 as they did at 15.
PS> this is what I LOVE about Pantera, at the height of Glam they released Cowboys from Hell, height of Grunge they release Vulgar display of power, 1994 Far beyond driven, height of ska/swing they release Great Southern Trendkill! They are the epitome of forever metal every single year of the 90s, RIP Dime and Vinny! pps. This is why the 90s rule: This decade had EVERYTHING and I still love metal, ska, grunge pop, 80s and 90s "alternative" forever. Except for i never had to knock on wood, please not that song.
Not really part but do enjoy it. I've noticed (imo) people that focus on one style of music seemed to burn out. The ones that expanded in to other genres retained a love of all music. I found something everywhere. Classical, jazz, SKA, country etc etc but still love metal. Moral of the story :find something you enjoy in all forms of music and you will always love all music. Great video 👏👏👏
The reason I didn't like the 90s ska-wave was that ska became synonymous with ska punk, which overshadowed old Ska and rocksteady. I mean ska is so much more than that. If you want a broader view on ska guitar I recommend you to take a look look at Ernest Ranglin or Lyn Taitt. Those have their own takes on the ska (they more or less invented the ska guitar). A great example is "Old rocking chair" with Jackie Opel as well.
🤘🏻🔥 Congrats on 801k Subscribers! Looking forward to the new scary story coming out and the next Bad Tab video. Loving the Bender Breakfast Club shirt, one of my favourite moments of that movie, I had to buy myself a shirt too haha. I grew up hearing only a little Ska, mostly the band Madness (a good handful of songs) and The Specials (but only one song, haha, i'm sure you can guess which one).
Back in the early to mid nineties I was singing for a metal/aic-stp type band, and in addition to bars we played a lot of all ages shows with different bands. When I started seeing bands setting up with horn sections I remember thinking"oh Jesus wtf..here come the bad Bosstones covers." And then it mutated into the Swing revival....such happiness
For instance, look at how many ways he felt like something was being taken away from him, when in reality people were just enjoying something he didn't. This is a universal rationalization style.
If you haven't already, you should listen to the song "Long Live the Dead Guy" by Johnny Socko. The musicianship is just off the charts, and they really mix it up nicely with the style and arrangement. Very atypical of most 90s ska. And the horn arrangements are totally next level. I can't stand almost any 90s ska music anymore, but this one holds up (and the rest of the album too).
Regarding seriousness in music: being silly and/or scatalogical goes back at least to Mozart, with his canon "Leck mich im Arsch" (roughly, Kiss My Ass). And in our time, Zappa, who wrote some outlandish lyrics and song titles (but who was musically way ahead of his peers). And there's a lot of goofiness in metal, either unintentional (look for some low-budget Black Metal videos) or intentional Alestorm/Gloryhammer, Nanowar of Steel, etc.
My story's a bit different. My city had a HUGE punk rock scene, so I was really into punk. But I really enjoyed metal. Punk was my "who the fuck cares, let's get stoned" vibe, and metal - especially listening to NWOBHM bands and old Metallica - was my "who the fuck cares, this is meaningless" vibe. You know, angsty teenagers and shit. But being part of the punk scene inevitably led me into ska, especially the harder edged stuff. So I never really had a hate for it. What I *did* have a hate for, for a LONG time, up until probably about 5 years ago, was grunge. Especially as a guitarist. Now, bands like Green Day and Nirvana and Korn not just got me into guitar, but into rock music altogether, but, after learning some boring songs and my teacher pushing me, getting into Satch and Vai, etc., I grew to hate it. There were these amazing shredders out there - modern era virtuosos - and they're being replaced by four chords that can't even stay in the same fucking key? And Nirvana was my prime hate, because they're the ones that blew the doors open. I don't shred anymore. I gave that up a few years back. Too many responsibilities - owning a company and having a family - to have time to actually practice the way I wanted to. And any practice time would be frustrating because of the lack of recent practice. It was to the point that I almost gave up playing altogether. But that period gave me appreciation for ambient and chill music, which is what I do now. I'd find some shred kind of boring to listen to. I find some older stuff - the stuff I *hated* - enjoyable again. I feel more rounded musically and more focused, musically, on what I should've been focused on 20 years ago. It's a shame it took me that long, but... we're all dumb humans, and my head's a little thicker than others sometimes. :)
Very relatable story, ska kids were the social chameleons, who now are the "hipsters" Im from Norway, so around 94 when churches were burning and the Norwegian black metal scene was at its hight, we were getting thrown out of class for wearing Metal shirts. Fun fact, i grew up in the same small town as Ghaal from Gorgoroth.. he was a couple of years older than me. Pretty scary dude back then to.
I think we are of a similar age. I hated Ska then and I still do now. I never got into it and even now, it does nothing for me. Still listen to some metal, but have moved to classical, though I was headed in that direction even back in the day. Nice melancholic classical guitar though. Maybe I've gone from angry and depressed, to just depressed lol
Its funny. When I grew up we were almost militant about what was acceptable to listen to. Now that I'm older I love most all the stuff I always did but a lot more I never would give a chance or admit. I don't know quite how to classify what we listened to. The most important thing was that it was "smart" so: Dead Kennedys, Wipers, Jesus Lizard, Big Black and Shellac, Pixies, Slayer, Melvins, and on and on. Korn, later Metallica, Limp Bizkit, were absolutely not acceptable. We were extremely elitist because there was only like 4 of us in the whole town. But like you mentioned, nothing was worse than being into one thing then changing it all up.
This video hits home :-) I kind of hated ska and pop punk bands back in the 90's too. I was in highschool and loved classic rock, metal and grunge (was just getting into blues music too). I now appreciate them but yeah, did not like it back then. I was in college when I first hear Sublime and did like them. That was a great band for sure!
I was in high school around that time. I’m good at seeing patterns of behavior, so I noticed right away when a lot of my classmates started to dress more punk. I saw it as trendy, which is the opposite of what I thought of as punk. It’s that irony that I disliked. I was introducing my god bro to guitar back then & he eventually started his own ska band. I reluctantly grew to like old school Green Day, NOFX & some ska songs. It was never my thing though. I liked the Smashing Pumpkins, Tool, RHCP, NIN, Depeche Mode, New Order & I was still listening to metal too. I’d jokingly play ska & pop punk on the guitar.
I never hated ska, but I didn't really care for it. I also did not care for punk. I was a rocker from AC/DC to Brian Setzer. Then I went to a Goldfinger concert and that opened up punk and ska to me. Idk, I just like music. I'll go from Buck Owens to Blink 182 to AC/DC to Stray Cats to Ella Fitzgerald. As a guitarist, I'm pretty happy to be able play through all those styles and still be me at the end of the day.
This style of music seems to have roots that go way back. Just watched a video on it and apparently ska had roots in Jamaica back in the 60’s. Then there was ska in the 80’s, songs like C’mom Eileen(original), according to a yt video were considered ska. So I’ve heard this style of music for a long time and I like it, very upbeat.
I'm a Hard Rock/Metal fan for 40 years but can appreciate the fun of SKA. Had friends in an original SKA band way back and always liked the Bosstones. Great topic
Loved and still do love early to mid 90s Ska. Goldfinger, Mustard Plug, Reel Big Fish etc. Still crank em a LOT. I'm a metalhead at heart. Also, this is counter to what was said here..... as a guitar player I play mainly metal. I cam crank out Metallica and Megadeth like it's no ones business....I can not play Ska. I just can't do it. Like Jazz and Acid-Jazz (Jamiroquai represent, yo..) I can crank it out on a bass, but hand me a guitar and your getting You by Mustard Plug and MAYBE some Sublime.....
I enjoyed Ska and pop-punk in the 90s mostly because that was when it occurred to me that music can be for fun too. It occurred to me that most people into rock music take themselves way, way, WAY too seriously. Every song doesn't have to be an existential, cerebral experience. Sometimes it's good to add some fun and funny energy here and there.
Miss me with all that ska. I remember the original 1960s - 70s stuff I heard as a kid in the 1980s which I thought was fun/ok but in the late 90s/early 2000s the newer bands popped up and I wasn't keen. I wouldn't of minded but they got lumped in with rock & metal 🤷♂️🤦♂️ and the stuff was played at the metal club we went to at the time, it would clear the room 😂. About 5 kids would dance to it, 3 songs in a row at least one by Reel Big Fish & one by Sponge, then back to metal. It was funny to see the 5 kids leg it when metal came back on. Made no sense to me, Ska is linked with reggae, not rock. Ska-punk would make sense but it was normally more ska than punk. DubWar/Skindread kicked ass though 🤘
I always liked ska since I got into it in high school, I got into it late (like 5 years ago) I know its not a popular opinion. Also to be fair I got into it before metal, I still mix it up with my punk, grunge and metal music plus others, and listen to all of it every day, its also a retrospective look for me to be fair.
An old head like me watched how it was revitalised in the UK in the 90's, but the difference was there was history connected to it. A lot of the bands (Selector, The Specials, The Beat and Madness) grew up listening to the music. Ska is a genre created by Jamaicans in the mid 60's before it evolved into Reggae music. What I saw happening in the States was a fad, nothing more and that's way it faded out so quickly. The US never showed appreciation for Ska but needed something to break up the music they were already listening too. That's way you'll never find a Ska ballad, it wasn't made for that. If you did the history you will find some fantastic songs, but if you're over it... then you're just over it,
All valid points. I was really into it then and still am so I guess I'm an exception. I do recall after the fad aspect of it crashed, most of the Ska kids jumped on the emo train, and I fucking hated that shit. I was definitely in a better place in 95/96. I jumped from listening to classic rock, metallica and nirvana to punk rock (though I still love all of the other stuff). Punk was the first genre that I identified with on a personal level. I was much angrier in 93-95 so Ska and Skapunk hit at the right time for me. All that said, in colder months it's 80% punk and 20% Ska adjacent and in warmer months it sort of reverses.
Morning from the uk being in my 60s went through all the trends from heavy metal/glam rock/scar/ punk /grunge etc appreciated it all and left the people be themselves but it was always rock /progressive rock for me .The Who, Sabbath ,Floyd ,Yes ,Genesis, that i resorted back to and still now play at the moment been listening to The Cars a lot cant remember the last time i put a eg punk song on did listen to the Tubes recently mind.
Wasn't a huge ska fan in the 90s but I found it pretty easy to ignore too. 90s was full of bad music and I'd already gotten into ska with Fishbone in the 80s, and they had already moved onto being half a metal band by then.
I grew up as a skater in the mid 2000s and 90s ska was still pretty closely associated with that scene, so I have a real soft spot for it. Hearing that stuff now awakens the 12 year old within
I remember when ska became popular. I was in a gigging metal band at the time and when ska (and swing) became the trend, we found ourselves with only 1 bar that would book us….all the others just booked ska and swing bands.
Ska does have a vast range of songs styles and sub genres just like metal. It also has a vast and rich history tied to other branches like roots reggae, skinhead reggae, dub and rocksteady. Also, there’s way more to 90s ska than that happy, goofy ass, suburban Orange County ska.. Latin America and Asia have been putting out great skacore/ska-punk bands that weren’t lame like the American bands from back then. Give them a listen!
I hated everything other than Sepultura and Fear Factory 😅
Legend.
I think I may have worn out the Chaos AD CD
And Pantera
Lmao me too. Throw a lil MachineHead in there to though.
Yup!
Growing up in the Midwest, I didn't know anyone in HS that listened to ska. I stumbled across it on my own late-90s and early 00s in high school and college, and even co-founded a ska band in college. It was a great time (even as a guitarist), and grew a completely different set of musical skills and knowledge. In my late-30s now, I still enjoy it and have (finally) seen several ska bands in concert that I listened to 20 years ago, and the energy and atmosphere are always so fun. Sure, I love seeing virtuosic acts like Vai or the Aristocrats, but ska will always hold a fun place in my heart. And for what it's worth, I've always felt ska was a fringe/outsider genre and never "cool" in any way. Some bands made fun of that fact (like the Aquabats), but the close ties with punk (another fringe group) kept it on the edge, even if the songs tended to sound bright and cheery compared to their punk cousins.
I enjoyed ska in the 80s - the Specials, Madness, the English Beat - mixed nicely with my punk music, as way to be less angry and depressing.
madness was good though
@@salintium hah, yeah. 90s ska was shit on the shoe of actual good bands like the Specials.
Got into Ska in 96 when I saw Goldfinger, Reel Big Fish and The Urge all that summer. I played saxophone and only just picked up the guitar. I LOVED the guitar work in those bands and the musicality was all over the map. Those specific guitarists made me want to play better and understand the value of melodic playing. Plus, I have always been a default optimist, fun-loving person so it just fit my vibe. I've never given up my love of ska and eventually got into the darker/heavier ska too (Rx Bandits, Blue Meanies).
sell out! ;) Grandma's shampoo
Hell yeah brother
I got into Ska when I was in 7th grade in 96/97. You're definitely not wrong about the fact that people were quick to abandon it. One of the other things that happened right after the big ska craze was the Swing revival with Cherry Poppin Daddies, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Squirrel Nut Zippers, just to name a few. After listening to Reel Big Fish, Skankin Pickle or Less Than Jake, hearing the more mature music with horns probably had something to do with people updating their tastes.
Yes, Brian Setzer is a bad azz guitarist. My Brother saw him in LA early 90s when he played a small club with a jazz guys - working the big band project.
@@buckseedamerica2743 That was one main difference between rockabilly and punk, they share a lot, but it in rockabilly the players are much better.
I was born in 1996, and in France, so there were no way I could live the Ska period
Though I’m glad to hear I was born the year of the Ska Peak ahah
Ska Punk is my absolute favorite genre of music, maybe some people gave up on it but as you and metal, I think Ska Punk will stay with me for life!
As a still young kid who played trombone for a good while and then switching to guitar, i actually enjoy the horns in ska, it in my opinion gave me a better view on what music is
Don't worry about 90's ska :) Go back to the original scene from the late 70's/early 80's: Madness, The Specials, The (English) Beat, The Selecter, et al. That was an awesome scene musically and also important socially for its racial integration of working-class kids in the UK.
Long Live Jerry Dammers
The original scene was in Jamaica early to mid 60s.
Lats 70s was a ska revival.
The original ska was a Jamaican offshoot of american rhythm & blues/jump blues, especially the kind with a strong shuffle beat with the guitar on the offbeat.
Where rhythm & glues was kinda layered with drums/bass, rhythm guitar, piano, horns and vocals all in their own layrr playingvdifferent things, in ska there drums/bass on the beat and everything else on the offbeat.
Later in 66 the nusic slowed down and became rocksteady, with drumsz and bass getting beefed up there was reggae.
Since ska has roots that go back decades, it really isn’t just a passing fad. Good chance it’ll be back again. I do like upbeat stuff over doom and gloom.
Or go even earlier and listen to the OG Jamaican ska from the 50s and 60s. That’s where it’s at.
Madness were good, specials had like three decent songs. Selecter and the best etc don't hold up for me.
Also most those bands fused Ska, reggae and Punk in one way or another.
Straight up pop ska is horrendous, and at this point is a parody of itself.
Working class man from UK, born in '80
I think a lot of us hated this kind of music when we were teenagers because it sounded happy. And I can say that I at least was a very angry and unhappy teenager. But these days I can really get into that stuff
Especially fresh on the heels of grunge. The people into grunge in the 90s who directly transitioned to ska were subject to hatred and ridicule as they “sold out”. The people who liked ska in the 80s weren’t in that same age group, so it was a difference scene. Ska was very polarizing back then.
RIP Bradley Nowell. Such a talented musician. 😭
Mike, I really love your relentless pursuit of finding the positives in things. It's a very inspiring thing and it makes me wanna keep coming back for more.
I went to school with some of the brass section from Less Than Jake.
...that's all I got.
Heard Sublime back in 96 and expand from there… Pie Tasters, Slackers, Aquabats, Expendables, Voo Doo Glow Skulls, Toasters, Madness, Specials, Desmond Dekker and Prince Buster!! So many dimensions to one genre.
I'm 47 and I appreciated the difference in musical composition that ska and swing brought in the late 90's. The horns are what got me into listening to classic jazz like Count Basie and Wynton Marsalis. I'm still a metal/hard rock/alternative/grunge fan, but I've also expanded my musical tastes over the years and incorporated some interesting genres into my listening habits.
I'm glad you appreciate ska now. It's definitely got a different vibe than what you were accustomed to back then. :)
The answer to the question you pose starting at 6:05 would be "Does Humor Belong in Music" From 1985 by the great American composer, Frank Zappa
I feel ska ballads would be a lot of two tone ska 🕴️
The beat - Drowning
The Specials - Do nothing
Bad Manners - memory train
Madness - It must be Love
5:45 Ska wasn't laughing at your sadness. Ska was trying to help you cheer up. It was showing you some sunshine. That's how I felt. It is also tied to the emergence of pop punk marking the end of Grunge. It was also planned by the record companies. They started the 90s with slacker self loathing, then Green Day and Weezer debuted the same month Kurt died. I find that significant, and I speculate that it may have been a factor in his suicide, but I can't substantiate that. I just find it strange that Kurt died the same month as 90s punk emerged.
It's funny because all of the reasons you hated ska are a negative variation of why I loved it! The horns created a completely new way to convey a melody over rock-ish music. That's my theory as to why there are so many ska covers of songs from the 80's and beyond. I also loved the happy vibe from the style, particularly because you can still sing incredibly bitter lyrics with it and make it work somehow. It was almost like injecting happiness into my misery. But I have to say, you are 100% right about the trendiness and how quick everyone was to abandon it. Of course, there are still some dedicated ska folks out (I like to think of myself as one), but they are far fewer and farther between than say metalheads or country fans.
I still hate it for the most part.
I still love the first Goldfinger record. It's more punk than ska, but I still think it's awesome. And I saw Less Than Jake around 2000, and they were so much fun. The singer was dressed in drag, they had confetti cannons, toilet paper shooters and a guy dressed as a monkey who danced around the stage and breathed fire at the end of the show. I still listen to those two bands occasionally.
I hated ska then, I hate ska now. Basically for all the reasons you mentioned.
I was a punk rocker in high school when Ska blew up and absolutely hated it, I'm also from the Boston area so having to endure how big The Mighty Mighty Bosstones were only made it worse, Nothing kills the mood easier when someone turns off Discharge and puts on something that sounds like circus music. It helped bring me back to metal at the time.
I fucking love ska. Check out Operation Ivy if you haven't, Mike.
i got into Citizen Fish cause i'd been a Subhumans and Culture Shock fan already, but i didn't really get into much else that was ska, maybe a little bit of Operation Ivy. i think i went on a morrissey smiths bauhaus depeche mode bender instead, but then i recovered and listened to mostly JAKS hollywood blood capsules, Assembly Line People Program, and Berlin Blondes. Maybe a little Alien Sex Fiend, although they might have been ska from outer space.
I love that exemplar you gave at the 5:45 minute-marker. It reminded me of The English Beat's 'Save It For Later' or something from the movie Kingpin starring Woody Harrelson.
It’s Superman by Goldfinger! Considered to be one of their best songs. You might know them for their cover of 99 Red Balloons featured in the movies Eurotrip and Not Another Teen Movie.
#5 was so funny. You are so genuine and heartfelt the way you looked back on it.
I love ska. I also love punk, hardcore, thrash, metal, jungle, drum and bass.
I was definitely a happy ska fan back in 96/97 when it hit - definitely more of a No Doubt, Goldfinger, Less Than Jake, Sublime and Reel Big Fish kind of fan. I think what a lot of people miss is that it's owed totally to reggae, which is another form of music I love. Basically, happy even when it's sad. Ska is simply reggae sped up - if you play pretty much any ska song slow, it becomes insta-reggae lol. At the end of the day for me, it was the ska bands that bridged into punk that got me going. I loved the guitar rock of Goldfinger or Tom Dumont's metal and classic taste in No Doubt. They bridged that gap well and brought a new layer to the Green Day/Blink/Offspring pop punk stylings. I can get a little sick of it with too much at a time these days, but I ate it up as a kid for its positive energy.
One of the courses I took at college was a history of music and we did talk about ska at one point, and it was really interesting because while I never got into the genre there were a lot of really good bands that came from that genre like No Doubt, Sublime, Rancid (the main aka bands I know and still occasionally listen to), Madness, Mighty Mighty Bosstones and guys like that
as a metal head, SKA seemed silly to me. There were a few tunes here and there, I never condemn an entire genre, but it was very few and far between for me. I still find a lot of it sound silly to me. I'm just not a bouncy music kind of guy I guess. and yes, from the 80's until now, I'm still a metal head.
I have adhd so for me, the more syncopation the better, regardless of the musical style. It still has to vibe/groove tho. So, ska has was a natural fit. It would always get me so hyped. I was really into suicide machines.
Also Goldfingers "Quarantine" live shows SAVED me during the lockdown, lol. Still watch those videos a lot.
I'm only 30 so I didn't catch it during it's hay day, but I did go through a ska phase about 2 years ago before I converted to metal and shreddy solos haha 😊 Honestly I'd have to be in a certan mood for ska these days. But I think I will always have a place in my heart for it ❤
I was in high school when Sublime got big, and after that there was some other songs that I heard from the Mighty Bosstones, things like that. I can totally agree with you on how you felt about it. I honestly didn't really like any of it when it got big and was popular. I was into metal, and my metal journey went back in time at that point before it caught up to real time. It was like discovering the Black Album, then going back to Justice, and Puppets, and Lightning, Kill 'Em All, then fast forward to Load/Re-Load. I was disappointed in Load and Re-Load at the time. It took a few years, but I grew to appreciate those albums for that deep heavy blues that I now think is way heavier than I ever thought it was when it came out. Same way with the Ska music is that it took a while for it to grow on me. It's not something I want to listen to all the time like metal, but I do like it, and it has it's place for me. Honestly, I never even knew until recently what Ska music was. I just always called it a Regge/Rock mix.
For someone who really didn’t like it, you really play it perfect. I’m 71 and love SKA, English Beat to Goldfinger to the Interrupters!
Want a modern ska song with a great solo, check out "Another Year" by Lost Island Society
I like 70s and 80s ska like The Specials and Madness
As a former punk kid, i played in a hardcore band that all of a sudden around 96 was playing with a ton of ska bands at local shows..... honestly it was cringe even before that word was overused. We didnt quite "get it" apart from very select bands and songs.
My friends and i used to say punk is to skateboarding like ska is to rollerblading.
I actually got into ska a little later. I was born in 1990 so I was too young to really get into it. A friend of mine introduced me to ska in 2005 and I’ve never looked back. There are many newer bands out there including my favorite The Interrupters. I also love metal and rock music, but ska will always have a special place in my heart.
Interrupters keeping the 4th wave strong!
Thanks for being so honest with us! I was never into ska either, i thought it was terribly annoying. I admit some of the progressions were catchy though.
Funny, I generally don't like ska but I'm literally on my way home from a Fishbone concert. But as you alluded to, they incorporate a lot of punk which I like.
Great point about ska musicians getting onto a stage sooner. That was the case at my high school in the early 80s. We thought they were rock stars, even if we weren't really into the music.
For real it was a scenester genre, your experience was everyone's... The real key is accessibility : you did not need a black t shirt and long hair to enjoy metal... Hard Rock reaches mostly everyone... There's a good chance any random dude in line at the bus stop who's never worn a fedora couldn't tell you what ska was, much less start naming bands and songs.
To this day at my nightclub whenever we have live music, when someone shouts "FREEBIRD" or especially "SLAYER!!!!"... everyone knows exactly what that is, even though most could not pick a Slayer song title out of a police lineup.
Bonus points for showing 'Impression that i Get" for a CUT OFF MY LOW 3 STRINGS example... That was the first ska song i ever learned. TY guitar world!
PS I adore Reel Big Fish to this day, no matter how cringe the subject matter is in retrospect... Its still insanely fun to bang out Sell Out or Beer on a patio with an acoustic. I dont still pull that kinda joy from the Daddies or Zippers or Jake or whatever. Ska is like dubstep and mashups : theres certainly good stuff in the genre, but the bad to good ratio is abysmal to the point its not worth pursuing as a sane person.
So i started a little bit later into ska (say around mid 2000s) and it has a dear please in my heart. I think everyone has to find their music, and ska helped find a groove to dance to and enjoy. I still love ska and new bands that play it well, which is free and far between, but what did really gave me was freedom to be myself. Skanking at shows allowed me a freedom I never had at a concert that i carry along with me to this day.
Never thought of Sublime as Ska. they are Punk rock reggae and rap. i think they took advantage of skills and made a few songs with that feel but yeah i stand by that. fight me !
Sure but you have to admit that song is.
@@TheArtofGuitar for sure and when they played live that energy pushed them to play a bit fast giving that double time reggae feel. Good stuff hard for me to listen to now some music hits me like that. Most Ska though is boring or obnoxious i agree on the dislike. Filibuster out of Sacramento was awesome live when i saw them.
Their record label that they created was literally called SKUNK records - ska and punk.
Sublime and Op Ivy were amazing!!!! The Clash and Rancid have some great ska/reggae songs.
Streetlight Manifesto and Catch 22 are probably the only ska bands i enjoy, because their songs are a bit more dramatic, technical and mostly in Minor keys which give them a bit more depth imo.
Streetlight and Mad Caddies have insane horn arrangements
In college, I was in a classic/alt rock band that somehow morphed into ska-surf-punk when our bassist (main songwriter) wanted some Permanent Vacation/Pump-era Aerosmith style horns for a song, and then we totally changed styles. This was while I was also in a Bay Area-style thrash band (as a primary songwriter). It was super fun, though, and really opened up my abilities as a guitarist to go from the James Hetfield School of Downpicking Fucking Everything™ to playing upbeat upstroke chord strokes...but a lot of the surf rock elements I brought into were Marty Friedman solo melodies played clean with an assload of reverb :)
Also, the ability to skank and shred comes in really handy in my current 80s dance band. So yeah, I went from Heathen/Metallica to Aerosmith---err...ska-surf to metalcore to dance pop in the span of about 10 years. And loved every minute of it (except I quit the metalcore band because they couldn't keep up with what I was writing).
Ska, or I guess two-tone, never really went away in the UK. The number 1 single when I was born was Ghost Town by the Specials, and bands like them and Madness were never really off the mainstream radio when I was a kid. So the ska-punk thing that blew up in the 90's wasn't exactly a whole new thing, and when you compare it to, say, Bad Manners, the presentation was kind of tame.
Not that Buster Bloodvessel skanking in nothing but y-fronts and Doc Martens is a great mental image, or anything.
Ska was never my favorite genre, but I do like some Sublime songs, and Leftöver Crack absolutely proves you can do some crazy, unpredictable things with it. Then there is the Suicide Machines. Ghost Town by The Specials also absolutely has an undeniably cool vibe to it.
Bud Gaugh is such a rad drummer though; the dude really is insane! (Never really liked Ska myself, and I agree with your take about the horns in heavy music) Mighty Mighty Bosstones always irritated me as well.
I was the same, but once I learned a few ska bass lines, I jumped ship almost immediately. As a bass player ska punk was just so much more fun to play and taught me way more about my instrument than hammering out roots in some grunge band.
Check out The Urge from St. Louis. They have their own ska sound that varies stylistically from song to song. Ska punk, ska metal, reggae, ska hip hop, and the horns don’t hide in the back. I truly appreciate bands that think out of the box…and they put on killer live shows to boot! PTMFUS!!!
Horns work for me if they're in the background or providing a sense of size or grandiose, or used as an introductory instrument. Behemoth and Dimmu Borgir use them sparingly but when they use them, you get this sense of being on like a LOTR battlefield. And if they're carrying a melody then they're by themselves, whereas if the heavy's playing, they're in the background or just holding some notes while the more intricate stuff plays below
I got into ska in junior high in the mid-90s, and still listen to it today. A lot of fans weren’t that loyal though, you are correct.
if sublime is considered ska than thats as close as i got to listening to any of it. i was into grunge and metal in the 90s. still a metal head and still love my AIC and Soundgarden shit.
Mid 90's seem a strange moment for ska 'cause I was first introduced with Madness and The Specials back in 1980. Loved it but I was much more into bands like Led Zep, Thin Lizzy, Scorpions or Wishbone ash at the time. For me Ska was more some sort of musical passing trend.
Not a ska fan (I still don't like it at.......50+), but mine was country. I grew up in a family business where the shop radio was on the country station all day long. This was back in the 70s and 80s. Waylon, Willie, Charlie Rich, Charlie Pride, Hank Sr, Hank, etc. I was a hard rock/metal head and didn't have time for beer, trucks, people cheating on each other, and smoky bars. Also, I had little use for clean guitar in 3/4 time with the same chord pattern over and over.
Then something clicked in me years later. I started to realize just how talented many of those guitar players were. EXTREMELY talented in the case of Western swing players. I have even made a private RUclips list of many of the old songs I heard growing up. These songs take me back to a time where the problems I had were nothing compared to today. What we call "old school" or "classic" country today brings back romanticized feelings and wishing for (what turned out to be) a much, much better and simpler time in my life.
I'm not a fan of most modern country. Nashville is a glorified mess when it comes to country. To the point that even the old schoolers don't like it (or so it seems when you listen to them or read articles). Too poppy sounding. Not a fan of "bro country." As far as modern country or Red Dirt country, if it has a good rock, country rock feel, I'll give it a listen. Still a LOT of very talented guitar players, even in modern country.
And I'm still a fan and player of nearly all the rock/hard rock/metal that I've listened to since I was a kid.......even tho I own a Gretsch guitar now. 😜 😂 And like Waylon said in Luchenbach, one of the things in life that make it worth living is guitars in tune. 🎸 😁
Never really got into ska, although at one point in life I even played guitar in a ska band. There were some bands I liked, Madness, No Doubt and Sublime for example. But most of the time it felt like "instant, fake happiness" to me. Well, nowadays I can enjoy ska more than in my teens, though its still not my favorite style of music. Great video, by the way!
Wait, what?? you said kids that went from Nirvana to ska. I guess I'm old! My era was the 2 tone ska revival bands from the late 70s like The Specials ("Ghost Town" is a classic). But ska itself goes back to the late 50s/60s...bands like The Skatelites, Desmond Dekker...and that music is pretty cool 😎.
Exactly! I saw a ska band in the UK just a week ago, who were bloody good and they played tracks from The Specials, Bad Manners, Madness, etc…. I was into 70's and 80's ska before rock…. If you ask anyone from the UK to name a ska band, they'd be naming one of these.
Thanks... My words !!(I am old though) Obviously this post relates to the 3rd gen of (american) "punk-pop ska". Enjoy yourself !
The Specials are great...and of course Fishbone. Never got into the 90s wave of Ska..the Bosstones were cool and No Doubt put on great show. NOFX was mixing punk and ska. But yeah, Green Day and Rancid brought out the worse of ska punk.
This brings back some uncomfortable memories! Late 90s is was reeeaaalllly into BMX and the whole skatepunk/ska thing went hand in hand with that, mostly from video soundtracks. In the UK, Britpop was huge (and probably the last "big thing" that I remember) and I hated it. Fast forward 25 years and I can't stand the stuff that I loved back then, and now think that the britpop stuff stood the test of time way better!
Most people's musical tastes change and grow as they age. I think it would be weird if someone still felt exactly the same way they did about music at 40 as they did at 15.
@@seanmckelvey6618 I feel personally attacked 😂
PS> this is what I LOVE about Pantera, at the height of Glam they released Cowboys from Hell, height of Grunge they release Vulgar display of power, 1994 Far beyond driven, height of ska/swing they release Great Southern Trendkill! They are the epitome of forever metal every single year of the 90s, RIP Dime and Vinny! pps. This is why the 90s rule: This decade had EVERYTHING and I still love metal, ska, grunge pop, 80s and 90s "alternative" forever. Except for i never had to knock on wood, please not that song.
Not really part but do enjoy it. I've noticed (imo) people that focus on one style of music seemed to burn out. The ones that expanded in to other genres retained a love of all music. I found something everywhere. Classical, jazz, SKA, country etc etc but still love metal. Moral of the story :find something you enjoy in all forms of music and you will always love all music. Great video 👏👏👏
I still like listening to Rancid once in awhile :)
The reason I didn't like the 90s ska-wave was that ska became synonymous with ska punk, which overshadowed old Ska and rocksteady. I mean ska is so much more than that.
If you want a broader view on ska guitar I recommend you to take a look look at Ernest Ranglin or Lyn Taitt. Those have their own takes on the ska (they more or less invented the ska guitar). A great example is "Old rocking chair" with Jackie Opel as well.
🤘🏻🔥 Congrats on 801k Subscribers! Looking forward to the new scary story coming out and the next Bad Tab video. Loving the Bender Breakfast Club shirt, one of my favourite moments of that movie, I had to buy myself a shirt too haha.
I grew up hearing only a little Ska, mostly the band Madness (a good handful of songs) and The Specials (but only one song, haha, i'm sure you can guess which one).
The Specials 'GhostTown'?...
@@tweettweetjones1262yup haha
Back in the early to mid nineties I was singing for a metal/aic-stp type band, and in addition to bars we played a lot of all ages shows with different bands. When I started seeing bands setting up with horn sections I remember thinking"oh Jesus wtf..here come the bad Bosstones covers." And then it mutated into the Swing revival....such happiness
This is honestly a pretty insightful breakdown of prejudice in general.
For instance, look at how many ways he felt like something was being taken away from him, when in reality people were just enjoying something he didn't. This is a universal rationalization style.
Ska is my absolute favourite genre, from the early 50's/60's dance dancehall origin ska to 90s dorky ska punk. Ska fucking sucks.
If you haven't already, you should listen to the song "Long Live the Dead Guy" by Johnny Socko. The musicianship is just off the charts, and they really mix it up nicely with the style and arrangement. Very atypical of most 90s ska. And the horn arrangements are totally next level. I can't stand almost any 90s ska music anymore, but this one holds up (and the rest of the album too).
Regarding seriousness in music: being silly and/or scatalogical goes back at least to Mozart, with his canon "Leck mich im Arsch" (roughly, Kiss My Ass). And in our time, Zappa, who wrote some outlandish lyrics and song titles (but who was musically way ahead of his peers). And there's a lot of goofiness in metal, either unintentional (look for some low-budget Black Metal videos) or intentional Alestorm/Gloryhammer, Nanowar of Steel, etc.
My story's a bit different. My city had a HUGE punk rock scene, so I was really into punk. But I really enjoyed metal. Punk was my "who the fuck cares, let's get stoned" vibe, and metal - especially listening to NWOBHM bands and old Metallica - was my "who the fuck cares, this is meaningless" vibe. You know, angsty teenagers and shit. But being part of the punk scene inevitably led me into ska, especially the harder edged stuff. So I never really had a hate for it.
What I *did* have a hate for, for a LONG time, up until probably about 5 years ago, was grunge. Especially as a guitarist. Now, bands like Green Day and Nirvana and Korn not just got me into guitar, but into rock music altogether, but, after learning some boring songs and my teacher pushing me, getting into Satch and Vai, etc., I grew to hate it. There were these amazing shredders out there - modern era virtuosos - and they're being replaced by four chords that can't even stay in the same fucking key? And Nirvana was my prime hate, because they're the ones that blew the doors open.
I don't shred anymore. I gave that up a few years back. Too many responsibilities - owning a company and having a family - to have time to actually practice the way I wanted to. And any practice time would be frustrating because of the lack of recent practice. It was to the point that I almost gave up playing altogether. But that period gave me appreciation for ambient and chill music, which is what I do now. I'd find some shred kind of boring to listen to. I find some older stuff - the stuff I *hated* - enjoyable again. I feel more rounded musically and more focused, musically, on what I should've been focused on 20 years ago. It's a shame it took me that long, but... we're all dumb humans, and my head's a little thicker than others sometimes. :)
Very relatable story, ska kids were the social chameleons, who now are the "hipsters" Im from Norway, so around 94 when churches were burning and the Norwegian black metal scene was at its hight, we were getting thrown out of class for wearing Metal shirts.
Fun fact, i grew up in the same small town as Ghaal from Gorgoroth.. he was a couple of years older than me. Pretty scary dude back then to.
I think we are of a similar age. I hated Ska then and I still do now. I never got into it and even now, it does nothing for me. Still listen to some metal, but have moved to classical, though I was headed in that direction even back in the day. Nice melancholic classical guitar though. Maybe I've gone from angry and depressed, to just depressed lol
Its funny. When I grew up we were almost militant about what was acceptable to listen to. Now that I'm older I love most all the stuff I always did but a lot more I never would give a chance or admit. I don't know quite how to classify what we listened to. The most important thing was that it was "smart" so: Dead Kennedys, Wipers, Jesus Lizard, Big Black and Shellac, Pixies, Slayer, Melvins, and on and on. Korn, later Metallica, Limp Bizkit, were absolutely not acceptable. We were extremely elitist because there was only like 4 of us in the whole town. But like you mentioned, nothing was worse than being into one thing then changing it all up.
This video hits home :-) I kind of hated ska and pop punk bands back in the 90's too. I was in highschool and loved classic rock, metal and grunge (was just getting into blues music too). I now appreciate them but yeah, did not like it back then.
I was in college when I first hear Sublime and did like them. That was a great band for sure!
I was in high school around that time. I’m good at seeing patterns of behavior, so I noticed right away when a lot of my classmates started to dress more punk. I saw it as trendy, which is the opposite of what I thought of as punk. It’s that irony that I disliked. I was introducing my god bro to guitar back then & he eventually started his own ska band. I reluctantly grew to like old school Green Day, NOFX & some ska songs. It was never my thing though. I liked the Smashing Pumpkins, Tool, RHCP, NIN, Depeche Mode, New Order & I was still listening to metal too. I’d jokingly play ska & pop punk on the guitar.
I never hated ska, but I didn't really care for it. I also did not care for punk. I was a rocker from AC/DC to Brian Setzer. Then I went to a Goldfinger concert and that opened up punk and ska to me. Idk, I just like music. I'll go from Buck Owens to Blink 182 to AC/DC to Stray Cats to Ella Fitzgerald. As a guitarist, I'm pretty happy to be able play through all those styles and still be me at the end of the day.
Holy shit..Death Angel! My respect for you grows by the day,my friend!
This style of music seems to have roots that go way back. Just watched a video on it and apparently ska had roots in Jamaica back in the 60’s. Then there was ska in the 80’s, songs like C’mom Eileen(original), according to a yt video were considered ska. So I’ve heard this style of music for a long time and I like it, very upbeat.
I can relate to all of this, we're probably the same age. If you could do the windmill then I'm sure you could do the backspin.
I'm a Hard Rock/Metal fan for 40 years but can appreciate the fun of SKA. Had friends in an original SKA band way back and always liked the Bosstones. Great topic
Loved and still do love early to mid 90s Ska. Goldfinger, Mustard Plug, Reel Big Fish etc. Still crank em a LOT. I'm a metalhead at heart. Also, this is counter to what was said here..... as a guitar player I play mainly metal. I cam crank out Metallica and Megadeth like it's no ones business....I can not play Ska. I just can't do it. Like Jazz and Acid-Jazz (Jamiroquai represent, yo..) I can crank it out on a bass, but hand me a guitar and your getting You by Mustard Plug and MAYBE some Sublime.....
Have to say…that i still like ska, it influenced me alot and helped me when i needed it most…
I enjoyed Ska and pop-punk in the 90s mostly because that was when it occurred to me that music can be for fun too. It occurred to me that most people into rock music take themselves way, way, WAY too seriously. Every song doesn't have to be an existential, cerebral experience. Sometimes it's good to add some fun and funny energy here and there.
Miss me with all that ska.
I remember the original 1960s - 70s stuff I heard as a kid in the 1980s which I thought was fun/ok but in the late 90s/early 2000s the newer bands popped up and I wasn't keen.
I wouldn't of minded but they got lumped in with rock & metal 🤷♂️🤦♂️ and the stuff was played at the metal club we went to at the time, it would clear the room 😂.
About 5 kids would dance to it, 3 songs in a row at least one by Reel Big Fish & one by Sponge, then back to metal.
It was funny to see the 5 kids leg it when metal came back on.
Made no sense to me, Ska is linked with reggae, not rock.
Ska-punk would make sense but it was normally more ska than punk.
DubWar/Skindread kicked ass though 🤘
I always liked ska since I got into it in high school, I got into it late (like 5 years ago) I know its not a popular opinion. Also to be fair I got into it before metal, I still mix it up with my punk, grunge and metal music plus others, and listen to all of it every day, its also a retrospective look for me to be fair.
An old head like me watched how it was revitalised in the UK in the 90's, but the difference was there was history connected to it. A lot of the bands (Selector, The Specials, The Beat and Madness) grew up listening to the music. Ska is a genre created by Jamaicans in the mid 60's before it evolved into Reggae music. What I saw happening in the States was a fad, nothing more and that's way it faded out so quickly. The US never showed appreciation for Ska but needed something to break up the music they were already listening too. That's way you'll never find a Ska ballad, it wasn't made for that. If you did the history you will find some fantastic songs, but if you're over it... then you're just over it,
All valid points. I was really into it then and still am so I guess I'm an exception. I do recall after the fad aspect of it crashed, most of the Ska kids jumped on the emo train, and I fucking hated that shit. I was definitely in a better place in 95/96. I jumped from listening to classic rock, metallica and nirvana to punk rock (though I still love all of the other stuff). Punk was the first genre that I identified with on a personal level. I was much angrier in 93-95 so Ska and Skapunk hit at the right time for me. All that said, in colder months it's 80% punk and 20% Ska adjacent and in warmer months it sort of reverses.
I just got into No Doubt, fun songs. I guess I was missing out for a chunk of time there.
Jamaican Ska and British two tone Ska are really the only true sounding Ska music.
No doubt, Sublime and Bosstones definitely got me to appreciate brass.
Morning from the uk being in my 60s went through all the trends from heavy metal/glam rock/scar/ punk /grunge etc appreciated it all and left the people be themselves but it was always rock /progressive rock for me .The Who, Sabbath ,Floyd ,Yes ,Genesis, that i resorted back to and still now play at the moment been listening to The Cars a lot cant remember the last time i put a eg punk song on did listen to the Tubes recently mind.
Wasn't a huge ska fan in the 90s but I found it pretty easy to ignore too. 90s was full of bad music and I'd already gotten into ska with Fishbone in the 80s, and they had already moved onto being half a metal band by then.
I grew up as a skater in the mid 2000s and 90s ska was still pretty closely associated with that scene, so I have a real soft spot for it. Hearing that stuff now awakens the 12 year old within
I remember when ska became popular. I was in a gigging metal band at the time and when ska (and swing) became the trend, we found ourselves with only 1 bar that would book us….all the others just booked ska and swing bands.
I hated ska until I had to knock on wood. :) But I saw red with Sublime/Gwen i have always loved that song!
Ska does have a vast range of songs styles and sub genres just like metal.
It also has a vast and rich history tied to other branches like roots reggae, skinhead reggae, dub and rocksteady.
Also, there’s way more to 90s ska than that happy, goofy ass, suburban Orange County ska.. Latin America and Asia have been putting out great skacore/ska-punk bands that weren’t lame like the American bands from back then.
Give them a listen!
Life was tough being into skateboarding and Pantera in the 90’s
In Puerto Rico there's even a band called Skapulario , and they still play..