Ska punk

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Ska punk is a musical fusion of ska with punk rock.

It originated as part of the third wave of ska, and the genre achieved its greatest popularity in the late 1990s in the United States.The characteristics of ska punk vary, due to the fusion of contrasting genres. The more punk-influenced style often features faster tempos, guitar distortion, onbeat punk-style interludes (usually the chorus), and nasal, gruff, or shouted vocals. The more ska-influenced style of ska punk features a more developed instrumentation and a cleaner vocal and musical sound. The common instrumentation includes guitar, bass guitar, drums, saxophones, trombones, trumpets and/or other brass instruments, and sometimes an organ.

Ska-Core is a subgenre of Ska Punk, blending 1970s 2 Tone ska revival music with hardcore punk. Ska-Core was popularized by bands like The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Operation Ivy, Choking Victim, Leftöver Crack, The Suicide Machines, Voodoo Glow Skulls and Against All Authority.

[edit] History

Ska and punk rock were first combined during the 2 Tone movement of the late 1970s, with bands such as The Specials, The Selecter and The Beat. The fusion of the two genres became more prevalent in the late 1980s, with bands such as Fishbone, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Operation Ivy and The Toasters. Ska punk achieved its greatest popularity in the 1990s in the United States, although there has been a strong following worldwide. Several ska punk bands achieved mainstream commercial success. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones appeared in the movie Clueless, and saw their 1997 album Let's Face It go platinum. Save Ferris appeared in the film 10 Things I Hate About You. This success lasted into the 2000s for some bands such as No Doubt, who were included in Dawson's Creek in 2002, and Less Than Jake, whose 2003 album Anthem saw two singles, "She's Gonna Break Soon" and "The Science Of Selling Yourself Short", get airtime on TRL.

[edit] Fan base

The fan base includes more than just typical fans of ska and punk rock. This is particularly evident at ska punk concerts, where one can see people dressed in clothes associated with pop punk and skate punk. This may be due to the lack of importance placed on clothing style within the genre, in comparison to the first two waves of ska. However, the black and white checker pattern associated with 2 Tone is still strongly associated with ska punk clothing and accessories. Dancing at ska punk gigs includes traditional and modern variations of skanking, as well as moshing, pogoing and stage diving.

[edit] Misconceptions

A large number of bands (e.g. Less Than Jake, Mad Caddies) are commonly classed as ska punk, despite rarely playing ska-influenced songs. Sometimes this is due to a band having moved away from the ska sound. More commonly this is due to confusion amongst many people about the definition of ska, leading many to assume that any band that uses brass instruments can be classified as ska. ^{[citation needed]} However, the presence of brass instruments is not the defining characteristic of ska; many ska punk and ska-core acts do not use brass at all (e.g. the Suicide Machines, Choking Victim, Common Rider, Sublime, Operation Ivy, Leftover Crack), but do incorporate other elements of ska, such as offbeat guitars.

[edit] See also

• Ska
• Punk rock
• 2 Tone
• Third-wave of ska
• List of ska musicians

[edit] External links

• Ska on Squidoo
• Ska and Punk Bands on Listible

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