Ska Music essays

Ska Music essays Music is one medium through which a generation can express itself. For a generation of suppressed, restless, working-class youths living in early 1960's Jamaica, this voice was a genre of music known as ska. Since its original appearance, ska has resurfaced twice. Ska music has been presented to three generations of fans in three separate "waves." Its humble beginnings lead to one of the most influential styles of music present in the world. By 1962, Jamaica was no longer under British rule. Jamaican culture and music began to reflect the new found optimism in its independence. Since the early 1940's, Jamaica had adopted and adapted many forms of American musical styles. The predominantly black inhabitants of Jamaica took a liking to rhythm and blues music , and with imported American records, "enterprising businessmen attempted to string up small sound systems consisting of radio, turntable, and independent speaker boxes". These portable sound systems provided entertainment at dance halls. Owners of different sound systems competed against each other at the halls. The sound systems were run by two individuals, the deejay and the selector, dressed in "spangled waistcoats, black leather Dracula capes, imitation ermine robes, Lone Ranger masks, and rhinestone-studded crowns" . The deejay job was to introduce each record and to enhance the rhythm of the music! by chanting along with the record. Selectors chose records and used the controls to increase or decrease bass, treble, or volume. Musicians picked up on the elements of the rhythm and blues and combined it with traditional Jamaican mento music. The result was the first wave of ska. Musically, ska is "a shuffle-rhythm close to mento but even closer to the backbeat of the r&b, with the accent on the second and fourth beats, often moving in a 12-bar blues-frame. The afterbeat, strummed by a rhythm guitar or played on the piano . . . came to be charac...