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Encyclopediska
Ska Dictionary
List of Ska words and phrases, what they mean, and where they come from.
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Skank
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| 1. A rhythmic dance performed to reggae or ska music, characterized by bending forward, raising the knees, and extending the hands.
2. A dance so simple that everyone can do it yet flexible enough to where it can be stylized to show off talented moves. Once known as “Doing the Ska”
3. Skanking is the *canonical* ska dance. Being canonical doesn't make it the only or One True ska dance; it is, however, the standard dance these days. Skanking involves angular pumping of legs and arms, with knees and elbows bent. Mike Fragrassi (I think) described this a rythmic "herking and jerking."
(1. text from Dictionary)
(2. text from SkaSummit.com)
(3. text from Ska FAQ) |
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Ska
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| Popular music originating in Jamaica in the 1960s, having elements of rhythm and blues, jazz, and calypso and marked by a fast tempo and a strongly accented offbeat.
(text from Dictionary.com) |
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First-Wave Ska (Traditional Ska)
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| "First-wave ska" began in late 1960 in Jamaica and lasted until the late 1960s in Jamaica and England (as blue beat), by which time its popularity had declined in favor of ska offspring rock-steady and reggae. Seminal first-wave Jamaican ska artists include the Skatalites, Laurel Aitken, Prince Buster, Derrick Morgan and Desmond Dekker.
(text from Ska FAQ) |
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Traditional Ska (First-Wave Ska)
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| "first-wave ska" began in late 1960 in Jamaica and lasted until the late 1960s in Jamaica and England (as blue beat), by which time its popularity had declined in favor of ska offspring rock-steady and reggae. Seminal first-wave Jamaican ska artists include the Skatalites, Laurel Aitken, Prince Buster, Derrick Morgan and Desmond Dekker.
(text from Ska FAQ) |
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Second-Wave Ska (Two-Tone Ska)
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| "Second-wave ska" flourished in the late-1970s and very early 1980s and saw the emergence of popular groups such as the Specials, the (English) Beat, Madness and the like in England. Second-wave ska is strongly associated with the 2 Tone scene [1979-1981] in the UK, as shown in the movie `Dance Craze', although American bands like Her Majesties Secret Service brought the 2-Tone sound to the States in the early Eighties. Two-tone ska is faster, tighter and uses more horns than some older Jamaican ska, although certainly not as much as the Skatalites.
(text from Ska FAQ) |
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Two-Tone Ska (Second-Wave Ska)
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| "Second-wave ska" flourished in the late-1970s and very early 1980s and saw the emergence of popular groups such as the Specials, the (English) Beat, Madness and the like in England. Second-wave ska is strongly associated with the 2 Tone scene [1979-1981] in the UK, as shown in the movie `Dance Craze', although American bands like Her Majesties Secret Service brought the 2-Tone sound to the States in the early Eighties. Two-tone ska is faster, tighter and uses more horns than some older Jamaican ska, although certainly not as much as the Skatalites.
(text from Ska FAQ) |
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Third-Wave Ska
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| "Third-wave ska" is a late-1980s/early- 1990s revival of ska, involving such bands as Weaker Youth Ensemble, the Allstonians, Bim Skala Bim, the Voodoo Glow Skulls and The Toasters.
(text from Ska FAQ) |
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Ska-Core
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| Yet another label. A matter of semantics. Ska-core is either hardcore/punk-influenced ska or ska-influenced hardcore music. Or a fiction. Compared to traditional ska, ska-core is faster and harder. Voodoo Glow Skulls and Operation Ivy are commonly called ska-core bands. At some points, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones have claimed to play ska-core. Some claim that ska-core songs change rythmic structure from ska-like to hardcore-like within one song. This could be differentiated from ska-influenced punk. Others point out that ska-core bands may have a rock-like lineup, without horns.
(text from Ska FAQ) |
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S.Y.L.S.B.
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| [Support Your Local Ska Band] A phrase made famous by the song SYLSB by Save Ferris.
(text from SkaSummit.com |
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Skavoovie
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| Used to greet someone. Started by Cluet Johnson who would say to his friends, "Love Skavoovie".
(text from SkaSummit.com |
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Toasting
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| (text from Wikipedia)
Toasting, chatting, or DJing is the act of talking or chanting over a rhythm or beat. This was initially developed in Jamaica during the 1960s. MCs from sound systems employed the technique to further enhance their dub plates. As time progressed the MCs would become more creative in their chants, eventually overshadowing the tunes they were initially supposed to enhance. This led to the earliest forms of what is now known as dancehall in Jamaica.
(text from Wikipedia) |
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Ska Relatives
A list of genres that are in some way connected to Ska, and information about the genre.
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Dancehall
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| (text from MusicMatch Jukebox)
Dancehall developed in the '80s as "ragamuffin", a hybrid style featuring a DJ or "sing-jay" half-singing, half-rapping with often bawdy ("slack") themes. The musical structure is rooted in reggae tough the rhythms, played by drum machines, are considerably faster. By the '90s, dancehall crossover was common, with many gansta-rappers incorporationg dancehall rhythms and its rapid-fire toasting. Major dancehall figures include Yellowman and Shabba Ranks.
(text from MusicMatch Jukebox)
(text from Wikipedia)
Dancehall is a type of Jamaican reggae which developed in the late 1970s. The style is characterized by a DJ singing and rapping or toasting over raw and danceable reggae music (riddims). In the early years of dancehall, some found its lyrics as crude and "slack", though it became very popular among the youths of Jamaica and then eventually, like its reggae predecessor, made inroads onto the world music scene. In the late 1990s, many artists converted to Rastafarianism and changed their lyrical focus to "consciousness", which reflects the spiritual underpinnings of Rastafarianism. Various varieties of dancehall achieved some crossover success outside of Jamaica during the mid- to late-1990s. In 2001, reggae pop star Shaggy, went 6 times platinum with his album Hotshot. The next year, he received various nominations from the American Music Awards and the Grammy Award, and he has won two World Music Awards. Also some Dancehall-tunes (voiced riddims) become popular during the summer of 2003, especially Sean Paul's Get Busy.
Dancehall developed in Jamaica as a result of varying political and socio-economic factors. Reggae as a style of music was heavily influence by the ideologies of Rastafari and was also spirited by the socialist movements in the island at the time. Dancehall the scion of reggae was birthed in the late seventies and early eighties, when many had become disenchanted with the socialist movement and harsh economic realitlies came to bear in the island. It is during this time that neo-liberalist ideologies and materialism started to factor into the live of many Jamaicans, such these realities came to the fore in the new music.
Dancehall has been in large part condemned by high Jamaican society, with little or no state endorsement, it has also faced the slaughter of intellectual criticism in the media, particularly by the likes of popular Jamaican journalists, like Ian Boyne. Also Dancehall has come to face scathing criticism from the homosexual community, as they claim that it perpetuates violence against homosexual in Jamaica (though this claim is unsubstantiated with any data or statistics, except for lyrical excerpts).
(text from Wikipedia) |
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Dub
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| (text from MusicMatchJukebox)
Dub derives its name from the practice of dubbing instrumental, rhythm-oriented versions of reggae songs onto the B-sides of 45 rpm singles, which evolved into a legitimate and accepted style of its own as those re-recordings became forums for engineers to expirement with the possibilities of their mixing consoles. The practice of re-recording reggae tracks without vocals dated back to 1967, when DJs found that dancehall crowds and partygoers greatly enjoyed being given the opportunity to sing the lyrics themselves. Around 1969, some DJs began talking, or "toasting", over these instrumentals (known as "versions"), frequently reinterpreting the already familiar original lyrics. The most important early DJ was U-Roy, who became renowned for his ability to improvise dialogues with the recorded singers; U-Roy ran the sound system owned by engineer King Tubby, who mixed all of the instrumental tracks over which his DJ toasted. Eventually, Tubby began to experiment with remixing the instrumental tracks, brnging up the level of the rhythm section, dropping out most or all of the vocals, and adding new effects like reverb and echo. The results were seen by many reggae fans as stripping the music down to its purest essence. 45-rpm singles with dub versions on the B-sides became ubiquitous, and King Tubby's credit on the back soon became a drawing card in and of itself. Full-fledged dub albums began to appear in 1973, with many highlights stemming from Tubby's mixes for produces Bunny Lee and Augustus Pablo (the latter of whom also played the haunting melodica, which became one of dub's signature added elements); other key early producers included the minimalistic Keith Hudson and the colorful, elaborate Lee "Scratch" Perry. By 1976, dub's popularity in Jamaica was second only to Rastafarian roots reggae, and the sound had also found acceptance in the U.K. (thanks largely to the Island label), where roots reggae artists like Burning Spear and Black Uhuru became just as well-known for their forays into dub. The Mad Professor and the experimental Adrian Sherwood helped Britain's dub scene remain vital int he '80s, but in spite of skilled newcomers like Scientist, Prince Jammy, and Mikey Dread, Jamaican popular taste had by then shifted to DJ toasters and lyrical improvisers, which led to the prominence of dancehall and ragga. The downtemp atmospherics and bass- and rhythm-heavy textures of dub had a lasting influence outside of reggae, beginning with Public Image Ltd.'s 1979 Metal Box/Second Edition album; during the '90s, dub was frequently incorporated into the melting-pot eclecticism of underground avant-garde rock, and Britain's thriving electonica/drum'n'bass scene owed a great deal to dub's mixing and production techniques.
(text from MusicMatchJukebox)
(text from Wikipedia)
Dub is a form of Jamaican music, which developed in the early 1970s.
Dub is characterized as a "version" of an existing song, typically emphasizing the drums and bass for a sound popular in local Sound Systems. The instrumental tracks are typically drenched in sound processing effects, with most of the lead instruments and vocals dropping in and out of the mix. The music sometimes features processed sound effects and other noises, such as animal sounds, babies crying, and producers shouting instructions at the musicians.
These versions are mostly instrumental, sometimes including snippets of the original vocal version. Often these tracks are used for "Toasters" rapping heavily-rhymed and alliterative lyrics. These are called "DeeJay Versions". As opposed to hip hop terminology, in reggae music the person with the microphone is called the "DJ", while the person choosing the music and operating the turntables is the "Selector" (elsewhere called the DJ).
A major reason for producing multiple versions was economic: A record producer could use a recording he owned to produce numerous versions from a single studio session. Version was also an opportunity for a producer or remix engineer to experiment and vent their more creative side. The version was typically the B-side of a single, with the A-side dedicated to making a popular hit, and B-side for experimenting and providing something for DJ's to talk over.
See in particular the works of Lee Perry, King Tubby (Osbourne Ruddock), Errol Thompson, Prince Jammy, Keith Hudson and Augustus Pablo for the very best in dub music in the 1970s.
In the 1980s, Britain became a new center for dub production with Mad Professor and Jah Shaka being the most famous, while Scientist became the heavyweight champion of Jamaican dub. It was also the time when dub made its influence known in the work of harder edged,experimental electronic musicians such as Adrian Sherwood and the roster of artists on his On-U Sound label.
In the 1990s and beyond dub has been influenced by and in turn influenced techno, dance music, ambient music, and hip hop, with many dub tracks produced by non traditional musicians from these other genres. Musicians such as The Clash, PiL, The Orb, Pole, Underworld and others demonstrate clear dub influences in their respective genres, and their innovations have in turn influenced the mainstream of the dub genre. Traditional dub has, however, survived (see Aba Shanti-I, for example) and some of the originators like Lee Perry and Mad Professor continue to produce new material.
(text from Wikipedia) |
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Rocksteady
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| (text from Wikipedia)
Rocksteady is the name given to an era in the development of the music of Jamaica between 1966 and 1968, and to the style of music which prevailed in that era. The term comes from the Alton Ellis recording of the same name.
A result of the slowing of the ska tempo, and a precursor to reggae, rocksteady saw the formation of many of Jamaica's vocal harmony groups such as The Gaylads, Toots & the Maytals and The Paragons.
Rocksteady arose when young people flooded into ghettos like Riverton City, Greenwich Town and, most notoriously, Trenchtown. Though much of the country was optimistic about their future in the immediately post-independence climate, these poverty-stricken youths did not share in this sentiment. They eschewed the frenetic energy of ska, and the cultural mores of the time. Their dances were slow and menacing, and they became known as rude boys. Though Alton Ellis is generally said to be the father of rocksteady for his hit "Girl I've Got a Date", other candidates for the first rocksteady single include "Tougher Than Tough" by Derrick Morgan and "Hold Them" by Joe Gibbs. The record producer Duke Reid worked on "Girl I've Got a Date", as well as with The Techniques, The Silvertones, The Melodians, The Jamaicans and The Paragons; his work with these groups established the sound of rocksteady records.
Rocksteady developed into reggae as bass patterns became more complex, percussion more prominent, and brass sections were replaced by the rhythm guitar.
(text from Wikipedia) |
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Reggae (Roots Reggae)
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| (text from Wikipedia)
Roots Reggae is the name given to Rastafarian reggae music from Jamaica, which evolved from Ska and Rocksteady and made famous by the legendary singer/songwriter Bob Marley. Roots reggae is an inherently spiritual type of reggae music, the lyrics of which are predominantly in praise of Jah Rastafari - believed to have been incarnate in His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie (1892-1975) the King of Ethiopia.
Recurrent lyrical themes include poverty and resistance to the oppression of government. The creative pinnacle of roots reggae is arguably in the late 1970s, with singers such as Johnny Clarke, Horace Andy, and Barrington Levy, teaming up with studio producers including Lee 'Scratch' Perry, King Tubby, and Coxone Dodd. The experimental pioneering of such producers within often restricted technological parameters gave birth to Dub Reggae, and is seen by some music historians as one of the earliest (albeit analogue) contributions to the development of Techno.
Roots reggae was an important part of Jamaican culture, and whilst other forms of reggae have replaced it in terms of popularity in Jamaica (Dancehall for instance), roots reggae has found a small, but growing, niche globally.
(text from Wikipedia) |
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Raggamuffin (Ragga)
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| (text from Wikipedia)
Raggamuffin (or ragga) is a kind of reggae that includes digitized backing instrumentation. It is a form of dancehall, and has been popular since the middle of the 1980s; "Under Me Sleng Teng" (Wayne Smith; 1985) is usually recognized as the first ragga song. The instrumentation is usually behind dub singing, which is similar to rap music in its focus on rhythmic, assonating and rhyming words.
Important ragga artists include: Beenie Man, Pato Banton, Tony Rebel, Buju Banton, Anthony B, Cocoa Tea, Charlie Chaplin, Mad Cobra, Ini Kamoze, Bounty Killer, Tippa Irie, and Cutty Ranks.
(text from Wikipedia) |
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Dub Reggae
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| (text from Wikipedia)
Dub Reggae is a form of dub music. It evolved out of ska and reggae in 1970s Jamaica. Dub was an evolution of sound of earlier artists such as Horace Andy and Burning Spear.
The dub reggae sound includes extensive use of echo and reverb effects accompanied by simplistic lyrics (see toasting). Some fans and artists of older Jamaician music styles dissapprove of the direction that dub reggae took the island's music. Dub reggae developed through sound system owners, using the simple two track music production of the time and lifting out the vocal track to leave just the instrumental. this was then played an augmented with effects or by live djs. Inevitably the studios caught on and started producing records with a vocal on the one side and a "version" or "dub" on the other. The effects such as echo, reverb, part vocal and extra percussion being added before the record was pressed. During the mid-1970s dub music began to evole as genre on it's own particularly with audiences outside of Jamaica. Whole albums of dub tracks were produced, often simply the dub version of an existing vocal lp, but sometimes a selection of dubbed up instrumental tracks for which no vocals existed.
Dub reggae has progressed from that point to this, it's popularity waxing and waning with changes in musical fashion. Almost all Reggae singles still carry a dub version on the b side and these are still used by the sound systems as a blank canvas for live singers and djs. In the uk, europe, japan and america independent record producers are making dub in quantities unseen before, often mixing and blending with newer musical styles such as "House" and "Drum and Bass". The influence of dub reggae music world wide continues to grow.
(text from Wikipedia) |
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