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Welcome to Baltic Centre for Conremporary Arts. We are proud to present our new Ska exhibition celebrating and appreciating the genre of Ska.

We will be taking a journey back through time to see where it all began and how it has progressed and influenced today’s culture.

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An appreciation of Ska music

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2 Tone (or Two Tone) is a music genre created in England in the late 1970s by fusing elements of ska, punk rock, rocksteady, reggae and New Wave. Within the history of ska, 2 Tone is classified as its second wave, and is the precursor of the third wave ska scene of the 1980s and 1990s. The 2 Tone sound was developed by young musicians in Coventry, West Midlands, England who grew up hearing 1960s Jamaican music. They combined influences from ska, reggae and rocksteady with elements of punk rock and New Wave music. Bands considered part of the genre include: The Specials, The Selecter, The Beat, Madness, Bad Manners, and The Bodysnatchers. The term was coined by The

Specials’ keyboardist Jerry Dammers, who — with the assistance of Horace Panter and graphic designer John “Teflon” Sims — created the iconic Walt Jabsco logo (a man in a black suit, white shirt, black tie, pork pie hat, white socks and black loafers) to represent the 2 Tone genre. The logo was based on an early album cover photo of Peter Tosh, and included an added black-and-white check pattern..

Most of the bands considered to be part of the 2 Tone genre were signed to 2 Tone Records at some point. Other record labels associated with the 2 Tone sound were Stiff Records and Go Feet Records. The music was especially popular among skinheads, rudies and some mod revivalists..

SKARRED FOR LIFE

Ska is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. It is characterized by a walking bass line accented with rhythms on the upbeat. In the early 1960s, ska was the dominant music genre of Jamaica and was popular with British mods. Later it became popular with many skinheads. Music historians typically divide the history of ska into three periods: the original Jamaican scene of the 1960s (First Wave), the English 2 Tone ska revival of the late 1970s (Second Wave) and the third wave ska movement, which started in the 1980s (Third Wave) and rose to popularity in the US in the 1990s.

Over

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.By the early 1950’s Jamaican bands were taking inspiration from American artists and forming bands like Eric Deans Orchestra featuring the talents of trombonist Don Drummond and guitarist Ernest Ranglin. By the end of the 1950’s, jazz, r&b, and mento (a style of calypso) influences were merged into a new style called Shuffle. Shuffle popularity through the works of such greats as Neville Esson,

Owen Grey, The Overtakers, and The Matador Allstars. In 1962, a time when Jamaica was copying the musical style of America, Cecil Bustamente Campbell, later known as Prince Buster, knew that something new was needed. He had his guitarist Jah Jerry emphasize the offbeat instead of the downbeat. To the present day, the offbeat is essential to Jamaican music styles. Ska Music was born.

The Specials are an English 2 Tone ska revival band formed in 1977 in Coventry, England. Their music combines a “danceable ska and rocksteady beat with punk’s energy and attitude”, and had a “more focused and informed political and social stance” than other ska groups. The group was formed by songwriter/keyboardist Jerry Dammers, with Terry Hall (vocals), Lynval Golding (guitar, vocals), Silverton Hutchinson (drums) and a rhythm section. The band wore mod-style “1960s period rude boy outfits (pork pie hats, tonic and mohair suits, and loafers).” In 1980, the song “Too Much Too Young”, the lead track on their The Special AKA Live! EP, reached number one in the UK. In 1981, the unemployment-themed single “Ghost Town” also hit number one in the UK Singles Chart. After seven consecutive UK Top 10 singles between 1979 and 1981, the band broke up In 2008, it was announced that the band would reform and embark on a 30th anniversary tour in 2009.

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If you were 12 in 1979, the Specials were easy peasy lemon squeezy the greatest band on the planet. If you’re 42 in 2009, nothings changed.

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By the late 1980s, ska had experienced a minor resurgence of popularity in Britain, propelled by bands such as The Burial, The Hotknives and Potato 5, and the re-emergence of the traditional skinhead subculture, ska music festivals, and ska-friendly record labels such as Unicorn Records

The early 1980s saw a massive international surge in ska’s popularity, particularly in Europe. Germany proved to be one of the more notable countries, producing a large number of ska bands, record labels and festivals. Notable German ska bands included Skaos, Blechreiz and The Busters. Other prominent bands from Europe’s late-1980s/early-1990s ska boom include Mr. Review and Mark Foggo’s Skasters from Amsterdam, and Skarface from France.

The Australian ska scene flourished in the mid-1980s, following the musical precedents set by 2 Tone, and spearheaded by bands such as Strange Tenants and No Nonsense, both from Melbourne, and later The Porkers, from Newcastle. Some of the Australian ska revival bands found success on their national music charts, most notably Sydney’s The Allniters, who had a #10 hit with a ska cover of “Montego Bay” in 1983.

Japan established its own ska and reggae scenes — the former colloquially referred to as J-ska — in the mid-1980s. The Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, formed in 1985, have been one of the most commercially successful progenitors of Japanese ska.

South America’s ska scene started developing in the mid-1980s. South American ska bands typically play traditional ska rhythms blended with strong influences from Latin music and rock en Español. The most prominent of these bands is Los Fabulosos Cadillacs from Argentina. Formed in 1985, the band has sold millions of records worldwide, scoring an international hit single with “El Matador” in 1994 and winning the 1998 Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock/Alternative album. Other notable bands include: JAS (Peru); Los Auténticos Decadentes (Argentina); Panteón Rococó, Inspector (band) and Maldita Vecindad (Mexico); and No Te Va Gustar (Uruguay);and Desorden Público (Venezuela).


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EXHIBTION GUIDE

In the United Kingdom in the 2000s, the terms rude boy and rude girl have become slang which mainly refer to people (largely youths) who are involved in street culture, similar to gangsta or badman

As the Jamaican diaspora grew in the United Kingdom during the 1960s, rude boy music and fashion, as well as the gang mentality, became a strong influence on the skinhead subculture. In the late 1970s, the image of the rude boy became more popular thanks in part to the 2 Tone band The Specials and the record label 2 Tone Records.

In more recent times 'rudeboy' is a term that has come to be synonymous with street or 'urban' culture in the UK. For today's youth, the term bears none of its older connotations of ska and skinheads, instead harking back to something more akin to its original Jamaican meaning. In modern multicultural Britain, it is not a term limited by race: black, white and Asian young people alike have been known to adopt this identity. The term rudeboy is notorious for its connotations of criminality, gangs, and drugs, yet it is an identity that has always boasted a rich musical affiliation too, ranging from jungle and drum & bass, to garage, grime and dubstep.

Rude boy, rudeboy, rudie, rudi or rudy are common terms used in Jamaica. In the 1960s it was also used for juvenile delinquents and criminals in Jamaica, and has since been used in other contexts. During the late-1970s 2 Tone ska revival in England, the terms rude boy, rude girl and other variations were often used to describe fans of that genre, and this new definition continued to be used in the third wave ska subculture.

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A skinhead is a member of a subculture that originated among working class youths in London, England in the 1960s and then soon spread to other parts of the United Kingdom, and later to other countries around the world. Named for their close-cropped or shaven heads, the first skinheads were greatly influenced by West Indian (specifically Jamaican) rude boys and British mods, in terms of fashion, music and lifestyle. Originally, the skinhead subculture was

primarily based on those elements, not politics or race. Since then, however, attitudes toward race and politics have become factors by which some skinheads align themselves. The political spectrum within the skinhead scene ranges from the far right to the far left, although many skinheads are apolitical. Fashion-wise, skinheads range from a clean-cut 1960s mod-influenced style to less-strict punk- and hardcore-influenced styles.

The skinhead subculture was originally associated with black popular music genres such as soul, ska, rocksteady and early reggae. The link between skinheads and Jamaican music led to the development of the skinhead reggae genre, performed by artists such as: Desmond Dekker, Derrick Morgan, Laurel Aitken, Symarip and The Pioneers.

In the early 1970s, some reggae songs began to feature themes of black nationalism, which many white skinheads could not relate to.This shift in reggae’s lyrical themes created some tension between black and white skinheads, who otherwise got along fairly well. Around this time, some suedeheads (an offshoot of the skinhead subculture) started listening to British glam rock bands such as The Sweet, Slade and Mott the Hoople.

The most popular music style for late-1970s skinheads was 2 Tone, which was a fusion of ska, rocksteady, reggae, pop and punk rock. The 2 Tone genre was named after 2 Tone Records, a Coventry, England record label that featured bands such as The Specials, Madness and The Selecter. Some late-1970s skinheads also liked certain punk rock bands, such as Sham 69 and Menace.


June

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30t

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Balti

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MAP

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SKAR

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1. Hi

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Ska


2 Tone (or Two Tone) is a music genre created in England in the late 1970s by fusing elements of ska, punk rock, rocksteady, reggae and New Wave. Within the history of ska, 2 Tone is classified as its second wave, and is the precursor of the third wave ska scene of the 1980s and 1990s. The 2 Tone sound was developed by young musicians in Coventry, West Midlands, England who grew up hearing 1960s Jamaican music. They combined influences from ska, reggae and rocksteady with elements of punk rock and New Wave music. Bands considered part of the genre include: The Specials, The Selecter, The Beat, Madness, Bad Manners, and The Bodysnatchers. The term was coined by The

Specials’ keyboardist Jerry Dammers, who — with the assistance of Horace Panter and graphic designer John “Teflon” Sims — created the iconic Walt Jabsco logo (a man in a black suit, white shirt, black tie, pork pie hat, white socks and black loafers) to represent the 2 Tone genre. The logo was based on an early album cover photo of Peter Tosh, and included an added black-and-white check pattern..


SKARRED FOR LIFE

Ska is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. It is characterized by a walking bass line accented with rhythms on the upbeat. In the early 1960s, ska was the dominant music genre of Jamaica and was popular with British mods. Later it became popular with many skinheads. Music historians typically divide the history of ska into three periods: the original Jamaican scene of the 1960s (First Wave), the English 2 Tone ska revival of the late 1970s (Second Wave) and the third wave ska movement, which started in the 1980s (Third Wave) and rose to popularity in the US in the 1990s.

Over

view

.

.By the early 1950’s Jamaican bands were taking inspiration from American artists and forming bands like Eric Deans Orchestra featuring the talents of trombonist Don Drummond and guitarist Ernest Ranglin. By the end of the 1950’s, jazz, r&b, and mento (a style of calypso) influences were merged into a new style called Shuffle. Shuffle popularity through the works of such greats as Neville Esson,

Owen Grey, The Overtakers, and The Matador Allstars. In 1962, a time when Jamaica was copying the musical style of America, Cecil Bustamente Campbell, later known as Prince Buster, knew that something new was needed. He had his guitarist Jah Jerry emphasize the offbeat instead of the downbeat. To the present day, the offbeat is essential to Jamaican music styles. Ska Music was born.

June

12th

- Jul

y 30

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2 Tone (or Two Tone) is a music genre created in England in the late 1970s by fusing elements of ska, punk rock, rocksteady, reggae and New Wave. Within the history of ska, 2 Tone is classified as its second wave, and is the precursor of the third wave ska scene of the 1980s and 1990s. The 2 Tone sound was developed by young musicians in Coventry, West Midlands, England who grew up hearing 1960s Jamaican music. They combined influences from ska, reggae and rocksteady with elements of punk rock and New Wave music. Bands considered part of the genre include: The Specials, The Selecter, The Beat, Madness, Bad Manners, and The Bodysnatchers.

The term was coined by The Specials’ keyboardist Jerry Dammers, who — with the assistance of Horace Panter and graphic designer John “Teflon” Sims — created the iconic Walt Jabsco logo (a man in a black suit, white shirt, black tie, pork pie hat, white socks and black loafers) to represent the 2 Tone genre. The logo was based on an early album cover photo of Peter Tosh, and included an added black-and-white check pattern..


SKARRED FOR LIFE SKARRED FOR LIFE SKARRED FOR LIFE SKARRED FOR LIFE

June

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y 30

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Balti

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MAP

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SKAR

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1. Hi

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June

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Balti

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Adm

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MAP

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BITI

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SKAR

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1. Hi

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June

12th

- Jul

y 30

th

Balti

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ntre

for

Cont

empo

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Art

Free

Adm

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MAP

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SKAR

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1. Hi

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Ska

June

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Balti

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Cont

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Adm

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guide designs

Documents

genre of ska

elements of ska

tone genre

wave ska scene

tone ska revival

wave ska movement

new ska exhibition

s jamaican music