Now here's an interesting thread. I think it was Bucket from The Toasters that posted on another forum about which wave of ska we are on a the moment.
There was of course the original that evolved from soul, swing and blues music, then rocksteady and reggae all coming from Jamaica.
Then there was the ska and then reggae produced in the UK by West Indian's settled over here, mainly for Trojan Records, which was of a more commercial style than the Jamaican counterparts.
After that could be 2-Tone, then the later 80s British scene (in which my band The Riffs began life during) which always used to be called third wave. This included new bands like ourselves, the Hotknives and Maroon Town, as well as 'first wave' artists like Rico and Desmond Dekker, Judge Dread (who was probably 1.5 wave), and '2nd wave' people like Bad Manners.
Then to confuse things even further people like Laurel Aitken became big again, and bands in both mainland Europe (Germany's Busters and France's Les Frelons) and the Mighty Mighty Bosstone from the USA also appeared on the scene.
I guess that today's ska/punk scene, or what tag people want to give it is yet a natural progression of music.
As to what killed it, well put quite simply the major record labels, national press and radio stations. Someone said earlier their mum recognised Liquidator, probably from when it was in the charts when that genre of ska was still radio friendly, proving that if decent tunes are given airplay, people will by them. If all they are fed is rubbish that's all they'll buy.
Unfortunately the music industry revolves around money and the fact is that those that 'discover' a 'new' and 'commercial' sound will market that until its dead and them move on. A classic example is 2-Tone. After the Specials were signed all the major labels were tripping over themselves to sign a similar band. some bands suceeded, others died before we'd even heard of them.
The Riffs' first album on Link/Skank sat alongside LPs by the Hotknives and The Loafers and all sold well, but the closest anyone came to hitting the charts was Buster Bloodvessel with Longsy D in a short lived style that was known as Acid Ska I think. All LPs sold really well, and Maroon Town should have jumped aboard that Acid ska bandwagon but it wasn't really what the industry wanted and so it was tough and Link were just a small independant label.
Nowadays you have TV manufactured 'pop' music thanks to game shows and the people making them know that clean, fresh faced youngsters singing 'pretty' songs will sell well to the kids. The rest of us have to slog it out on the live circuit and do what we can, enjoying ourselves, but always hoping to be in the right place at the right time (but probably still too ugly!).
In my opinion, 'real' live music with a band will always be superior. If you look at a Live Aid Video you'll see tens of thousands of people siging along and waving their arms to bands like Queen, Status Quo and The Who. OK so they're not ska, but they write good songs and deliver them well. I'll be very surprised if any of these TV Popstars have the same effect in 5 years time, let alone 20 years time, simply because their songs are crap and their audience has grown up and left school.
On BBC TV's Never Mind The Buzzcocks show, Jimmy Cliff was treated like a God by the host and other guests. I can't even name anyone in Girls Aloud or Westlife.
Elsewhere quality music shows like "Later Wilth Jools Holland" concentrate on 'real' musicians like Jimmy Cliff, Rico and even Suggs, rather than throw-away pop. It's just tough convincing the record companies that if they take the plunge and sign and promote you, that people will like what they hear and buy it!
We're not ska/punk, and indeed like to think of our style as our own interpretation of ska (there's a bit of traditional, and modern involved). We have played with ska/punk bands and both audiences seem to enjoy each other's style. I know we've certainly got the younger kids dancing, and punks too come to that, as well as 'ordinary' festival crowds.
Anyway, that's my rant over. I'll go back into my padded room!
Cheers
Andy
By the way, Johnny Nash did 'I Can See Clearly Now' first, Jimmy Cliff's cover was for the film 'Cool Runnings'.
http://www.theriffs.com
bekabeka
