The concept of "subculture" is a relic of the era of perestroika. It appeared when foreign styles of music began to actively penetrate post-Soviet Russia. They also influenced the domestic repertoire. As a rule, subcultures depended directly on the music that people within their framework were fond of. It was during this period that the ska subculture appeared, which very quickly gained popularity, but also hastily faded.
First wave
Officially, ska-style music is considered the achievement of Jamaican musicians. It originated in the late 50s and became a kind of fusion of folk music of islanders and North American rhythm and blues and rock and roll. At the dawn of the 60s, the first ska-style songs appeared, which were recorded on records and scattered around the world. Today they can be compared with styles such as blues, jazz, fueled by the rhythms of Jamaica. Actually, this is the same ska in music. Often songs of this kind were called "blues" - a derivative of the name of the recording company Blue Beat.
Gradually, by the mid-60s, the ska music style began to transform into something calmer, today it can be called the term "soul".
Character traits
First of all, the originally existing ska subculture (let's call it so conditionally) in Jamaica was a dance phenomenon. Rhythmic music, which absorbed all the charms of the southern United States and Central American cultures, was performed in bars, restaurants and just on the streets. People everywhere went out in the evening, just to relax, dance with all their heart and enjoy the true rhythmic ska.
Along with street musicians, within the framework of this style, there were also world-famous groups. Among them - Baba Brooks Band, The Skatalites, Laurel Aitken, Derrick Norgan and others.
Second wave
By the mid-70s, the ska subculture migrated from the American lands to the territory of the Old World, and more specifically, to Great Britain. It was in this northern country that young people took a fancy to Jamaican rhythmic motifs and decided to give them a second life. Local groups eagerly began to re-sing long-forgotten American songs, recording them on new vinyl records under the 2-Tone label (which is partly the name of the "second wave of ska").
Features and Artists
It is clear that the British, playing music, whatever it was originally, put a piece of themselves into it. So, Jamaican motifs, combined with blues and jazz, have also become stiff in British style. A certain restraint, originality, new uniqueness appeared in them. Ska music has ceased to be street and dance. It turned into a cult that was recorded and released on records and sold to true connoisseurs of the genre for home listening. Ska-style bands such as The English Beat, Madness, Bad Manners, The Selecter, Judge Dread, and others have succeeded in this endeavor.
Third wave
Well, here we are already dealing with a full-fledged subculture of ska, which by its very nature and nature has very few common qualities with those Jamaican and jazz dance motifs. What is a new species of ska? The genre was formed at the turn of the 80-90s, so it came under the extensive influence of punk and rock cultures. In fact, this is the most ordinary punk kind or hardcore, which is kind of seasoned with the same Jamaican motifs that have something in common with the work of Bob Marley.
The cultural side of the issue
It was in the 90s that the third wave of the ska subculture became one of the key moments in the development of such genres as punk, hardcore, post-punk, etc. Moreover, these genres developed not only within the framework of musical art, but also more broadly . That is, those same subcultures were formed that had external standards, style, worldview, ideology, etc. In the West, this branch of development was represented by such musical groups as Bim Skala Bim, Operation Ivy, The Uptones, Mighty Mighty Bosstones.
Within our country
Let's just say that in the 90s all of Russia was not up to art. Subcultures have just begun to emerge, and then in the second half of the decade, and their specificity was fundamentally different from the western one. At that time, mostly everyone was a "rocker", and such directions as punk, emo, gothic and that ska became known in the first half of the 2000s.
Ska culture in Russia is represented mainly by teenagers who wore “checkered” wristbands, drove on skateboards, stretched tunnels in their ears, and also listened to certain music. Such were the groups Distemper, Clock Work Times and even Leningrad. It was a mix of punks and emo, which, in fact, was considered impossible. Nevertheless, the subculture lasted several years, and soon the youth ceased to attract.