SKA Basics: Many genres of music were invented in basements, and this type of music endures. SKA is one of them. In the late 1950s, Jamaican musicians led by Coxsone Dodd and Laurel Aitken combined local mento and improvised minor music with American jazz and R&B heard on high-frequency radio waves. , formed SKA Music. SKA gradually became popular in Jamaica in the early 1960s and became a popular music among local youth. SKA's music structure: SKA music was born for dance. It is fast-paced music that conveys optimism and joy. This kind of music is exciting. In terms of musical structure, the characteristics of SKA music are drums and guitar. The rhythm characteristic of SKA music is backbeat. In the 4/4 rhythm, the snare drum and bass drum mainly play on the 2nd and 4th beats, which sounds scattered but still regular. The guitar mainly sweeps from top to bottom on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th beats, sweeping cleanly. The traditional SKA band mainly consists of BASS, drums, guitar, keyboard and wind instruments (SAX, trumpet, trombone). Traditional SKA musicians and bands: In the early days of the popularity of SKA music, a large number of artists emerged, including Desmond Dekker, The Skatalites, Byron Lee & the Dragonaires, The Melodians and Toots & the Maytals, etc. Many SKA bands transitioned to music in the late 1960s. Reggae. Early culture of Jamaica: The European Columbus discovered Jamaica during his second voyage in 1494, and described Jamaica as "the most beautiful island he had ever seen...". Since then, Jamaica has begun its new history. Soon, the Spanish established a city in Severanuba on the north coast. This began the Spanish colonial period and moved the capital to the "city of the plains", now called Ciudad Espa?a. Spanish Town quickly developed into the center of activity on the island. In the 1750s, Jamaica fell from the hands of the Spanish to the British. The British built several large-scale sugar plantations and obtained great benefits from Jamaica. They transported black slaves from the west coast of Africa to this newly opened forest plantation. By 1807, more than 2 million Africans around the world were working as coolies in the British colony of Jamaica, which had the most brutal slavery system in the world. Slaves did their best to promote their culture and maintain their own beliefs and values ??in their "slave society." The white slave owners thought that this music would allow the slaves to work better for them, so they allowed them to play some of their own African music, such as Burru. Sometimes slave musicians also appealed to white slave owners to participate in entertainment. Slave owners only provided some carnival-style entertainment performances for slave musicians, but kings, queens, gods, etc. were played by white people. This became an amusement park for white slave owners. At the end of the 18th century, a dance gradually became popular in Europe, and slave owners combined this dance with the carnival-style performances of the slaves. The dance at this ball evolved from the unique jumping ability and new dance moves of black people. This is the original SKA dance. After 1834, when the slaves were emancipated, Jamaica experienced a renaissance that gave rise to two musical genres, and SKA music was born. The "Pukkumina" genre maintains African etiquette and body language such as clapping and stamping rhythms. The sound accompanying the breathing is also used as a looping percussion rhythm in the performance. It is characterized by the sounds "hup, hup, hup..." and "Ch-Ka-Ch-Ch." Percussion is still the main instrument in SKA music, such as "Guns of Navarone" by The Skatalites, and more recently "Chemical Imbalance" by Peter Porker. Another genre called "Zion Revival" is very popular in Jamaica because its music has strong European characteristics. Revival music is characterized by improvised singing, regular clapping and punching rhythms, and the drum is only an accompaniment to the music, not the main instrument.

Revival music combines elements of European music: brass in military bands, and revival cantata influenced by British sailors. In this way, a chorus of hundreds of people can accompany any occasion, such as the thanksgiving carol "Let us Break Bread Together" and the baptismal chorus "Dip Dem, Bedward". Throughout the 1950s, big blues bands gradually replaced small bands. Jamaicans brought this style of music back to the island. Due to the scarcity and high quality of this type of music, it has been greatly welcomed on the island. Many local Jamaican musicians began to play this style of music. In 1954, the first major jazz concert was held at the Ward Theater in Kingston. Later, traditional Mento folk improvisations were frequently active in hotels all over the island. Influenced by Jazz, R&B, and Mento, musicians merged these three into a music style called "Shuffle." Shuffle has gradually become popular among the people and is sought after by people from all walks of life. Major record companies are beginning to look for new musicians to sign, and the International Broadcasting Company of Jamaica is also regularly producing music special topics to stimulate the creative passion of musicians. There were two young men who played a key role in the 1950s. They were Duke Reid and Clement Seymore Dodd. I will dedicate an issue to introducing these two important figures in the history of SKA music in the future. Today, we mainly introduce the two styles that have the greatest influence on SKA music: Mento and Jazz. Mento: Mento is a local improvisational ditty popular in Jamaica from the 1940s to the 1950s. It combines the unique rhythms of Jamaica and the tunes of European music. It is a kind of music sung casually on the street. The instruments used by Mento are all portable, such as guitar, banjo, Kalimba (African thumb piano), and Bongos (an African musical instrument). In terms of music type, Mento is similar to Caribbean rumba. Its basic rhythm is a 3+2+2 format, with the accent on the last beat of each measure. "Dis Long Time Gal", "Water Come a Me Eye" and "Banyan Tree" are all examples of traditional Mento music. The Jolly Boys' "Touch Me Tomato," which music critics have mentioned time and time again, also uses a Mento tune. The influence of Jazz on SKA music: Wind music was brought to Jamaica by British soldiers stationed in Kingston, and was gradually accepted by Jamaicans. and as a major music program at Alpha Boys Catholic School in Kingston West. Alpha Boys School is a Catholic school with strict order and moral standards, but they have an excellent wind band. And teachers at Alpha School use Jazz in music teaching. Jamaican musicians including Tommy McCook, Don Drummond (The Skatelites) and Rico Rodriguez (The Specials) all graduated from Alpha School. At that time, Mento was only music belonging to the lower and middle schools in Kingston, similar to the British and American Jazz music of the 1930s. Influenced by American stars Duke Ellington and Count Basie, many alpha boys joined some big jazz bands after graduation. But the biggest influence on Jamaican musicians is the small American R&B band. Because Jamaica's high-frequency radios can only receive airwaves from Memphis, Miami and New Orleans, most of the music programs on these stations play R&B music. These radio programs are generally favored by Jamaican listeners. They have long been tired of BBC Radio's rebroadcast news and support such programs. The national radio station has made a special feature on them - "Radio Jamaica". Before the birth of SKA music, there were already some record companies that were subtly promoting the development of Jamaican pop music, and also created the SKA record industry in Jamaica, such as the famous "Trojan" label.

Today we will learn about the impact of the early recording industry in Jamaica Sound System & Jamaican Recording Industry: The growth of Jamaican radio listeners promoted the development of the Jamaican recording industry. At the same time, portable dance music musicians began competing to gain popularity among the public with sound sound systems. These musicians have had a huge influence on young people in Jamaica who are keen on importing R&B music. Two of the most important were Duke Reid and Clement Dodd. (Reid was famous for his use of Trojan trucks to transport equipment. Dodd was nicknamed Coxsone after his idol, the Yorkshire cricketer Coxsone.) During the 1950s, the two men sparked a musical "war". The movement escalated and became known as the "Dancehall Busters," in which sound system associations from various genres united against clubbers. These club people, known as "Rude Boys", are loyal listeners and fashion "evangelists" in the cabaret scene. I will introduce Rude Boy specifically in the future. The birth of SKA: Just like Mento, SKA is also a fusion of multiple styles of music. As mentioned before, music that combines Mento and Jazz elements is called "Shuffle". Neville Esson, Owen Grey, and the Overtakers were the first to record the Shuffle and made it a hit. Afterwards, the newly established record companies (or recording studios) began to look for fresh sounds. With the popularity of American R&B music such as Fats Domino and Louis Jordan, Jamaican musicians added 12-bar blues chord progressions and rock and roll bass trends to the guitar rhythm. Then add emphasis to the weak beat of Mento to make the weak beat short and powerful. These distinct syncopations are reflected in the guitars and keyboards. This fresh music style is called "SKA". Ernest Ranglin and Cluet Johnson (Clue J.), the Blues Busters, used SKA rhythms for the first time during their performances. "That day, he was going to pick up the guitar and play something, and he said, 'make the guitars go Ska! Ska! Ska!' That's how the name SKA came about." (Bunny Lee in Johnson and Pines. 1982 .49) Clue J is best known for always greeting his friends with "Love Skavoovie" when he meets them. Many people think that SKA is actually the abbreviation of "hello". SKA quickly became popular in Jamaica. The success of SKA coincided with the British withdrawal from Jamaica in 1962 and the Jamaican government declared independence. SKA changed local people's attitude towards local music. SKA music was a huge success and swept the country. Some record dealers in Jamaica plan to bring SKA to the world, and they have received strong support from the Jamaican government. SKA became a staple of Jamaican music and performed at the 1964 Words Fair parade in New York. Byron Lee and the Dragonaires, Jimmy Cliff, Prince Buster and dancers Ronnie Nasralla and Jannette Phillips represented Jamaica and taught the world "Backy Skank", "Rootsman Skank" and the great "Ska". Early SKA lyrics were influenced by the religious revival movement. For example, "Wings of a Dove" performed by The Blues Busters and The Wailers, Eric Morris's "Oil in My Lamp" and Jimmy Cliff's "King of Kings" all have revival lyrics and sped-up tunes, and the lyrics of Desmond Dekker's "Israelites" There are also revival features. Other SKA lyrics are pop music lyrics combined with a few touches of Jamaican dialect.

The lyrics of these songs are mostly nonsense, such as Eric Morris's "Humpty Dumpty" and "Solomon Gundie", or there are some romantic lyrics, such as Delroy Wilsons' "Dancing Mood" which is somewhere between SKA and Rocksteady. In sharp contrast are SKA songs about Rude Boy with political elements, such as "A Messge to You" and so on. We often hear things about Rude Boy in SKA's songs, and many people who play SKA call themselves Rude Boy. As for what a Rude Boy is, I believe many people don’t know it thoroughly enough! Maybe you just take the literal meaning of Rude Boy as a rough boy, or you just think that Rude Boy is a boy who likes SKA. Today we will talk about the historical significance of Rude Boy and understand who is Rude Boy. Rude Boy: We have already mentioned that young people like Rude Boy are the main audience of SKA in Jamaica. In today’s terms, they are fans. They are a group of rebellious, unemployed children, all in their teens and early teens. He acted impulsively and was in opposition to the political economy of the time. They imitate the look of American gangsters in Hollywood movies, with black suits, thin ties, and small-brimmed hats. This look can be seen in the movies "Pulp Fiction" and "Reservoir Dogs." Rude Boys live on the edge of the law and are often called "Scofflaws" (people who despise the law). Most of the SKA lyrics at that time reflected Rude Boy's life. For example, "Lawless Street" by Soul Brothers, "Gunmen Comin to Town" by Heptone, "007 Shanty Town" by Desmond Dekker, "A Message to You Rude" by Dandy Livingstone, and Judge Dread by Prince Buster. Clement Dodd financed a young group who envisioned themselves as Rude: The Wailer's Bob Marley, Bunny Livingstone and Peter Macintosh (later renamed Tosh). Rude Boy's dancing style is also influenced by SKA music. They swing their arms back and forth rhythmically, which Ronnie and Jannette say is more fun than traditional dancing. This way of dancing changed SKA music. BASS emphasizes syncopation and changes the way rock music is played in general. There are further signs that this musical style was influenced by Rude Boy culture. Rude Boy played a great role in promoting the development of SKA music because they were a group of rebellious boys. Therefore, after SKA entered the UK, bands mainly under the 2-Tone label set off the second wave of SKA. That is the SKA music that is imitated by many SKA PUNK bands now