Sigh. It was a long week, and Ska didn’t help. Why I chose to do this to myself is something I don’t think I’ll ever figure out. The infamous music genre had its beginnings in late-1950s Jamaica, first existing as a combination of Caribbean and Jamaican rhythms. One of its defining musical characteristics is the use of a walking bass line with accented offbeat rhythms. It was pretty popular in the 1960s during its development, and then again in the 1990s. There’s a reason it stayed there. The pairing of trumpet with ever-so-slightly off key vocals somehow doesn’t sit right with me. The best description I can give of Ska is that it felt like sitting on an aggressively crusty, rock-hard bean bag chair. It was like I was trying to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but I didn’t have knives to get the ingredients out of their respective jars so I had to use my hands to scoop out the peanut butter and jelly and slap them on the bread over and over. Something was just a little off.
I started my horrific journey on Thursday, January 18th. In the beginning, I didn’t know what to expect. I never thought the day would come where I would put the phrase “Ska mix” into my Spotify search bar. To my immense disappointment, a bunch of results came up.
I was just so curious to find out what “Essential Ska” could possibly be, so of course that was the playlist I opened first. I settled on a song called “Time Bomb” by the band Rancid, and boy oh boy. How do I put into words the emotions that I felt after 5 seconds of this song? It was really…interesting? To use a technical term: crusty bean bag-esque. The second the vocals came in I was confused. I didn’t know what on earth these people were saying, and I also had no clue where their pitch was. I was bewildered. Concerned, even. The first word I could make out was “cadillac”, which had no positive effect on my comprehension of what I was listening to. It was at this moment that I came to truly appreciate just how accessible Spotify makes the pause button. It came in very handy. After a second of recovery I thought that maybe I just didn’t get it. Maybe I had to keep listening to fully appreciate it. With a hesitant index finger I pressed play again. Spoiler alert: I did not have to keep listening. That was enough Ska for Day One. Crash course completed.
The next two days consisted of Goldfinger, The Specials, and Mad Caddies. Songs that I endured included “Sell Out” by Reel Big Fish, “Sunday Morning” by No Doubt, and “One Step Beyond” by Madness. I did eventually get acclimated to the somewhat unique aspects of the genre, but I ultimately felt it wasn’t quite what I’d prefer to have populating the “On Repeat” playlist on Spotify. Again – a horn with few other instruments, plus an off-key singer on top of that, doesn’t make for the best combo. Overall I wouldn’t say that I had the best experience with Ska. However, that’s not to say it didn’t have some enjoyable qualities. Just kidding. Do yourself a favor and keep it in the 90s.
A closing note: When I googled “Ska music” for this article a week ago, one of the results was a WatchMojo “Top 10 Ska Bands” video. Talk about an oxymoron.
As a disclaimer, my opinions are never to be taken seriously, as most of the time I have no clue what I’m talking about. Please take anything I say with half a grain of salt.
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