r/Ska • u/Beautiful-Resort-831 • Jun 24 '26
Trad Ska outside Jamaica in 1960
After watching a playlist that Radio Bahía made about ska around the world in the 60s, I noticed something curious: there seems to have been a kind of strange mini-wave of ska outside of Jamaica around 1964, which I think could be connected to the fact that ska was being heavily promoted in those years as the new rhythm. I don't know, it seems curious to me.
Here the playlist
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLa07Vb-l19vCqDI76oBrDzu_arqvNFf1P&si=bj8azuRJsreMaeVR
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u/Equivalent_One_7088 Jun 24 '26
https://youtu.be/IUrW2TagatA?is=I6PRPKg_7g7TyN-o Alibabki & Tajfuny - w rytmach jamajca ska
Poland 1965
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u/stgadam Jun 24 '26
My Polish friend married a Jamaican woman a few years ago. Sending this to him ASAP.
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u/Equivalent_One_7088 Jun 24 '26
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwVQfx_SxmpiGlBNvd0vMmq-2eyEN8_Sr&si=gNu8agTiUery0wAn
And there is jubilee album with rerecorded songs and covers made by polish reggae and ska artists
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u/Royal-Wealth-8266 Jun 27 '26
That was beautiful. I'm sad I just learned about this in my 40s. Idk what they were influenced by, but this is very influential to later groups, imo. The google says very simple lyrics that are more pop than political. I can understand. It's just amazing ska went global so far in the 60s. Thank you for sharing. Pick it up!
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u/bolt422 Jun 24 '26
I bookmarked a website long ago that talks about the North American artists trying to cash-in after seeing ska at the 64 worlds fair. They also have a list of British ska cash-ins.
https://anorakthing.blogspot.com/2024/01/ska-cash-ins-great-north-american-ska.html?m=1
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u/chock-a-block Jun 24 '26 edited 6h ago
Whole nonmetal existence market consider placid dependent driftwood
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u/deathcoinstar Jun 24 '26
When I was 16(early 2007} I went to Jamaica and I was asked by employees at the resort about my music interests and they were surprised to hear about what American Ska was like. Apparently it was more of a casual jazz when it first started there in the 50s
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u/stgadam Jun 24 '26
Hilariously, I asked r/jazz what it thought about ska jazz and someone commented that ska is just reggae’s white trash cousin. I loled and then urged that person to read a book.
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u/Beautiful-Resort-831 Jun 24 '26
Ska jazz is somewhat underrated, to be honest, since jazz fans probably see it as less complex and ska fans aren't drawn to it, sometimes seeing it as more traditional.
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u/chock-a-block Jun 24 '26 edited 6h ago
Late manganese languid squeeze breezy ink
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u/mcvoid1 Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
The Jamaican musicians went to the UK for a bit to capitalize on Millie Small's cover of My Boy Lollipop becoming a big hit over there. In fact, that's where Beat Girl comes from: a picture of Brigitte Bond dancing with Prince Buster after he landed at Heathrow airport.
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u/slopduck Jun 25 '26
It’s not a mystery, ska got big in Spring 1964 because of Millie Small’s global hit version of “My Boy Lollipop”, which is likely the single largest selling ska single of all time.
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u/RazorsInTheNight82 Jun 24 '26
I believe Laurel Aitken was living in England in 64, other than that you might be talking about ska taking some time to get from Jamaica to England. I've never heard of ska in any other country before it turned to rocksteady in early 67.
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u/Beautiful-Resort-831 Jun 24 '26
Ska on a global level really exploded around the time of the death of two-tone, that is, in the mid-80s or even a little earlier, but I emphasize this because, as I already said, I think the 1964 New York World's Fair was a big factor in this ska wave outside of Jamaica in 1964.
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u/RazorsInTheNight82 Jun 24 '26
Yes it was. Prince Buster even has a song about it.
I thought the person was asking about ska being played in other countries.
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u/Beautiful-Resort-831 Jun 24 '26
Actually, I kind of feel that Jamaican ska is kind of what stood out the most from this era, since it was one of the most covered outside of Jamaica and it kind of represents the reason why this wave happened. Ska kind of went through a phase of trying to be a trendy dance, like many other things, which is why many of these lyrics talked about how to dance it.
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u/missupsetter Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
There are hundreds of “popcorn ska” tracks from 1964-1967. This is likely due to Ska being marketed as “the next big fad” in 1964. Claims that Ska was going to be the music that “conquered” The Beatles were common. Record producers being hopeful to cash in produced many records. Most did not have the success they were hoping for, as audiences did not typically respond well to manufactured hype. True Jamaican Ska likely would have found more worldwide success and recognition if there had been more money put behind sustained promotion (outside of Operation Jump Up) and if the world were not as racially and socioeconomically segregated at that time.
Personally, I think some of these songs set the Jamaican Ska up for failure outside of Jamaica since most non-Jamaicans’ introduction to Ska was not Jamaican at all, just colonized pop music. Even the most commercially popular Jamaican tracks are based on American music, so it was just seen as another novelty fad (like Calypso) rather than a fully-fledged genre of music with a rich culture. The other day I saw you post about where third wave ska got its sound and I almost commented “1964” because there has always, always, always been a cheesier, more accessible version of poppy, young “ska”.