After World War II, Jamaicans purchased radios in increasing numbers and were able to hear rhythm and blues music from Southern United States cities such as New Orleans by artists such as Fats Domino and Louis Jordan. The stationing of American military forces during and after the war meant that Jamaicans could listen to military broadcasts of American music and there was a constant influx of records from the US.
To meet the demand for that music, entrepreneurs such as Prince Buster, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, and Duke Reid formed sound systems.
As jump blues and more traditional R&B began to ebb in popularity in the early 1960s, Jamaican artists began recording their own version of the genres. The new sound was initially characterised by a guitar chop on the back beat, with horns and piano later playing the same riff. Drums kept 4/4 time and the bass drum was accented on the second and fourth beats.The upbeat sound can also be found in other Caribbean forms of music, such as mento and calypso.
One theory about the origin of ska is that Prince Buster created it during the inaugural recording session for his new record label Wild Bells.
The session was financed by Duke Reid, who was supposed to get half of the songs to release. However, he only received one, which was by trombonist Rico Rodriguez. Among the pieces recorded were "They Got To Go", "Oh Carolina" and "Shake A Leg."
According to reggae historian Steve Barrow, during the sessions, Prince Buster told guitarist Jah Jerry to "change gear, man, change gear."
The guitar began emphasizing the second and fourth beats in the bar, giving rise to the new sound. The drums were taken from traditional Jamaican drumming and marching styles. To create the ska beat, Prince Buster essentially flipped the R&B shuffle beat, stressing the offbeats with the help of the guitar.
The first ska recordings were created at facilities such as Studio One and WIRL Records in Kingston, Jamaica with producers such as Dodd, Reid, Prince Buster, and Edward Seaga.
There are different theories about the origins of the word ska.
Guitarist Ernest Ranglin said the offbeat guitar scratching style that he and other musicians played was described as "ska! ska! ska!"
Some believe that bassist Cluet Johnson coined the term ska when explaining the ya-ya sound of the music. Johnson was known to greet his friends with the word skavoovie, perhaps imitating American hipsters of the era. Johnson and the Blues Blasters were Coxsone Dodd's house band in the 1950s and early 1960s before the rise of the The Skatalites.
The ska sound coincided with the celebratory feelings surrounding Jamaica's independence from the UK in 1962; an event commemorated by ska songs such as Derrick Morgan's "Forward March" and The Skatalites' "Freedom Sound."
Because the newly-independent Jamaica didn't ratify the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works until 1994, copyright was not an issue which created a large number of cover songs and reinterpretations.
Jamaican musicians such as The Skatalites often recorded instrumental ska versions of popular American and British music, such as Beatles songs, Motown and Atlantic soul hits, movie theme songs, or surf rock instrumentals. Bob Marley's band The Wailers covered the Beatles' "And I Love Her," and radically reinterpreted Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone."
Byron Lee & the Dragonaires performed ska with Prince Buster, Eric "Monty" Morris, and Jimmy Cliff at the 1964 New York World's Fair.
As music changed in the United States, so did ska. In 1965 and 1966, when American soul became slower and smoother, ska changed its sound accordingly and evolved into rocksteady.
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My favs, although they're in-line with mewer ska....
The Slackers (Not so new actually)
The Gadjits
The Pietasters
Hepcat
David Hillyard Rocksteady Seven
Skinnerbox