Syracuse Ska Forum

http://www.independentfilmquarterly.com ... orever.htm


Danny and I talked about about this on Friday. This is it. This is where ska's 4th wave starts. Who's stoked? Who's terrified?

Hoped it would be a more trad wave...awwww well. I am not keen on seeing this movie after the whole trailer footage I saw...not in the least.

4th wave as in genre? of 4th wave as in a ska resurface in popular music? if you mean genre, no. but a movie with ska in it could seriously boost ska to radio play. the next step is for dave hillyard to put his history of ska in theaters. if the general population sees this film and enjoys the music, who knows? it could be 1997 all over again.

I think Matt meant a launching of Ska into another wave of commercial popularity.

That is what a wave is. Genre is not the same as wave. Hepcat and slackers are thirdwave bands the same way catch 22 is.

I'd like to think of this as a positive thing. I think this will be good for all of us.

I'm pretty sure the target audience is mostly young girls and they'll probably love it.

I welcome whatever exposure ska can get from this movie. And if that means a million little 14 year old girls start coming to shows, how would that be bad? Mike Mason wouldn't complain about that.

And lastly, I am on the record as rejecting the ska "wave theory". Bucket of The Toasters came up with the idea on the spur of the moment to make a point to a big time journalist and now the concept has taken on a life of its own. BUT IT ULTIMATELY MAKES NO SENSE. Ska has had far more than 3 periods of mainstream popularity and even if you want to make a counter-argument, which is fine, then I'd simply argue that THE 3rd WAVE HAS NEVER ENDED.

The vast majority of really good bands and genres of music are not on MTV or mainstream radio and do fine anyways. Ska is simply in that big category. Our 15 minutes of fame on MTV is best forgotten, as it was hardly representative of the scene at that point anyways and it created huge distortions in understanding the music. Mainstream media by definition tends to do that. Ask your neighborhood skinhead.

best part of danny's rant right here. hahaha

In all seriousness, I agree for the most part with what you've said, danny. I guess I have incredible distaste for bouncy poppy ska and it is simply my own dysfunction. I agree that the "3rd Wave" has never ended, if in fact it ever really existed in the first place. Obviously, love for ska and other forms of JA music never left the hearts of the world and many bands have filled the void between said "waves" over the years.

I guess I worry the sounds of ska I most closely identify with and love, will one day be totally replaced with a "ska" that will seem poppy and foreign to me. Always remember that, in essence, we are sharing JA music with a brand new "wave" of youth. It must be represented well so a new generation of bands can bless our ears with sounds we will want to hear in years to come. Music that will hold some resemblance and tribute to the bands who created this music over the last 50 years.

Hey Tom, you're preaching to the converted, trust me.

But its been very obvious to me over the years that most of the new trad ska fans first discovered this music via poppy or skacore bands. Most of them don't make the transition, of course, but its where most of those that did seem to have started. I hung out with several people at a Hepcat show in Chicago who got into this music from RBF and one even from No Doubt. But all are big trad fans now.

Its like they say -- even bad publicity is better than none at all.

1st Wave = Jamaican Ska
2nd Wave = English Ska
3rd Wave = American Ska
Trad Ska = shitty white kids who wish they were Jamaican.


take it away Skankin Pickle.

I'm fakin Jamaican
And I think I'm a rasta
My hair looks like pasta
I think I'm a rasta
I'm fakin Jamaican
Fakin Jamaican
Fakin Jamaican
Fakin Jamaican mon
I'm fakin Jamaican
And I think I'm a rasta
I am Milli Vanilli
I won me a grammy
I am fakin Jamaican

I got into ska via Goldfinger and RBF. No secret. I guess I can't hate on this process too much, because it's how I got here.

ska danny wrote"...THE 3rd WAVE HAS NEVER ENDED. "

thats right
first wave was JA - birth of the music
second wave UK two tone - rebirth of the music on the popular scene
that definitely peaked and ebbed and then
third wave is toasters, bim,etc up till today

the 4th wave is a left wing conspiracy like global warming...

i see what you mean about the third wave never ending. i never really understood if the third wave was just when ska started getting airtime on mtv and pop radio or if it was just people going to see the bands and so on. if the earlier, then its time for a 4th wave. if the latter, then it wont ever end as long as a band loves what theyre doing and keeps it up.
on the topic of the pop-ska, i'm not too keen on it either, and i really dont like ska-core. the way i see it, if theres a whole genre, i'm sure that there will be sub-genres if a 4th wave were to occur. a majority of 3rd wave bands played ska-punk, but other bands played more tradition ska. this movie probably wont have the impact to change the current music industry, so i don't think you have to worry about a thousand little girls coming to see the slackers or the toasters any time soon.