I do remember saying get it right or pay the price...so here is the price:
Ska has existed for far longer than reggae. Ska was pioneered during the 50s and 60s in the dancehalls of Jamaica...definitely NOT by white people. Ska was an upbeat dance music which combined elements of the carribean music mento and American jazz. By the late 60s there were massive heatwaves in Jamaica and the DJs and beat selectors of the clubs (along with the music-listening masses) decided that a slower, more easily dancable music was needed. Thus rocksteady was born, the slow cousin of ska. Around this time skinhead culture was born. Yes, that's right, the original skinheads were ornery dancehall goers, not racist bigots. Also skinhead music was very perverse for some reason and almost always referenced sex...go figure. Reggae is a religious perversion of rocksteady, which in most cases(not all) includes hidden (or not so hidden) rastafarian agendas. Some of which are racist and homophobic. This early phase of ska is known as the "first wave." Aside from artists like Desmond Dekkar, it never really became that popular outside of Jamaica.
Second wave or "two tone" ska begins in the 1970s in Britain. It was influenced heavily by the punk movement. The most famous two tone band is probably the Specials, who blended traditional ska with 60s mod rock like the Who and such. The Specials gained popularity by opening for bands like the Clash. From the late seventies and through the eighties this "second wave" ska enjoyed a hay-day in London clubs and became tied in heavily with blue collar workers, many of whom identified with the West Indian folks who had first introduced the music to England. Eventually this lead to a revival of the "rude boy" (or Jamaican gangster) lifestyle, which led to the revival of skinhead culture and eventually the advent of Oi music, or blue collar streetpunk. Second wave also came in America in the form of bands like Madness who gained popularity with "new wave" listeners.
Ska truly debuted in America with acts like Fishbone and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones during the mid to late eighties. They begun what is referred to as the "third wave" of ska, which mixed ska heavily with american punk and hardcore influences. The term "ska-core" was even coined to describe this sound. This was modified by bands like Operation Ivy, who did away with the traditional instruments like organ and brass. Some bands stuck to the brass sound and a variety of "punk with horns" style bands emerged like Less Than Jake (who based themselves heavily on the British band Snuff). Also during the early nineties in New York and DC there was a large two tone ska revival with bands like the Toasters, the Slackers and the Pietasters leading the pack.
Ska still survives today in bands like Streetlight Manifesto, Big D, MU330, etc etc who continue to build on the foundations of ska, adding their own touches along the way.
The moral: SKA CAME FIRST...reggae just happens to be the more well-known bastard cousin of ska.
