Perhaps Ted Leo said it best.
But what happened to ska? It was such a big musical influence on me when I was growing up. I remember my first foray into the genre with a mixtape given to me (or taken from a friend, I don’t remember) by the name of California Ska Quake Vol. I. This tape had a collection of songs by bands that I didn’t know, but would soon come to love (notables including Dance Hall Crashers, Skankin’ Pickle, Hepcat, Let’s Go Bowling, and, of course, early No Doubt). I didn’t know what ska was. My brother at one point tried to convince me that when you translated ska into English (from what language?) it turned out to literally mean “Devil Music.” I was 7 or 8 years old, and I believed everything my brother told me (including the time he told me Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were hiding in the woods behind our house and that if I set and cleared the table for him, he’d take me down there to meet them). Anyways, this misconception of the term gave the genre perfect legitimacy in my eyes.
By the time I reached 6th grade I was perfectly ready for Reel Big Fish and Less Than Jake to take my world by storm.
Many bands from the 90s ska/punk scene were soon to follow (Mustard Plug, The Suicide Machines, Against All Authority, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Mephiskapheles… really, too many to name). I became so enamored with the scene that I started going to shows whenever they came to town (when you’re in 7th and 8th grade, concerts cost a lot of money!) and started to become acquainted with the local Cincinnati ska scene. I became an avid follower of The Magnets (formerly Lee Harvey Skaswald), OB1, Scallywagon, Short Millie, and many others.
Then came the internet.
In the mid-90s, I only knew about the bands that toured around the Cincinnati area. I knew a lot about the current scene, as a result. Pop-punk and Ska was prevalent at this time. However, I had little to no knowledge of the backlog of music that went into forming the genre. I knew that The Specials were important, that Operation Ivy was to be bowed down to, and that The Mighty Mighty Bosstones were older than anybody gave them credit for.
Now that the internet and filesharing were commonplace, I had easy access to music information from older generations. I learned all about Desmond Dekker, The Skatalites, and really got to know The Specials on a much more personal level.
It was a good time to start working backwards, as the ska scene of the 90s began to deteriorate and the bands that stuck around started putting out worse and worse music, essentially becoming rock bands with horns (or sometimes forgoing horns all together). The upbeat was dead.
This, unfortunately, is the answer to the title question. The ska bands that survived sold out, and the jubilant nature of the scene was reduced to ashes, easily paving the way for the dreaded post-millenium emo scene. Some bands keep chugging along (The Slackers, for example), but the majority of those old 3rd wave mainstays have cashed in, sold out, or dropped off.
“This town is coming like a ghost town.”
