Japanese ska
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Japanese ska is
Artists
Having been formed in the 1980s and enjoying international success (including extensive touring in the United States and Europe), the group Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra is arguably the original and best-known Japanese ska ensemble.[3][4]
Japan has had a proliferation of album-making ska bands. Besides those mentioned elsewhere in this article, one source lists the Clippers, Coke Head Hipsters, the Drops, Duck Missile, Fruity, Gelugugu, La Ppisch, Life Bal, Mustang AKA, Nicotine, Oi-Skall Mates, Piala, Rude Bones, Shoulder Hopper, Scafull King, Skatroits, Sprocket Wheel, Dallax, The Rollings, Step by Step, Sk@ymate's, Skapontas, Tropical Gorilla, midnightPumpkin, SPYZZ,and Young Punch.[5]
Characteristics
According to one
A source at MIT describes:
Although far less popular than J-pop, J-rock (Japanese rock), or electronica, ska music has a definite presence in Japan. Emerging about a decade ago with forerunner bands Ska-Flames and Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, the Japanese ska scene saw a huge popular surge in 1997 (mirroring the burst of popularity in the United States) which quickly died out. However, many Japanese ska bands continue to persist despite a lack of mainstream support. The Determinations, The Side Burns, and Blue Beat Players are Japanese ska bands popular among fans of the genre.[8]
In Japan, both Japanese and traditional Jamaican ska enjoy some popularity. An article in Jamaica Observer quoted a Japanese music seller as saying:
Ska is very big in Japan and we have about five Japanese ska bands in my city. We just had Prince Buster performing there [...] Japanese people love Ska [...] in fact, they love every period of music from Jamaica.[9]
A Japanese pop authority remarked that some see:
...similarities between the highly stylized "
Okinawan music -- so much so that Okinawa music is sometimes called "Japanese reggae."[10]
Although the Japanese ska scene is centered in Tokyo there are ska venues elsewhere in Japan, even in smaller cities such as Kisarazu in Chiba Prefecture.[11]
Classification
While some sources (such as one of the quotes above) discern Japanese ska from
The consideration of Japanese ska as a subgenre of Japanese pop may be due, at least in part, to bands typically considered ska releasing songs with a definite
According to the filing scheme used at Tower Records in Tokyo, all Japanese ska is classified as hardcore, even that with the laid-back sound that typifies early Jamaican ska music from the early 1960s.[13]
See also
Notes
- ^ This sort of stylistic departure, when it occurs in American and European punk music, may be regarded as ironic and may even be so in this case.
- ^ "While the reference above calls Snail Ramp a "typical ska punk" band, a review of one of their albums from a different source remarks "A couple of the songs had ska-nature, and turned out pretty well for stuff from a non-ska band."".
References
- ^ "The History of Ska".
- ^ "Review of Land of the Rising Sea: The Best of Japanese Ska in Orlando Weekly".
- ^ "Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra Touring dates and History".
- ^ "Nippop Profiles: Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra". Archived from the original on 2012-07-28. Retrieved 2007-01-21.
- ^ "The Japanese Ska page".
- ^ "Randy Krbechek's Metronews Music Reviews". Archived from the original on 2007-09-27.
- ^ a b "In Music We Trust, Ninon Ska Dansu (Land of the Rising Ska) Various Japanese Ska Artists on Moon Ska Records, review by Alex Steininger".
- ^ "Supplement to Dr. Shigeru Miyagawa's StarFestival Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures".
- ^ Balford Henry (2004-04-26). "Jamaica Observer, "SKA - alive and kicking but outside Jamaica"". Archived from the original on 2007-09-26.
- ^ Keith Cahoon (2005-05-21). "Rastaman Vibration - What's up with Japanese Reggae?".
- ^ "PunkNews, "Midnight Pumpkin/Blue Hole live in Kisarazu".
- ^ "Snail Ramp".
- ^ "Japanese Ska Randomized Survey 2000".
External links
- Frivolity: Japanese Ska and Punk has short reviews of various J-ska artists
- SKAspot