Ska punk

Ska punk (also spelled ska-punk) is a fusion genre that mixes ska music and punk rock music. Ska punk tends to feature brass instruments, especially horns such as trumpets, trombones and woodwind instruments like saxophones, making the genre distinct from other forms of punk rock. It is closely tied to third wave ska which reached its zenith in the mid-1990s.

Before ska punk began, many ska bands and punk rock bands performed on the same bills. Some music groups from the late 1970s and early 1980s, such as the Clash, the Deadbeats, the Specials, the Beat, and Madness fused characteristics of punk rock and ska, but many of these were punk bands playing an occasional ska-flavored song. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, ska-punk enjoyed its greatest success, heralded by bands such as Fishbone, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Sublime, Less Than Jake, and more.

Ska punk had significant mainstream success in the middle-to-late 1990s, with many bands topping pop and rock music charts. The best-selling ska punk record of the era was No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom, which was certified diamond by the RIAA in 1999 and was certified diamond by Music Canada in 1997. By the early 2000s, many of the bands in ska punk had broken up, and the genre lost mainstream appeal, though it continued to have underground popularity and featured a revival in the late 2010s with bands like the Interrupters returning to chart success, when their song "She's Kerosene" reached the top 5 on alternative and rock music charts in Canada and the US, as well as in the early 2020s with hyperpop duo 100 gecs album 10,000 gecs incorporating elements of ska punk to critical acclaim.[1][2]

  1. ^ Shepherd, Julianne Escobedo (16 March 2023). "100 gecs: 10,000 gecs Album Review". Pitchfork. Retrieved 20 March 2023.
  2. ^ Robinson, Ellie (15 March 2023). "100 gecs – '10,000 gecs' review: an intoxicating hurricane of manic nostalgia". NME. Retrieved 20 March 2023.