To define it simply: it's a musical genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It's a style of Jamaican dance music combining elements of Caribbean calypso and mento with American jazz and rhythm and blues. It was popularized in the early 1980s by British “black-and-white” multiracial bands that formed a lighter faction of the punk movement. It's about equality and has many political views, like punk, but isn't as hard. Though, there are as many types of ska as there are of rock. Elements of ska can be added to any genre, like ska-punk, ska-mo (emo ska), two-tone (rocksteady ska), etc.

But it's so much more...

A few of my favorite bands: The Kim Basinger Band, Reel Big Fish, Pain, dDub, Chase Long Beach, Voodoo Clow Skulls, The Specials, Suburban Legend, The Toasters, The Dualers, The Aquabats, Swagga, Dance Hall Crashers and Less Than Jake.

Bob Marley was in a ska band, The Wailers, before he created reggae.