Could ska's next mainstream resurgence be right around the corner?

[Skibz McCullock]

Recently, I was alerted to a film whose premise made me a bit uneasy: it's called "Bandslam", a tween rock flick starring one of the stars of 'High School Musical' and one of whoever "Aly and AJ" are. The idea is simple, it's the same "teenagers in a rock band" type of story, but there's a catch: the band in the film is a ska(-rock) band. And not *subtle* "ska", but BLATANT "ska", with horns and everything. Here's the TRAILER.

Yep, the band is even playing Bread/Ken Boothe's "Everything I Own". Covering an old reggae hit is not a coincidence: this is undeniably "ska", albeit a watered down pop version, but "ska" nonetheless.

There's also a 'High School Musical' type film coming (I guess) straight-to-TV sooner or later starring "Oreskaband" called 'Lock and Roll Forever', but what matters most is 'Bandslam': this movie will receive a widespread theatrical release. This will be seen by millions of children. Soundtracks will be released. It will receive radio airplay. Maybe even a sequel.

What is the reasoning behind why movie/record producers would choose to revive a mostly stagnant genre and present it with such prominence in such an important film (and yes, I'm using the word "important": when you're making a star vehicle for one of the kids from a franchise as massive as 'HSM', it's pretty darn important)? Do they sense that the genre is ready for profitability again?

This will be "ska"'s biggest media exposure since its heyday in 1998...could this possibly be marking the return of ska to the mainstream? Could this even be the fabled f-...the fo-...the fourth wave?

MOST IMPORTANTLY, should such a resurgence occur, what can we, as current ska fans/bands, do to ensure it goes smoothly? What can we do to make sure we don't have the same crash we did in 1999? Would this be ultimately beneficial to the scene, or will it destroy it even harsher than the last decade of stagnancy did? What can we do to ensure the former and prevent the latter?

[chexas]

we have to make sure we dont repeat the mistakes that were made in '99. if this occurs through a disney movie it might not have an immediate effect on the scene. the disney crowd is kinda young i think, too young to start coming to shows. This a surprise to me that disney would take any interest in ska, but with the success of yo gabba gabba i expected some kids to shows some type interest in ska. my 6 year old cousin sings the banana song by the agrolites all the time. the ska scene needs a much needed booster shot. we keep losing great bands and we haven't had many excellent records in years.

all we can do is sit back and watch the ska scene flourish or burn we'll see.

[Skibz McCullock]

Public exposure is public exposure nonetheless. True, it probably won't have an effect on the existing bands and scenes (after all, it's being aimed towards the Disney tween crowd...with a fanbase consisting entirely of 11 year olds, even the big bands like MMB, RBF and The Toasters wouldn't be given a single ounce of recognition), but what exactly would be the overall effect of having ska being brought back into mainstream radio, only this time around not as the result of years of a strong underground scene, but rather a corporately orchestrated move to sell records to kids, that it would become basically studio musicians supplying background music for Miley Montana or whomever?

Provided it does take off, we couldn't expect it to be totally isolated within pop: the radio would have to identify it as "ska"...if kids learn of "ska" through 'Bandslam', it'd be impossible to seek out more of it, as the majority of ska bands active today are profanity-laced, too punk, too trad and/or too "old". It would inevitably spawn a legion of sound-alike bands and suddenly ska is the flavor of the week again.

That actually does get me to thinking....if this wave of "Disney ska" happens, it'll obviously be completely independent from the actual scene. If Aly & AJ have a #1 hit with "Skankin' Pajama Party", it doesn't seem likely Less Than Jake or The Slackers will have similar success. If it acts as a totally separate entity, what effect does it have on the rest of ska?

[James Hollingsworth]

None, commercial popularity is not the only prerequisite for a new wave of ska. Each time ska has come back after being considered "dead" for a while, the entire style of music has changed. Disney's version of ska won't be much different from the LTJ and MMB we heard on the Digimon soundtrack. And as soon as Disney stops putting ska into their music, ska as an entity will revert back to exactly what we have now.

However, I do believe that a ska resurgence is around the corner, this Disney thing will only be a precursor to the very different version of ska that we'll hear on alternative radio.

As fans, all you can do is go to as many ska shows as possible, and bring all your friends. As bands, we just need to keep doing what we're doing; we will create the fourth wave from our own minds. Big record labels have little to due with the creativity of the scene, and if the scene gets too weird for the big labels, we'll just do what we've always done, and go DIY.

The only effect I see happening is that it may create two different versions of ska, the younger kids who see this movie and form Disney-pop-ska bands, and the older generation who take ska in a more artistic direction. We'll just have to wait and see where it goes from there.

If ska does get popular again though, expect a flood of new members to this forum, lol.

[TavoSka]

no man dont worry....this movie isn't from disney is from another company...maybe this movie will not have the mainstream smash...


FUCK THIS MOVIE!!!

[Danny C]

Well, this kinda blows. Someone mentioned ska's last uprising "as the result of years of a strong underground scene". But this is "a corporately orchestrated move to sell records to kids". That's exactly the problem. Music, just like many things, goes through waves or phases (I don't mean waves as in First Wave, Two Tone, and Third Wave). Only before it was pretty much naturally occurring.

I don't know if I worded that correctly, but what I mean is that there were a bunch of great ska bands, and there was a lot of ska related stuff going on underground. That usually provides for a stronger more solid growth of the scene. When it exploded, there were true ska fans out there. This is just big companies that are trying to get kids to waste their money on them. They don't care about ska, and they don't care about us. Now as much as I or anyone else likes to have their "own thing", I don't mind if something that I like gets big naturally.

But what I'm worried about is; Ska is a special genre. Ska, along with some other genres like Punk or Hip-Hop have A LOT of meaning behind them. Like The Toasters said, "It looks real modern, but it's all about roots". Ska is all about unity and acceptance. And I think that it would turn into a complete fad and lose it's meaning just like punk has in the past before. And that would be the worst thing.

We really just have to wait it out, until this whole thing blows over.

[4thwaveDave]

Does anybody wanna see the trailer?...Personally, I think the movie is so lame, and it won't go anywhere, hense, not effecting us...that's just my opinion...

[King Duncan]

4thwaveDave said:

Does anybody wanna see the trailer?...Personally, I think the movie is so lame, and it won't go anywhere, hense, not effecting us...that's just my opinion...



AHHHH HAHAHAHA. Looks to me like Disney is cashing in on the 90s Ska craze nearly ten years too late. I actually hope this scares kids away from Ska. Holy fuck, I could watch this again and again.

[Danny C]

I just thought of this, but this movie is targeting kids like 8-11 or around there. They probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between ska and any other genre anyways, with some exceptions. So it's not like they're going to go look up "ska" on Wikipedia right after they see the movie.

Or, if I hear a song on the radio, I could easily place it into a genre. So if I hear a ska band that I've never heard before I can say that it's ska and if I'm interested, I know where to start looking to find out more about them. A little kid would probably not be able to do that, and threrefore would forget about ska music in general, unless they hear a specific song from the movie.

[Skibz McCullock]

Danny C said:

I just thought of this, but this movie is targeting kids like 8-11 or around there. They probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between ska and any other genre anyways, with some exceptions. So it's not like they're going to go look up "ska" on Wikipedia right after they see the movie.

Or, if I hear a song on the radio, I could easily place it into a genre. So if I hear a ska band that I've never heard before I can say that it's ska and if I'm interested, I know where to start looking to find out more about them. A little kid would probably not be able to do that, and threrefore would forget about ska music in general, unless they hear a specific song from the movie.

This is true, but there's a slight difference this time around. Back during the peak of the third wave, there was plenty of ska music in all forms of children's media: 'KaBlam!', 'Good Burger', 'Meet the Deedles'...I even saw 'BASEketball' when it came out. I was aware of (and liked) the music, but I didn't know it was called "ska", nor did I have any desire to look into it...it was just "music", and background music at that.

In 'Bandslam', we have a ska band front and center of the film: the star has a "ska" band, with horns, and the entire duration of the film will be following the adventures of said band, as they play their little ska songs for 90 minutes. It's far more than background music, and I guarantee there'll be at least some useage of the word "ska" in or throughout the movie. And, if the soundtrack/a single for this flick becomes extremely successful, it's inevitable that it will produce even more ska-esque songs in the form of sequels, or new pop albums will take a strong ska bent....kids aren't as stupid as we might think: after a while, the excess of brass and reggae-ish vibes would seem to them to be quite a departure from the usual Top 40 pop-rock, and they'll probably be able to tell the difference.

I could be wrong, though...I could be wrong.

[Danny C]

Yeah, as long as they don't say the word "ska" we're safe. You have a good point though, I know what you mean. Like LTJ in Goodburger, or RBF in Baseketball, or The Toasters in Kablam, it was all just background music I guess. It makes sense. I just really hope this doesn't become too popular.

[Little Miss Dismissed]

I honestly doubt that enough people over the age of thirteen will be watching this movie to make a difference.
I'm sixteen and the trailer makes me want to throw up, so I don't think it'll have a huge effect on anyone who would actually bother to take the time and look up ska after seeing it.

But that's just my opinion.

[4thwaveDave]

Another interesting tidbit: According to The Aggrolites myspace, "Free Time" is on the soundtrack to this movie...