Best ska band of all time?

[swingline]

I don't really know what makes a song ska — 1-3 time instead of 2-4? — and I couldn't pick one out if you asked me. They all just sound like songs to me.

 

[Scout]

Reggae mixed with rock, but, for me, there has to be a horn section.

 

[MisterCreosote]

The Specials as pioneers and the Bosstones as the most successful.

 

[Songbird]

Oingo Boingo

This is, of course, the best answer.

 

[Oggiedoggie]

This is, of course, the best answer.

If that's ska, then are the Talking Heads and perhaps even Devo also ska?

 

[Songbird]

Is No Doubt ska?

 

[Songbird]

Ska?

 

[MisterCreosote]

Is No Doubt ska?

No, they're posers.

 

[BTExpress]

I know Madness from that one song that got lots of video play in the early 1980s (Our House). Would never have thought of them as ska --- based on that song.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

Oingo Boingo was not a ska band, but had a few slight elements of ska in some of their songs.

No Doubt was absolutely a straight-up ska band when they first started. They were kind of moving away from it by "Tragic Kingdom," but some songs - like "Just a Girl" and "Spiderweb" - are absolutely ska.

(And really, the vast majority of ska bands that are any good bail on ska almost immediately to move on to other stuff. I love a great ska band but ska is incredibly limiting. The Specials did two albums before splitting, and the members that remained went in a different direction. The Beat was moving on by the second album. Madness was part of the whole 2-Tone thing and is always mentioned as a great ska band, but really just a few songs on the first album are what you'd call ska. Fishbone was moving away by their first full album.)

 

[MisterCreosote]

I'm really surprised I'm the only one who has mentioned the Mighty Mighty Bosstones.

From where I sit, they're by far the most mainstream and successful band in the genre. Let's Face It is a masterful album — The Impression That I Get, their biggest hit, might be the worst song on it.

More Noise and Other Disturbances is another great one. And they put on a hell of a show in concert over 30-plus years.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

I know Madness from that one song that got lots of video play in the early 1980s (Our House). Would never have thought of them as ska --- based on that song.

By "Our House" they had long abandoned ska. But this was an early song: