Throw back a bottle of beer!
this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2025
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Hey! Another Ska appreciator!
I always put them in the "big band" category, but... What would actually be the difference? lol
Largely the size of the group iirc, plus some of the jazz influence.
IMO big band is from the 1930s and '40s, while ska is from the '80s and '90s.
Ah, but that's where the Cherry Poppin' Daddies and Squirrel Nut Zippers are different! See, in the late 90's there was a very short-lived resurgence fad of the big band sound. Though, afaik, only the aforementioned two bands ever really took off with their hits "Zoot Suit Riot" (CPD) and "Hell" (SNZ).
Yeah, you're absoutely right here, neither the Daddies nor the Zippers were ska bands. They were part of that brief lived big-band/swing revival in the 90's you mentioned.
To get a little pedantic about it, the real defining trait of ska is the "ska rhythm" where the guitar plays on the off-beat, or the upstroke, or "skank". is a pretty good easy to hear example of that guitar rhythm.
But to most people, the thing that was most noticeable about ska at first listen was the horn sections. Especially in the 90's third wave, when rock and rock adjacent bands were not really using horns anymore. So it was really easy to lump in both CPD and SNZ as "ska", as they both came out around the heyday of third wave ska, when the Bosstones, Reel Big Fish, etc. were all blowing up, even though they didn't use ska rhythms at all.
One thing that is kind of funny to me is that Sublime was way more of a ska band than either of them, but since they didn't have a horn section, I never much heard people refer to Sublime as ska.
Yeah, I was gonna say, they were definitely swing. Same with Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Brian Setzer Orchestra. Man, those are some names I've not heard in a long time.
ska is from the '80s and '90s.
Ska is from the 50s and 60s.