Ska -- Jamaica's first indigenous music -- has experienced several revivals. Led by Desmond Decker in the '60s, The Specials and Fishbone in the '80s, and third-wavers Sublime and No Doubt in the mid-'90s, each new version strayed further from its origin, often achieving a cult status. Still, somehow, in the Jamaican music legacy, true ska has stood in the shadow of reggae.
Originating in the dance halls of Kingston in the late '50s -- long before reggae with its leisurely pace and ganja haze -- ska combined fast and infectious music with a heavily punctuated off-beat, pulling equally from traditional Caribbean music, early blues and R&B.
The style was born out of the desire of mobile sound system operators like Duke Reid and Clement "Coxsone" Dodd to play original material. Reid and Dodd put together groups of former jazz and big-band musicians, and later created the Trojan and Treasure Isle record labels for them to record under.