Word: ska
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Sire) The English Beat know how to throw a mean curveball. Two blacks and three whites from Birmingham who are part of the British ska revival that includes the Specials, Selecter and Madness, the Beat juggle black and white music so quickly and deftly that one emerges from their debut album wondering how the hell they did it. Is the frenzied "Click Click" ska or rock & roll? What's a Mersey guitar line doing against a ska rhythm in "Best Friend"? Or, for that matter, a Byrds jingle-jangle guitar in "Two Swords...
...have always worn their contempt for disco as a sort of cachet of superior taste, and it's always seemed more than a little unfair, particularly because: a) disco is the state-of-the-art in Black music, and there are no Black New Wave bands outside of the ska revivol and no prominent Black rock critics and few white disco bands; b) disco remains the most popular music in America, despite critical limousines rushing it to the grave, as is evidenced by the playlists of the largest AM radio stations, the Number One hit of the summer, "Funkytown...
...have always worn their contempt for disco as a sort of cachet of superior taste, and it's always seemed more than a little unfair, particularly because: a) disco is the state-of-the-art in Black music, and there are no Black New Wave bands outside of the ska revivol and no prominent Black rock critics and few white disco bands; b) disco remains the most popular music in America, despite critical limousines rushing it to the grave, as is evidenced by the playlists of the largest AM radio stations, the Number One hit of the summer, "Funkytown...
...have always worn their contempt for disco as a sort of cachet of superior taste, and it's always seemed more than a little unfair, particularly because: a) disco is the state-of-the-art in Black music, and there are no Black New Wave bands outside of the ska revivol and no prominent Black rock critics and few white disco bands; b) disco remains the most popular music in America, despite critical limousines rushing it to the grave, as is evidenced by the playlists of the largest AM radio stations, the Number One hit of the summer, "Funkytown...
...music is spontaneous. If we knew what we were going to do next week, it wouldn't be worth it." For the new Specials effort, Dammers promises a little more experimentation and a wider range of styles, even speculates in a bemused fashion on a possible wedding of ska, reggae and "lift music - the stuff you hear in America in McDonald's and department stores. It's so absurd." Step back, watch the closing doors. Going...