ska

American  

[skah] / skɑ /

noun

1. a modern style of vocalized Jamaican popular music, which emerged in the 1950s as a blend of African-Jamaican folk music, calypso, and American rhythm and blues, notable for its shuffling, scratchlike tempo and jazzlike horn riffs on the offbeat.

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ska British  

/ skɑː /

noun

1. a type of West Indian pop music of the 1960s, accented on the second and fourth beats of a four-beat bar

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Etymology

Origin of ska

First recorded in 1960–65; of obscure origin

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ska

On her drive to work, she would blast songs by Ukrainian ska punk band Zhadan and the Dogs, singing along to lyrics that mixed denunciations of the war with empathy for its Ukrainian victims.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

But for us Xennials and millennials in the crowd who remember the OG Warped Tour, the ska punk band’s set was a fun break from the more traditional Coachella fare.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 13, 2026

Mr. Cliff entered these contests early and began writing songs that were a mash of ska, rock-steady and calypso, globally popular then thanks to a string of hits by Harry Belafonte.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 24, 2025

A brass band cracks the calm, something between ska and Basque tradition, loud and local.

From Salon ● Nov. 8, 2025

They call it I-yân-ska, probably from iya, to speak, and ska, white, truthful, peaceful,—hence, peace-pipe, herald of peace, pledge of truth, etc.

From The Feast of the Virgins and Other Poems by Hanford Lennox Gordon

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