These terms describe Ska music coming from three different time periods separated by gaps in the popularity of the music.
Roughly speaking, "first-wave Ska" began in late 1960 in Jamaica and lasted until the late 1960s in Jamaica and England (as blue beat), by which time its popularity had declined in favour of Ska offspring rock-steady and reggae. Seminal first-wave Jamaican Ska artists include the Skatalites, Laurel Aitken, Prince Buster, Derrick Morgan and Desmond Dekker.
Second-wave Ska flourished in the late-1970s and very early 1980s and saw the emergence of popular groups such as The Specials, the (English) Beat, Madness and the like in England.
Ska came to England with immigrants in the early 1960s. Known in the UK briefly as Jamaican Blues, Ska inspired the formation of the Blue Beat record company, providing yet another name for the Ska sound: blue beat. Ska gained popularity in the UK amongst the members of the Mod scene, leading to the residual association of small-brimmed trilby (pork-pie hats) and scooters with Ska music. About the time skinheads in the UK were getting into Ska, Trojan Records was still releasing Ska hits into the UK top 10 (as late as 1969 or 1970), but by that time rock-steady and reggae were waxing as Ska waned, for a while, at least.
Second-wave Ska is strongly associated with the 2 Tone scene [1979--1981] in the UK, as shown in the movie Dance Craze, although American bands like Her Majesties Secret Service brought the 2-Tone sound to the States in the early Eighties. Two-tone Ska is faster and tighter than first-wave Ska and incorporates some elements of punk rock and British reggae. Certainly, through the first and second waves, Ska was a music for the man-in-street, the working people.
"Third-wave Ska" is a late-1980s/early- 1990s revival of Ska,
Involving such bands as Weaker Youth Ensemble, the Allstonians, Bim Skala Bim, the Voodoo Glow Skulls and The Toasters. Many popular rock/hardcore/funk bands, such as The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, are strongly influenced by Ska sounds. In the last few years, some bands, like Hepcat, Steady Earnest, the Allstonians, Skavoovie and the Epitones, have recovered a roots Ska sound.
Ska-core is either hardcore/punk-influenced Ska or Ska-influenced hardcore music. Or a fiction. Compared to traditional Ska, Ska-core is faster and harder. Voodoo Glow Skulls and Operation Ivy are commonly called Ska-core bands.
At some points, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones have claimed to play Ska-core. Some claim that Ska-core songs change rhythmic structure from Ska-like to hardcore-like within one song. This could be differentiated from Ska-influenced punk. Others point out that Ska-core bands may have a rock-like line-up, without horns. *Just turn up the music and dance.*
Lately, I've heard the term's "carnival punk" and "skunkcore" applied to the kind of thrashy Ska/punk/hardcore/klezmer fusion played by the Blue Meanies and others. Is this another form of Ska-core?
