Chart Topping Reggae billboard top 40 oldies 60s 70s-80s-90s-and-now

Music doesn’t stand still anywhere, and bluebeat transformed into rocksteady and reggae. By 1969, nearly every ska performer had moved with the times, with ska not quite falling by the wayside, but certainly fading in popularity compared to its cousins. It wasn’t until the Two Tone movement hit Britain in the late 1970s that ska became popular again, performed by such groups as The Specials, The Selecter, Bad Manners, and Madness. The Two Tone sound added a punk flavor to the ska (music theorists will note the frequent substitution of power chords on the skank over the original major chords) and an faster, more driving beat. British ska bands were strongly associated with the skinhead look. Ironically, the skinheads themselves eventually became associated with racist movements, so a formerly black #musical genre became loosely tied to anti-black racism.