Excerpt from Ska Article

Here's an excerpt from the article "Ska Changed My Life" that I'm writing for The Public Queue:


     "Ska wasn't just a movement for me or a fad. It was an opportunity to actually like music Christians created. Sunday praise wasn't exactly all Hillsong-ed up in the mid-90s (which I have issue with but will write about another time) and Michael W. Smith wasn't exactly my generation's cup of tea. So when I first heard ska in the form of The O.C. Supertones' Adonai (which I had no idea was a Hebrew name for God at the time), I was hooked. The first song on their first album started with a cartoon-ish voice declaring “Alright Supertones: let's rock” followed by a 1:13 intro of dramatic garage band proportions accompanied by sharp, catchy horns which lead into: “Well I'm as ugly as sin, that is to say I'm not good lookin'.”  Humility.  Something the mainstream music I listened to lacked. The 'Tones continued with:

     '...One purpose is to worship and to make the body strong, I don't care about your haircut,     

     can't we all just get along? Not just get along, but to really love and care. If your eyes are 

     on the Lord you can't see nobody's hair.'

     I was excited. A new form of socially-conscious, relatable worship. I remember randomly checking out Arrested Development's 3 Years, 5 Months, 2 Days in the Life Of... at the library a few years earlier (I was attracted to their non-threatening, colorful CD cover- a rarity among rap albums) and was pumped that similar social commentary had emerged in my new favorite genre of music. Ska was a more fun, danceable version of rock: fast, catchy, high energy, inspirational.  I mean, I could move to pop music, but I was never moved by it.  I joined band in 5th grade and recognized later why my lips subconsciously decided to play the alto saxophone the most fluidly: I wanted to be the next Dave Chevalier (Supertones saxophonist for their first two albums). I remember being so excited about The Supertones, that I brought The Adventures of The O.C. Supertones CD over to my best friend Corey's house so he could have this music change his life as well. I placed it in his CD player when he wasn't looking and pressed play. "This is awful" Corey told me with a good-natured chuckle. I think this was the first time we ever disagreed about something I really cared about. It may have nothing to do with this heart-breaking moment, but our super-close friendship slowly became unhinged over the next few years. Ultimately, it was probably more that I had started a faith journey without my best friend that tore us apart, but at the time, I felt like our differing taste in music may be a problem in relating to one another. Corey started listening to more rap music (and not the Arrested Development variety) and I ska. I was listening to music that sang about God the entire album while he was listening to music that sang about God once during the album (which was usually very poetically done) and about money, sex, and violence the other 11 tracks (can you say DMX?).  Music molds impressionable middle schoolers more than I ever gave it credit."