We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
On the borders of ska: L@s Skagaler@s reappropriate ska music tropes for women's reproductive rights in the South Texas music scene.
- Authors
Stendebach, Steven
- Abstract
On Tales from the Border: Skank for Choice (2019), a benefit album to support local reproductive rights organizations in Rio Grande Valley, Texas band L@s Skagaler@s position their music and ska in general as an explicitly activist space. Despite calling the album and accompanying concert 'ska themed', musically, the album features little of ska's elements: upstroke rhythms, prominent brass and walking bass lines--the hallmarks of ska music--are all absent. Instead, the album offers three hardcore tracks, before the band's drummer takes center stage and delivers three bilingual hip-hop songs. This article seeks to understand what 'ska' as a signifier means in this context. It posits that L@s Skagaler@s utilizes double meanings, such as 'skank' in the title and a feminist pseudonym, to gesture toward both ska's history and feminist activism. Ultimately, this highlights the anti-racist and anti-colonial moments in the genre's history, while also posing a corrective to the depoliticized 'third-wave ska' sound.
- Subjects
RIO Grande Valley (Colo.-Mexico &; Tex.); TEXAS; WOMEN'S rights; RHYTHM &; blues music; REPRODUCTIVE rights; FREEDOM of association; ACTIVISM; ANTI-racism
- Publication
Popular Music History, 2021, Vol 14, Issue 3, p268
- ISSN
1740-7133
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1558/pomh.18872