Pick It Up! Pick It Up!: The Transnational Localism of Ska

Ever since its birth in the late 1950s, ska has been a genre marked by physical and cultural diasporas and an openness to borrowing from outside its origins. The history of ska travels across national borders and integrates with other musical styles, making it one of the most hybrid, transnational forms of postwar popular music. The author follows that journey through the recent third-wave phase to close with Los Skarnales, a Chicano-based ska band in Houston who meld diverse forms, including the local flavors of their neighborhood. Throughout the study an ancillary topic lies in the background: the relationship between subjectivity and community.