A spin to spark creativity: The role of early Jamaican popular music recordings in Los Angeles’ traditional ska scene

In the late 1980s, a revival movement dedicated to 1960s Jamaican popular music began taking shape in Los Angeles, CA. Hepcat and Jump With Joey were two bands at the forefront of this movement, playing their own interpretations of Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae, interlaced with genealogically related influences. Using oral history interviews I conducted with band members, I analyse the role of recorded media in shaping Angeleno adaptations of 1960s Jamaican popular music. In doing so, I highlight how audio recordings help stimulate cross-cultural and inter-generational communication and explore the complexities of music revival subcultures and generic classifications.