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Ska was the first independent Jamaican music, which began in the early 1960s. It was a precursor in Jamaica to rocksteady, and later, reggae.

The sound of the ska was created at Studio One in Kingston, Jamaica, by the Skatalites, working with producer Clement "Coxsone" Dodd. The originators of the ska beat were the drummer, Lloyd Knibb, and the bassist Lloyd Brevett. The music of ska is known for the placement of the accented guitar and piano rhythms on the upbeats. The word ska may come from a onomatopoeia type rhythm, or from the onomatopoeia rythm of the greeting "Skavoovie." Other forms of onomatopeia are typically used as form of mouth music, with the mouth and vocal cords as being the primary musical instrument - a common Euro-American example is "Doe-Ray-Me-Fa-So-La-Tee-Doe" or even the various skat music tonals, vocals & rythms found in jazz, dixie blues and also rock-n-roll music. "Skavoovie" was a greeting used by Cluett Johnson, who was better known as Clue J. Dodd, or "Clue J". Clue J was the bassist and leader of "Clue J and the Blues Blasters." He lead that late 1950s Jamaican musical group, which spawned some of the greatest musicians of the ska era (1962-1966).

Ska's popularity has waxed and waned since its original inception, and has had revivals of note in England in the 1980s (known as Two-Tone), and another wave of popularity in the 1990s (referred to as Third Wave Ska).

One of the most commercially successful bands of Two Tone ska music was Madness.

The biggest selling American bands of Third Wave Ska were the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and No Doubt, both of whom fused ska with rock music to the point of losing almost all Jamaican elements in their musics.