Skarchive LA

Growing and evolving over a twenty-five year period, the Spanish-language ska scene of Southern California is the most vibrant in the country, serving as a cultural hub for thousands of fans who have grown up loving and sharing this music. More than 800 bands appear on the posters included in this archive—232 on three or more—indexing a complex web of social and artistic connections across the region. While the majority of these bands are local, Spanish-language ska bands, these posters include ska acts from other parts of the United States as well as abroad, particularly from Mexico and other Latin American countries. Bands based in other popular genres are also represented.

Figure One: A Gephe-produced visualization of 232 bands that appeared on Spanish-language ska posters from Southern California between 1996 and 2016 (each node represents one band). The size and centrality of nodes proportionally represent the number of bands each band appears with on posters (the largest, more central nodes represent bands that appear on posters with the most other bands). The colors represent modularity class; clusters of bands that are strongly connected are grouped by color.

Spanish-language ska bands first emerged in Los Angeles at the end of the 1990s. Featured first at house parties and later at DIY venues and music clubs in the South Los Angeles communities centered around South Gate, Spanish-language ska soon expanded into other parts of Los Angeles County and eventually to Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside Counties.

Figure Two: Map of Spanish language ska venues in four counties of Southern California (Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside) between 1996 and 2016.

Of the bands that appear in these shows, at least 154 sited "ska" as one of the main ingredients of their music on social media and/or in personal communications. However, one of the hallmarks of this scene is musical experimentation, and bands often incorporate multiple sounds from other genres, often within a single song. Of the genres mentioned by Spanish-language ska bands, "Ska," "Punk," "Reggae," and "Rock" are the most cited.

Figure Three: Social media mentions of genres by 154 ska bands that appear in the Skarchive database.

Over the years, bands, promoters and fans have ingeniously mobilized urban spaces to realize their scene. Eighty commercial music venues hosting Spanish-language ska bands appear in this collection. In addition, when commercial musical venues have been unavailable (or unwilling) to host Spanish language ska-bands, Latinx youth have found their own spaces to enjoy this music and build community around it, creatively mobilizing backyards, parks, warehouses, churches, schools, empty lots, tattoo parlors, auto garages, banquet halls, and community non-profit centers.

Figure Four: Map of 212 Southern California ska venues organized by venue type.

In addition to revealing a wide variety of venues, this poster collection demonstrates the ephemeral nature of these venues (to borrow a term from scholar and promoter Jorge Leal), many of which are no longer in existence. Maintaining viable music venues and cultural spaces is economically challenging in the best of conditions. However, the disappearance of some of these venues also indexes specific economic and political pressures exerted on Latinx neighborhoods in Southern California, among them the rising rents and property taxes that accompany gentrification.

Figure Five: Map of 212 Southern California ska venues organized by their status as open ie. currently functioning as music venues (green) or closed (red). Private residences and commercial venues that could not be verified as open or closed are also marked (blue). Venue status was verified in the summer of 2017.