A Steady Beat (2022)

During the 1990's, on the one hand, Ska music was widely unknown to the listening public and had finally gotten national airplay. On the other hand, the Pop/Third Wave Ska presented on mainstream media was worlds apart from what had long been developing in Los Angeles during that time. Our scene was more than Black/White - It was also Brown - the gray area in-between. A Steady Beat documents a gray area gap period commonly referenced as the "Third Wave" era in the Ska community. Though there is debate over how the artists featured in this film fit under that mainstream umbrella in sound, the period- not the music, can be classified as Third Wave. The difference is the rear-view mirror approach to the music which arguably would not have happened without the bands, but also, without The Blackpool and Steady Beat Recordings there would have been a definite vacuum. The L.A. Ska scene is notorious among scenes; for its sights, sounds, and fury. Many of L.A.'s very own promoters, musicians and supporters would continue to thrive and flourish, share considerably larger stages, tour the world, draw massive crowds, produce tighter rhythms, promote larger venues, as well as influence a new generation of talent to continue the legacy of Jamaican ska music.