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Ska punk is a fusion music genre that combines ska and punk rock. Ska-core is a subgenre of ska punk, blending ska with hardcore punk.

The characteristics of ska punk vary, due to the fusion of contrasting genres. The more punk influenced style often features faster tempos, guitar distortion, onbeat punk-style interludes (usually the chorus), and nasal, gruff, or shouted vocals. The more ska-influenced style of ska punk features a more developed instrumentation and a cleaner vocal and musical sound. The common instrumentation includes guitar, bass guitar, drums, saxophones, trombones, trumpets and/or other brass instruments, and sometimes an organ.

Ska and punk were first combined during the 2 Tone movement of the late 1970s, with bands such as The Specials, The Selecter, and The Beat. The fusion of the two genres became more prevalent in the 1980s, during the third wave of ska. Ska punk achieved its greatest popularity in the United States in the late 1990s, although there has been a strong following worldwide. In Europe, the Spanish band Ska-P, despite singing only in Spanish, reached out to audiences in France, Germany and Italy (as well as achieving considerable success in their natural markets of Spain and South America).

Several ska punk bands achieved mainstream commercial success. Operation Ivy, formed in 1987, received positive responses in the East Bay area of San Francisco, and were approached by major labels before breaking up in 1989.^{[citation needed]} The Mighty Mighty Bosstones appeared in the movie Clueless, and their 1997 album Let's Face It went platinum. Less than Jake's song "We're All Dudes" appeared in the 1997 Nickelodeon film Good Burger. Save Ferris appeared in the film 10 Things I Hate About You, and Reel Big Fish appeared on Baseketball. Buck-O-Nine's music appeared in the films The Big Hit and Homegrown. This success lasted into the 2000s for some bands such as the Grammy-winning No Doubt and Less Than Jake, whose 2003 album Anthem saw two singles, "She's Gonna Break Soon" and "The Science Of Selling Yourself Short", get airtime on Total Request Live.

One of the first occurrences of the Ska-Core terms was used for the title of the The Mighty Mighty Bosstones album Ska-Core, the Devil, and More which contained covers of "Think Again" by Minor Threat and "Lights Out" by Angry Samoans

The fan base includes more than just typical fans of ska and punk rock. This is particularly evident at ska punk concerts, where one can see people dressed in clothes associated with pop punk and skate punk. This may be due to the lack of importance placed on clothing style within the genre, in comparison to the first two waves of ska. However, the black and white checker pattern associated with 2 Tone is still strongly associated with ska punk clothing and accessories. Similarly, many of the fashions associated with the 2 Tone era such as the black necktie and white shirt and the pork pie hat were adopted by 1990s ska punk fans while the Mighty Mighty Bosstones attempted to define a new identity for skacore by wearing plaid patterned clothing.

Dancing at ska punk concerts includes traditional and modern variations of skanking, as well as moshing, pogoing and stage diving.

• 2 Tone
• Hardcore punk
• List of ska musicians
• Punk rock
• Ska
• Third wave of ska