text: what is ska and new wave?   wow those are 2 completely different musical genres.  ska, in it's purist form, is from jamaica in the '60s.  it did gain popularity in the 80's with the two-tone movement, a form of mixing ska with punk, new wave, rock, and stuff.  new wave was the post punk sound that was a cleaned up version of that music.  they're not directly connected, but they were mixed.