As a musical style, ska is father to the rocksteady and reggae music that would sweep Jamaica, the United Kingdom, and finally the United States. Music journalist Heather Augustyn, in Ska: Dance, Beat and History, follows the birth of this tradition in Jamaica from a blend of indigenous island music with the jazz and rhythm and blues coming from the United States. The story of ska is not only of a musical tradition but also of a new nation, Jamaica having won its independence in 1962 from England s 300-year reign. Having shaped the island s studios, dancehalls, and tourism markets, Jamaican ska would ship back to its erstwhile ruler the unique musical forms that grew there during the 1950s, merging with the then British punk and mod musical scenes. From there Augustyn follows ska and reggae back across the Atlantic to American shores to its modern form.