2 Tone was gone and all seemed lost for ska. Unforgiving popular music overran the scene and just kept going, but the music was not dead. People all over still had the offbeat sound stuck in their heads, and new ska bands began to form. The London band The Potato 5 played an authentic ska sound, and lead the new ska following for a good five years with such bands as Maroon Town, The Hotknives, The Riffs, The Loafers, The Trojans, and The Deltones.

Back in Jamaica, a monumental event also occurred in the history of ska music during the summer of 1983. The Skatalites, disbanded for 18 years, reunited at the Reggae Sunsplash Festival in Jamaica. The Skatalites stole the show, and would go back to recording and producing more material as well as touring all over the world.

Ska had not just sprouted in the U.K. and Jamaica. In 1983 at 171A Studio in New York City's 'lower east side', members of Buck's Forbidden Planet Crew and The Cooties got together to form a new ska band. They originally recorded in 1983 under the pseudonym 'Not Bob Marley,' but today they are referred to as The Toasters. At the same time, in Boston, a new ska band called Bim Skala Bim formed during mid-summer of 1983 and played their first show two weeks later.

The Toasters were led by their guitarist and singer, Rob 'Bucket' Hingley. The band would not become well known until a four-song demo, produced by Joe Jackson, was recorded in 1984 and released to the public. This was later to be known as the "Recriminations" EP during its rerelease in 1985. This demo paved the way for the New York ska scene, giving The Toasters the exposure to headline shows at CBGB's, and making room for more ska bands such as Second Step, The Beat Brigade, and The Boilers. Hingley and The Toasters would later record under Moon Records, a new label the band created in the spirit of Jerry Dammers' 2 Tone Records.

Bim Skala Bim, though having difficulties finding a permanent drummer, continued playing and just like Dammers with 2 Tone, started their own record label called Fonograff Records. This didn't last, however, and shortly after they released 'Bim Skala Bim,' which was also released in the UK as 'Boston Bluebeat,' they signed on to Razorbeat Records.

More bands emerged in various locations. Bands like Burma Jam (Richmond, VA) and Let's Go Bowling (Fresno, CA) came out of nowhere and lit a spark that made it possible for people all over America to hear ska. New variations on ska came about, and American bands began to experiment. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones started playing the ska-core sound in 1985. Ska-core blends the ska sound with harder metal, punk, and sometimes even a hardcore sound. The band was originally called 'The Bosstones,' until they discovered that this was the name of a 1950's Harvard acapella group. Another group called Fishbone, also took on a ska sound and blended it with funk. Their smash hit "Party at Ground Zero" greatly increased the public's awareness of the new ska scene.

Most of the spread of the third wave of ska should be attributed to the bands that played music that borrowed from ska. Many modern day rudeboys would be lying if they were to say that they were not made aware of the music originally from The Mighty Mighty Bosstones or maybe The Clash.

Once 1986 came around, enough ska bands existed that it became as much of a challenge to find an interesting name as it was to gain publicity. Bands with humorous names like The Skeletones, Mephiskapheles, and others caught the ska scene's attention with their unique names and styles of music.

A new record label would soon be created called Moon Records. Its sole purpose was to make it possible for ska bands of the time to have their own record label. One that would not be a major recording label, but basically a distributor of ska. Many of the popular ska bands were signed to Moon Records and the label boomed to be to ska music what Epitaph Records is to punk and Victory Records is to hardcore. Moon Records (later changed to Moon Ska) would host many of the better-known ska bands and distribute for them.

With all of different variations on ska that were pumping out of the scene, many of the loyal fans of the music became turned off. To compensate, many bands started playing a traditional sound. These bands avoided pop, punk and funk styles of ska and instead stuck to the original ska sound. Bands like Hepcat, Let's Go Bowling, The Allstonians, The Israelites, Stubborn All-Stars and others were accepted with open arms by the die-hard ska fanatics.

Compilations were sprouting up all over the scene. Compilations such as "Skarmageddon," "Skanarchy," "American Skathic," and many others, pumped out tunes from the latest up-and-coming ska musicians. Many bands would get the boost they needed to kick off a successful music career from a single that they had released on one of these albums.

The boom of the ska scene in recent times has not only generated many new bands. It has also created a huge surge of public interest. Interest in the latest ska movement has grown to the point where the more popular bands in the scene are making videos for MTV and occasionally getting airplay on some of the major radio stations of the United States. Many people fear this trend, and blame the bands that play variations on ska for the surge in popularity. Often people will become confused in today's vast music culture as to what is ska and what isn't. A major modern day misconception is to assume that horns are all that is required to be considered ska. Internet newsgroups, magazines, compilations, and such, spend most of their time explaining the concept of ska to the uninformed listener.

As the music becomes more and more popular, many wonder whether or not ska will be the 'next big thing' to take over the pop charts of America. Jamaica and the United Kingdom could not resist it, how about the United States?