Ska a gogo

Ska a gogo

Song Information

ska a go go's banner.

Ska a gogo's pop'n music banner.

Artist: THE BALD HEADS
Composition/Arrangement: Hiroshi Takeyasu
Lyrics/Vocals: bongman
BPM: 144-160
Length: 1:22
Genre: Ska (スカ)
pop'n music Character: Hone [12-3P]
Movie: MiZKiNG (beatmania, beatmania IIDX (generic video and overlays)), ? (beatmania (2006))
First Music Game Appearance: beatmania 2ndMIX
Other Music Game Appearances:

• beatmania IIDX
• beatmania III
• DanceDanceRevolution 2ndMIX CLUB VERSiON 2
• pop'n music 15 ADVENTURE

Lyrics

mine wanna regend of man rock
logo of dj surfurin' by jungle man clue man wanna lost a mam

All night DJ's surfing through the mountains.
Always you know from the man style.
You let you know lot of a play style.
Say Hah! Hah!! Hah!!!

La, la.maz maz... sexy lalala....come on and get at it.
Come and get at dj
La, la.mouse mouse... sexy..come on and get at DJ
Oh natural love...

Song Connections / Remixes

• The beatmania 2nd MIX complete and pop'n music 15 ADVENTURE AC ♥ CS pop'n music 14 FEVER! album versions of Ska a gogo are different from the game-size version.
• Ska a gogo's ANOTHER charts in beatmania IIDX use a slightly different and extended version of the song, and it was later titled ska a go go (CLUB ANOTHER VER.) in DanceDanceRevolution 2ndMIX CLUB VERSiON 2.
• A remix of Ska a gogo by DOCTOR S, titled SKA a go go ～PERFECT MIX～, appears in beatmania completeMIX 2 as the ANOTHER chart version of Ska a gogo.
  • This version is also used as the pop'n music HYPER chart of Ska a gogo.
• A remix of Ska a gogo by KEN MATSUMOTO, titled SKA a go go ～SKACORE MIX～, appears in beatmania CORE REMIX.
  • The ANOTHER chart of SKA a go go ～SKACORE MIX～ is used as the pop'n music EX chart of Ska a gogo.

Trivia

This song has different backgrounds, banners, jackets, or other related images. For more information, please see this page.

• Ska a gogo's title was spelled as SKA a go go in the original beatmania series, with the exception of beatmania completeMIX 2 and beatmania BEST HITS, where it was capitalized as SKA A GO GO.
  • The title was shown as SKA a go go in the pop'n music 15 ADVENTURE AC ♥ CS pop'n music 14 FEVER! original soundtrack as well.
  • It was spelled as ska a go go in the beatmania IIDX and DanceDanceRevolution series.
  • It was spelled as SKA A GOGO in pop'n music 15 ADVENTURE. The genre on the banner was capitalized as SKA as well.
• In the beatmania series, SKA a gogo's BPM in the song selection screen is displayed as simply 160.
• In early DanceDanceRevolution games and the pop'n music series, Ska a gogo's artist was slightly changed to THE BALD HEAD.
  • The BEMANI BEST for the 10th anniversary album misspells the artist as THE BOLD HEADS.
• SKA a go go's charts were moved up to the HARD difficulty in beatmania 3rdMIX.
  • It also received brand-new NORMAL charts in beatmania 3rdMIX.
• Ska a gogo marked Hiroshi Takeyasu's last appearance in beatmania until perfect sunrise 4 years later in beatmania THE FINAL.
• ska a go go received brand-new ANOTHER charts in beatmania IIDX substream, and a different 14KEY chart. The latter is exclusive to substream, as the original 14KEY chart was restored in beatmania IIDX 2nd style.
  • These charts were created by dj TAKA.
• ska a go go has never been on a CS beatmania IIDX release (not counting beatmania (2006), which only has the original beatmania version playable).
  • It received new charts in beatmania (2006).
• ska a go go received brand-new BEGINNER and Double HEAVY charts in DanceDanceRevolution EXTREME.
• Ska a gogo is the second unlock of the FIRE ROUTE (火ルート) in pop'n music 15 ADVENTURE's Waku-waku Mimi Nyami tankentai (わくわくミミニャミ探検隊) unlock event. It could be unlocked from July 4th, 2007 through September 26th, 2007.
  • As of September 26th, 2007, Ska a gogo has been unlocked for everyone to play.
• Ska a gogo has never been on a CS release of pop'n music.
• Ska a gogo's pop'n music NORMAL chart was made by TOMOSUKE.

Music Comment

This is the original ska song in the BEMANI world! Were you able to experience that high-speed backbeat?

Song Production Information

beatmania 2ndMIX

I was surprised at just how skilled players were at the first beatmania than I was expecting, so I thought to make a more difficult song than HOUSE. As far as how the song goes, it starts off with orthodox ska, then covers genres with reggae roots in the order of dub, reggae, and skacore.

beatmania completeMIX English site

Your keyboard playing will need to be up to scratch to "get a go go" to this fast-paced song.

beatmania CS / APPEND YebisuMIX Music Column site

Hiroyuki Togo

At the request of package designer [Takashi] Kinbara, the subject this time is ska.
The word "ska" comes from phrases like "skavalier," "skalent but deadly," "ska le vie,"... oh, ska-rry, was that lame? (Ba-dum, tss!)
... Those aren't related to that word at all, I think; actually, I don't know its etymology. But apparently it got its name from the sounds made when mouthing the rhythm of the music: "s ka-, s ka-, s ka-"... (that's probably not true). If you really mouth the rhythms though, it certainly sounds like "s ka-, s ka-, s ka-" (try saying it with an accent on the "ka-")!

Reggae is another genre where the accent of the rhythms is on the upbeat; it's said that ska is the actual original form of reggae (this much is true). Indeed, play a reggae tape on fast-forward, and it does sound like ska (albeit only "like" it). If you've got free time, give it a try (it's not that exciting, though).

Nevertheless, ska itself is said to have been born out of Jamaican musicians imitating American R&B. A lot of music does come from mimicking things from the past (even rock derives from the blues and R&B of black musicians mixed in with the country of white musicians). It's strange how even though ska has a bit of a metropolitan, "Caucasian" beat to it, the reggae that came after it has more of an indigenous aura... is this an example of "returning to where you came from"?

Artists who are representative of the genre include The Skatalites and, in the case of Japan, Ska Para (Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra).
In the '80s there were The Specials and Madness (back then, their music played in Honda car commercials), and even early works by The Police incorporated elements of ska.
Even past hit songs in Japan incorporated ska beats. Some that come to mind are Minna no Uta by Southern All Stars in the mainstream, JITTERIN'JINN during the Ikaten band boom, and so on.
If you're interested, listen to them to your heart's skantent!

Until next time, have a wonderful BEAT PLAY LIFE.
(Hiroyuki Togo, Composer & Sound Director for beatmania on PlayStation)

DanceDanceRevolution

Original Version

This song had the hardest difficulty level since the early days of beatmania. The music genre called ska has a similar backbeat focus much like reggae, but unlike the latter's relaxed feeling with a strong rock influence, it has a fast tempo and a lighthearted feeling.
This song is also full of ragga rap, and in contrast to the accompanying vocals and the song's laid-back composition, many players will be sent into the abyss.

CLUB ANOTHER Version

Those who played the original "ska a go go" will be stunned by these changes.

pop'n music

HIRO

I created this song for beatmania 2nd MIX, which led to the immediate breakthrough of music games. At that time, it was the highest difficulty song, and it was said that the final barrage of "ska streams" was the most difficult point. It's been 10 years since then....
The EX chart uses an arranged version by KEN MATSUMOTO from beatmania CORE REMIX.
It's been a long time since I listened to it, but oh! It's cool. While retaining the original song's phrases, it seems like it has its own, new life, right? In human terms, isn't it similar to parents having an only child who resembles them, but cooler, who grew with some bad manners but is strong? There's a particularly enjoyable feeling of having others arrange and remix your own songs, and this is one of my favorites.

Video Production Information

None.

Character Information

None.

Staff Comments

tama

It's too nostalgic!
For me, this was a big boss song, along with SUPER HIGH WAY.
At that time, I often wet my pillow when facing that killer last section..

Now! It's in pop'n! I thought I could clear it... but even its HYPER chart was difficult to clear.
(I thought I could clear it if I used S-RANDOM, but I failed again...)

amamon.

As expected, when I played this song's charts in pop'n, it was hard.
My fingers hurt....

Mameshiba

I cried every time I reached the high-speed barrage at the end of the NORMAL chart. When the barrage of red and right-side blue notes appear, I simultaneously press the red + right-side green buttons...
I use red = left hand, right-side blue = right hand, and right-side green = right hand, so if I slightly lean right and use red = right hand, right-side blue = left hand, and right-side green = right hand, perhaps I could clear it!?

...The next day...

I tried using the above method, and my score slightly improved!
But it wasn't high enough... hmm... it's difficult...

eimy

It's finally here! I'm happy! I played this song when my allowance was still 1000 yen! I wanted to participate just a bit, so I created a 3P color (laughs). The background is that chicken. And those words appear in that way.
But. Well, it seems I don't have enough strength to clear this song! I have one gauge left, but....

TOMOSUKE

To be honest, I was in charge of creating the N chart.
At that time, when I first encountered this song in beatmania 2ndMIX, which everyone played, I failed at the final stream-like part, as expected.
And after thinking about it, if I press 1+5 and 1+4 with my right hand, while pressing 3 with the middle finger on my left hand, oh~ wow~, how did I do that! It was that easy.
So, I almost perfectly recreated the chart with that feeling again.
By all means, please try to simultaneously press with your right hand, while using your left hand as support.

wac

My memories of SKA a gogo? OK, let's talk about it.
Eight years ago, I was involved in developing beatmaniaIIDX substream.
Speaking of Ska, as everyone knows, it was a well-known wall song of early beatmania, but I wasn't very familiar with beatmania at that time.
I first heard about this song while working on the IIDXsubstream cabinet I was in charge of developing.
Anyways, the up-and-coming sound designer at that time, dj TAKA, created the ANOTHER chart! I was also ordered to create a few ANOTHER charts for PARANOiA, celebrate, and other songs, but if I remember correctly, dj TAKA created the masterpiece known as SKA a gogo's ANOTHER chart.
I was amazed by dj TAKA's novel idea of the increasing the number of streams, said to be the final death zone, and moving them.
This time, the HYPER chart included in pop'n is the beatmania completeMIX2 version by DOCTOR S, which is even harder than the IIDX ANOTHER chart it was based on.
Furthermore, the EX chart is the SKACORE mix from CORE REMIX, which has a different song title and artist name, but they were impossible to include due to hardware problems. I'm sorry, KEN MATSUMOTO.
And for the difficulty levels of the HYPER and EX charts, as a result of repeated test plays, I thought that both charts had the same difficulty level from "luck" and "biorhythm dependency", but this was impossible to set due to hardware problems.

Difficulty & Notecounts

beatmania difficulty rated from 1 to 9. beatmania (2006) difficulty rated from 1 to 10.
beatmania IIDX difficulty rated from 1 to 5 from 1st style to substream, and 1 to 7 in 2nd style.
DanceDanceRevolution difficulty rated from 1 to 9 from CLUB VERSION to 5thMIX, and from 1 to 10 from DDRMAX2 to SuperNOVA2.
pop'n music difficulty rated from 1 to 43 through pop'n music 20 fantasia. (Ratings and notecounts obtained from KANI KANI CRAB, Pop'n Music Fever and BEMANIWiki 2nd.)

beatmania

Original Charts

Game	SP Difficulty			DP Difficulty
	Normal	Hard	Another	Normal	Hard	Another
Notecounts	215	359	-	394	514	-
beatmania 2ndMIX	※6	-	-	※6	-	-
beatmania 3rdMIX	6	6	-	6	6	-
beatmania completeMIX	↓4	6	-	↓4	6	-
beatmania completeMIX 2	4	6	-	4	6	-
beatmania CORE REMIX	4	6	-	4	6	-
beatmania THE FINAL	4	6	-	↑5	↑7	-
beatmania III	4	5	-	4	5	-
beatmania III APPEND CORE REMIX→III THE FINAL	4	↑6	-	4	↑6	-
beatmania CS	※6	-	-	※6	-	-
beatmania BEST HITS	-	6	-	-	6	-

※ Denotes charts are different from later NORMAL charts:

• Single NORMAL chart: total notes: 359.
• Double NORMAL chart: total notes: 514.

beatmania (2006) Charts

Game	SP Difficulty			DP Difficulty
	Normal	Hard	Another	Normal	Hard	Another
Notecounts	356	-	-	507	-	-
beatmania (2006)	7	-	-	7	-	-

beatmania IIDX

Game	SP Difficulty					DP Difficulty
	BEGINNER	NORMAL	HYPER	ANOTHER	LEGGENDARIA	NORMAL	HYPER	ANOTHER	LEGGENDARIA
Notecounts	-	-	359	456	-	-	514	575	-
beatmania IIDX	-	-	5	-	-	-	5	-	-
beatmania IIDX substream	-	-	5	N/A	-	-	※5	N/A	-
beatmania IIDX 2nd style	-	-	5	N/A	-	-	5	N/A	-

※ This chart was only used in beatmania IIDX substream (total notes: 508). The original chart was restored the following game.

DanceDanceRevolution

Original Version

Game	Single					Double
	Beginner	Basic	Difficult	Expert	Challenge	Basic	Difficult	Expert	Challenge
Notecounts / Freeze Arrows / Shock Arrows	98 / 0	175 / 0	281 / 0	327 / 0	- / - / -	175 / 0	281 / 0	329 / 0	- / - / -
DanceDanceRevolution 2ndMIX CLUB VERSiON 2	-	6	8	9	-	6	8	-	-
DanceDanceRevolution EXTREME→SuperNOVA	1	6	8	9	-	6	8	9	-
DanceDanceRevolution 2ndReMIX APPEND CLUB VERSiON vol.1	-	6	8	9	-	6	8	-	-
DanceDanceRevolution CLUB VERSiON (DC)	-	6	8	9	-	6	8	-	-

CLUB ANOTHER Version

Game	Single					Double
	Beginner	Basic	Difficult	Expert	Challenge	Basic	Difficult	Expert	Challenge
Notecounts / Freeze Arrows / Shock Arrows	- / -	203 / 0	337 / 0	383 / 0	- / - / -	203 / 0	337 / 0	- / -	- / - / -
DanceDanceRevolution 2ndMIX CLUB VERSiON 2	-	6	8	9	-	6	8	-	-
DanceDanceRevolution 2ndReMIX APPEND CLUB VERSiON vol.2	-	6	8	9	-	6	8	-	-
DanceDanceRevolution CLUB VERSiON (DC)	-	6	8	9	-	6	8	-	-

pop'n music

Game	Normal Mode				Battle Mode
	5-Buttons	NORMAL	HYPER	EX	NORMAL	HYPER
Notecounts	313	349	616	855	313	447
pop'n music 15 ADVENTURE→16 PARTY♪	15	26	37	38	15	22