Few women in music are shaking things up the way that Chappell Roan has been. Her recent SNL debut performance of "The Giver" astounded audiences as she subverted their genre expectations – doubly so considering the brilliantly controversial and sapphic lyrics in "The Giver," never mind how it's such a shift from the queer bubblegum pop sound of The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.

Roan is on a meteoric rise, and her fellow musicians clearly agree. She's recently been the subject of a surprisingly heartfelt cover of "Pink Pony Club" by none other than '80s pop icon and living meme Rick Astley, as well as a nod from noted parody genius "Weird Al" Yankovic, who bucked his own traditions by performing "HOT TO GO!" live without even changing any of the lyrics. But another recent brilliant tribute to Roan's work also has far-reaching implications about the evolution of pop music – namely, that its future is beautiful and brassy.

Skatune Network's Cover Of "Red Wine Supernova" Perfectly Shows Why Ska Can Be Brilliant

No Genre Of Music Is Perfect But Ska Comes Closer To Perfection Than Its Haters Want To it

In 2016, a musician named Jer Hunter started recording ska covers of well-known songs and posting them to their YouTube channel as a side project in between working with ska-punk band We Are the Union. Jer's first few covers were of holiday songs, but they swiftly found their niche in covering cartoon theme songs, leading to the channel's name: Skatune Network. In the years since, the project has taken off and diversified into covering songs in all genres, and in June 2024, with guest vocals from frequent collaborator Get Tuff, Skatune Network released a cover of Chappell Roan's "Red Wine Supernova."

Roan's original version of "Red Wine Supernova" is a brilliant song on its own, and very much encapsulates the best of the silly gay girl pop energy that Roan infused Midwest Princess with. But the Skatune Network cover takes that a step further, and in doing so proves that ska is one of the greatest and most flexible musical genres around.

The song's original, flirtatious beat is transposed here into the iconic shuffle from which ska gets its name, becoming at once more playful and seductive in a way that only further reinforces its sapphic intent. Jer Hunter once again proves their brilliance here, and it should be no surprise because they are hands down one of the most talented people currently working in the genre.

Nobody In Ska Works As Hard As Jer Hunter

Jer's Mind-Blowing Musical Output Puts Plenty Of Industry Veterans To Shame

Aside from the constant output of covers via Skatune Network, which they arrange and record almost entirely solo except for contributions from guest musicians, Jer has also performed with the aforementioned We Are the Union as their trombone player since 2015, contributing to two studio albums and a number of tours. They also release their own ska-punk independently of Skatune Network, stylizing their name as JER and releasing the album Bothered/Unbothered in 2022, as well as multiple non-album singles.

Hunter has also been recruited to several other musical projects over the years, playing brass for the soundtrack of 2019's Steven Universe: the Movie, as well as contributing music for the Cartoon Network series Craig of the Creek. They've worked with Jeff Rosenstock and Quote Unquote Records for years, and they've also started a career as a music educator and marching band instructor. As YouTube music critic Anthony Fantano said in his review of Bothered/Unbothered, Jer Hunter is a "one-person ska wrecking crew."

Ska Isn’t Dead And It Never Really Was – It's The Eternally Topical Genre Of Joy And Rage

If A Revolution Without Dancing Is A Revolution Not Worth Having, Ska Is The Soundtrack Of The Ideal Revolution

Ska is more than just an underrated genre; ever since the meme about it being "what plays in a 13-year-old's head when he gets extra mozzarella sticks" took off, it's been derided as a childish kind of music. Yet those who dismiss ska as childish fundamentally misunderstand the genre's complex and nuanced history in favor of lumping it all into the same category as the Aquabats.

Just because a genre is lighthearted and self-aware doesn't mean it's empty of any musical or cultural value.

As a genre born from the union of Caribbean immigrants and British working-class consciousness, ska is an intrinsically proletarian genre that’s more relevant than ever, especially as conversations around socioeconomic solidarity become all the more intense in the current geopolitical situation. Jer Hunter understands this, and has gone on extensive educational rants about this on their TikTok over the years. This may seem contradictory to Skatune Network's mostly lighthearted fare, but just because a genre is lighthearted and self-aware doesn't mean it's empty of any musical or cultural value.

Ska is unquestionably fun, but it’s also deeply political in a very fundamental way, much like Chappell Roan's flavor of bubblegum pop. It's bright and flirtatious, and it makes you want to dance, but if you look behind the curtain and watch the machinery at work, you'll see brilliant subtext about the nature of marginalized identities and conversations around community solidarity. The best pop artists and the best ska musicians are the ones like Roan and Hunter – the ones who can hold the extremes of their genres in their hearts and make them come to life in the music itself.