Imagine what it would be like if someone made a documentary about the things you loved the most during the most impressionable time of your life. A film that would narrate the memories of your youth with the same love as you remember them. This is exactly what Pick it Up! – Ska in the ’90s did for me.

I went to high school during the mid-to-late ’90s, the exact time that coincides with what many call the “third wave of ska.” Many kids like myself were introduced to ska in Puerto Rico during the early ’90s, thanks to bands like Los Pies Negros and Skapulario, and to other Latin bands such as Los Fabulosos Cadillacs from Argentina.

At the time, when we discovered music via the radio, MTV, or simple word of mouth, we had no idea about the deeply rooted beginnings of ska or that there were other bands already playing ska in English. This all changed when a friend asked me if I had heard “ska in English” shortly before he pushed a cassette into his car stereo and Question the Answers by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones began playing. I was probably 15 or 16 at the time, my mind was blown, and I fell in love with the genre for years to come.

Ska blew up in the late ’90s. Before the nu-metal explosion of the early ’00s had kids singing all about the nookie, bands such as Reel Big Fish, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Rancid, and Sublime dominated airwaves with ska hits. The genre seemed unstoppable. From MTV to movies to video games, ska was everywhere. But just as fast as the genre exploded into the mainstream, somehow, it quickly disappeared. Only to be remembered by those who lived through it and still treasure it.

Fast forward over 20 years after the genre quickly faded from the spotlight, and as with many nostalgia-fueled passions, fan love brings us the story of how it blew up, how it almost disappeared, and where it stands now. Pick it Up! – Ska in the ’90s is a documentary that pays tribute to the genre’s most important time. Appropriately narrated by Rancid’s frontman, Tim Armstrong, it initially gives us a history lesson by telling the story of how the genre came to be during the first and second waves of ska.

The rest of the narrative is supported by multiple interviews from bands of all three waves of ska, as the film documents everything from the fashion surrounding the genre to the struggles each band faced by having so many members. Beautifully edited and with brilliant and carefully crafted animations, the film does a great job building up to the time that’s most important to the story: the ’90s.

What I love the most about this film is that it feels like it was made directly for someone like me – for that kid who fell in love with ska and lived through all those moments that are recounted in the film. I vividly remember seeing the video for Rancid’s “Time Bomb” on MTV with my mouth wide open in disbelief that they were playing ska.

I vividly remember discovering Less Than Jake’s “Automatic” while it was airing on MTV after midnight, and there was me, standing by the TV with a pen and napkin so I could catch their name at the end to write it down. (I still have that cassette to this day.)

I also remember my friends and me rushing to our local record store to buy Let’s Face It from The Mighty Mighty Bosstones after the video for “The Impression That I Get” took over MTV in the summer of 1997. (I caught myself smiling when this was mentioned in the movie.)

And who doesn’t remember singing along to Goldfinger’s “Superman” while grinding rails in the original Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater video game? Yes, that’s rightfully mentioned in the film, too.

Since I came into this genre from a slightly different angle, after being exposed to ska in Puerto Rico, I appreciate that the film shouts out to Latin bands such as Mexico’s La Maldita Vecindad (which I’ve always been a fan of) and Venezuela’s Desorden Público. This is something I always felt didn’t get enough recognition, but this film did it and I applaud that effort.

My friends and I lived through that time of ska in the ’90s exactly as it is narrated in the film. We were those kids, and Pick it Up! – Ska in the ’90s tells the story of a music genre that positively influenced our lives during a time that we treasure the most: our youth.

Pick it Up! – Ska in the ’90s is available on Blu-ray, DVD, or even VHS here or it’s on digital on-demand here.