[2] Initially intending to mix dancehall with traditional Brazilian styles, later the band changed its sonority to music closer to Britpop and local movement Clube da Esquina.

In 1983, Samuel Rosa (guitars, vocals) and Henrique Portugal (keyboards) started to play in a rock band called "Pozo Alto",[3] along with Dinho Mourão (drums) and his brother Alexandre (bass).

In 1991, Pouso Alto arranged for a performance in São Paulo, but due to the Mourão brothers not being in Belo Horizonte, bassist Lelo Zaneti and drummer Haroldo Ferretti were called for the gig.

The singles "O Homem Que Sabia Demais", "Tanto" (version of Bob Dylan's "I Want You") and "In(Dig)Nação" took the group on a 120 concerts tour around Brazil, and the album sold 250 thousand copies.

"É Proibido Fumar", "Te Ver", "Pacato Cidadão", "Esmola" and "Jackie Tequila" were hits, and Calango sold around 1,200,000 copies.

The album had three big hits, "Tão Seu", "É Uma Partida de Futebol", included by FIFA in the official soundtrack for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, and "Garota Nacional", which topped the Spanish charts for three months[10][11] (under the Spanish title "Chica Nacional"), was the only Portuguese language song in the Sony Music compilation Soundtrack for a Century, released in 1997 to celebrate the company's centennial, and took the group on tour in Argentina, Chile, United States, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Portugal.

The Clube da Esquina-influenced "Resposta" (re-recorded in 1999 by Milton Nascimento and Lô Borges, the latter the song's co-author with Samuel Rosa and Nando Reis), "Mandrake e Os Cubanos" and "Saideira" were hits.

Cosmotron, produced by Skank and Tom Capone, was released in July 2003 and sold 250 thousand copies - a disappointment next to their vigorous previous sales figures.

In 2008, the band reunited with Dudu Marote, who produced Calango and O Samba Poconé, to record the album Estandarte in their studio in Belo Horizonte.

The show was recorded for the live album and DVD Multishow ao Vivo: Skank no Mineirão, which featured two new songs, "De Repente" and "Fotos na Estante".

[18] Skank had some success with "Garota Nacional", that lead the Spanish charts, and "É Uma Partida de Futebol" was shown before some games of the 1998 World Cup due to being in the championship's soundtrack.