Como base de la cultura musical popular del Caribe colombiano, los picós ocupan diversos espacios dentro de la industria musical local. Mientras que el formato tradicional turbo sigue vivo y vibrante, algunos picós han evolucionado de manera constante a lo largo de las décadas: desde equipos artesanales que animaban celebraciones familiares hasta superestructuras tecnológicas capaces […]
As the foundation of popular music culture in the Colombian Caribbean, picós occupy diverse spaces within the local music industry. While the traditional turbo format remains alive and vibrant, some picós have steadily evolved over the decades—from handmade setups lighting up family celebrations to state-of-the-art technological superstructures capable of entertaining thousands of devoted followers. In […]
With sound system culture emerging across a vast territory and among a diverse population, Australia has been a key country in the SST research (see a previous blog post on Melbourne’s sound system scene by Moses Iten). The SST Australia team, led by Douglas Kahn and Clare Cooper, has not only explored the influence of […]
Reggae and dancehall culture have long attracted the attention of scholars, researchers, and curators, giving rise to a rich field of study where diverse approaches intersect (see the SST selected bibliography on reggae sound system culture from JA to the UK). However, reggae literature tends to focus on artists, music producers, record labels and so […]
Mapear as pesquisas e documentações existentes sobre tecnologias sonoras de rua é um ponto de partida essencial para qualquer investigação mais aprofundada. Por esse motivo, o SST comprometeu-se a publicar bibliografias anotadas sobre as diversas cenas de sistemas de som ao redor do mundo. Essas bibliografias são cuidadosamente elaboradas por pesquisadores locais e incluem não […]
by Yasodari Sánchez Zavala My uncle Raúl was older, he started with orchestral music, danzón, mambo, cha-cha… He first started with that music and then my dad added another rhythm, cumbia, and that’s when everyone started dancing, the rhythm started to change from tropical to Colombian, the two of them were old school sonideros, but […]
The bespoke, hand-made speaker box is an iconic feature of reggae sound systems. Since the scoop bass bin replaced the quad speaker box in the 1960s there has been comparatively little change in speaker box design. Amplifying however, has gone through several technological revolutions from valves in the early days to the highly efficient and […]
Besides screening our films for participants, touring them within the country is also a valuable part of the research process. From an international perspective Columbia or Brazil might appear as a single nation, but of course they are made up of different states, each with their own geographies, climates and music cultures. Great distances and […]
The global scope of our project allows us to compare different types of sonic street technologies and their scenes. This week’s blog reports on the ongoing SST Mexico research, mapping out the current spread of reggae sound systems in in Mexico City and its relationship with the pre-existing sonidera scene. This home-grown Mexican sonic street […]
With SST researchers working in and with local scenes, it’s a pleasure to highlight some of the ongoing activities – namely the Knock-em Down Sound System programme. Part of the SST Australia’s work this offers a public programme as well as providing an opportunity for research. Andrew Belletty is leading the Knock-em Down Sound System […]
The 8th Global Reggae Conference provided two major opportunities for the project. One was to share our work, with members from the global SST team presenting papers across many of the conference panels. A major feature of this sharing of research results was the entire day of SSO#10 Frames and Frequencies film festival with no […]
As our most attentive readers will already know, February 14th to 17th 2024 will see the 8th staging of the renowned Global Reggae Conference (GRC) celebrating and investigating the culture and technology of Jamaica’s most famous musical instrument – the sound system. Organized by the Institute of Caribbean Studies & Reggae Studies Unit, the GRC is an […]
This week’s blog continues the exploration of the Colombia SST Resources now available on our website. After having presented us with the main topics and streams of existing research on Colombian picós and sound systems (see previous blog), bibliography curators JJ Carbonell and Edgar Benitez provides us with a very useful commentary on the features, issues […]
Realizar investigaciones de SST literalmente en todo el mundo no es una tarea fácil. Para que el proyecto sea más manejable, hemos identificado países o regiones que albergan escenas de TSM particularmente ricas, sofisticadas, antiguas o no investigadas. Para explorar cada una de estas regiones o países, trabajamos con investigadores y profesionales locales que tienen […]
Doing SST research literally across the globe is not an easy task. To keep the project more manageable we have identified specific countries or regions that are home to particularly rich, sophisticated, long-standing or unresearched SST scenes. To scope out each one of these regions or countries, we work with local researchers and practitioners who have […]
Repurposed or DIY sound technologies can be part of wider techno cultural assemblages that flourish in the urban space without having that of playing recorded music as their original purpose. This is the case of the jeepneys, an affordable transport system in Manila, that sometimes incorporate powerful custom-built sound systems for the pleasure of both the […]
This is the first in a series of blogs documenting the ongoing SST research in Colombia, mainly focused on picó culture. Not claiming to be comprehensive or authoritative, what follows is rather the result of several conversations, meet ups, and explorations that happened over a preliminary research trip in December 2022 aimed precisely at doing […]
Sonic street technologies take many forms and play many different kinds of music, but one amongst them – the reggae sound system – has travelled particularly far and wide. Historically its journey has been in the company of the Jamaican diaspora who are very well represented in Canada. As Jamaican music and culture has taken […]
This blog is available in English at this link. Estamos particularmente interessados nos aparelhos móveis usados para tocar música gravada. Este ângulo especificamente tecnológico do projeto SST atravessa os gêneros musicais e geografias que mais frequentemente definem a pesquisa sobre cultura popular. Ele nos permite explorar como diferentes tecnologias estão sendo implantadas para construir comunidades […]
We are particularly interested in the mobile apparatuses used to play recorded music. This specifically technological angle of the SST project cuts across the music genres and geographies that most often define research on popular culture. It enables us to explore how different technologies are being deployed for building communities and solidarities in different cultures […]
SST is proud to support Sound System Outernational #8, to be held in London on Saturday 5th of November 2022. SSO#8 UK Sound System Reasoning Day: Continuities and Disruptions, brings together sound system operators from around the UK and across different generations. We aim to celebrate and exchange knowledge about how sound system culture and […]
A unique Colombian SST, the picó consists in one or more large speaker boxes, hosting one or more drivers, beautifully hand-painted with colourful artworks representing the name of each unique set, mainly blasting African music such as soukous, highlife and makossa, among other genres. SST welcomes new bloggers José Camilo Ríos Alarcón and Adriana Alexandra Ayala […]
Sound system cultures have intimate histories that implicate them in global networks of ecologies, infrastructures, and multiple instances of environmental and energy justice issues. In this blog, Sonic Street Technologies Research Assistant, Aadita Chaudhury reflects on some of the ways these domains intersect and interact at the site of sound system culture’s development and practice. […]
Every culture needs adequate archiving of spaces and practices unique to that culture, whether through […]
‘Dance a yard before you dance abroad’ refers to the notion of conquering your own territory before trying to conquer someone else’s. It’s a term heard in the lyrics of reggae songs, a DJ’s diss to another, or a demeaning phrase (cuss) used to put someone in their place. Basically, know yourself! However, the essence of […]
There are so many ways in which legacies get overlooked in a world where the concept of the ‘archive’ is often read as static and lifeless. In this post, we seek to breathe life into the legacy of Hedley Jones whose contribution to Jamaican music has enabled not only technological shifts but collaborations to further […]
Second in a series of blogs on SST research (read here the first piece), this article considers different knowledge systems in order to locate, recognise and give value to the ways-of-knowing of audio engineers. Knowledge comes not only from data, information or scientific laws; it is also embodied in the techniques and practices of SST engineering. Appreciating this is one of the major […]
In the meantime, practitioners and punters have found in social media and streaming platforms a way to cope with restrictions, keep in touch with sonic comrades, and find relief from the harshness of an uncertain present by virtually gathering in the covid-free space of the world wide web. But what exactly happens when a street-based sonic culture is abruptly forced to jump with both feet into the digital space? […]
Technology will save us, big tech tells us; others are more sceptical, offering low-tech solutions as less destructive of human life and the planet. Certainly, the technological transformation of substantial sections of humanity needs to be better understood. The claim here it that this understanding is already present amongst us […]