Una rama importante de la investigación de SST en Colombia se concentra en Urabá, en el noroeste del país. Desde el 2021, el colectivo Urabá Sound System está luchando por el reconocimiento del picó (el sistema de sonido autóctono del Caribe colombiano) como una herramienta comunitaria poderosa para fomenter la cohesión social, facilitando el proceso […]
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 […]
This week’s blog continues the series on the intergenerational dimension of sound system culture in the UK by guest author Becca Leathlean. After writing on her own journey in reggae, from being a solitary record collector to selectress and broadcaster in this previous blog, it’s now the turn of the older generation to give their perspective on the current state of […]
While embodying the idea of ‘modern’ technology due to their state-of-the-art transistor or digital amplifiers and cutting edge speaker boxes design, sonic street technologies also nurture relations with ancestral technologies. During our research we frequently found out that, across the Black diaspora, the sound system in its different types is often compared to the the […]
The Reggae sound system diaspora Continuing the annual report with an account of the main research activities for the SST project in 2023, this week’s blog focuses on the reggae sound system and its technological diaspora. As a fact, whether playing dancehall, dub or revival, there are sound systems operating literally in every continent. This makes […]
The first 2024 blog provides the opportunity to reflect on last year’s achievements and challenges. Starting out on the SST project four years ago we were most familiar with reggae sound systems, based on team members’ research knowledge and experience as owners and MCs. We were only dimly aware of other types of sound system. Now, […]
La diáspora tecnológica de la TSM a menudo se superpone con las trayectorias migratorias, generalmente del Sur Global al Norte. Este movimiento diaspórico da forma no sólo a las identidades individuales y colectivas, sino también a la música, los modelos de negocio y la misma tecnología. El sentido de pertenencia, la nostalgia, el desplazamiento y […]
The technological diaspora of SST often overlaps with migration trajectories, from the Global South to the Global North and back. This diasporic movement shapes not only individual and collective identities but also music, business models, and the technology itself. The sense of belonging, nostalgia, displacement and the various affective bonds that inform migrant communities’ life […]
Dancehall music and culture have spread all over the world thanks to a dedicated infrastructure made of sound systems technologies, venues, and rituals. Among these, dub plate specials and the sound clash are two essential components. And Japanese crew Mighty Crown are one of the world-renowned ambassadors of these arts. In this week’s blog, coordinator of SST […]
SST has just published an article in the peer-reviewed journal Performance Matters entitled Jamaican Sound Systems and Knowledge Systems: Practice-Based Research (PBR) in Popular Culture. The article is authored by principal investigator Julian Henriques and senior research assistant Brian D’Aquino, and discusses the theoretical and methodological implications of conducting practice-based research on sonic street technologies in […]
El blog de esta semana continúa la exploración de los recursos SST de Colombia ahora disponibles en nuestro sitio web. Luego de habernos presentado los principales temas y corrientes de investigación existentes sobre los picós y sound system colombianos (ver blog anterior), los curadores de la bibliografía JJ Carbonell y Edgar Benítez nos brindan un comentario […]
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 […]
The SST project has always been concerned with intergenerational knowledge transmission and exchange as this is absolutely essential for the street and popular culture to stand the test of time. We are glad to introduce a series of blogs by guest author, selectress Becca Leathlean who will report on issues such as young people involvement in reggae sound systems in […]
This is the second blog reporting on the early stage of the ongoing SST research in Colombia (read the first one here). Here the focus is on the music – as it is for practitioners, professionals, and aficionados who gravitate in and around picotero culture. The shared passion for the music can prompt change in performance […]
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 […]
Bringing the practitioners’ voice to the fore, acknowledging their own understanding of what they do, and giving value to their own lived experience are important ways to ensure that the research is respectful of the grassroots scenes within which the knowledge is originated. As part of the non-extractive research ethos, filming research interviews opens up […]
by David Katz Spending a month in Costa Rica was inspiring and instructive. It is a stunningly beautiful place with unique subcultures that have gradually evolved in different parts of the country for different reasons. The music scene is incredibly varied, and reggae has long been a part of it, especially in the Caribbean province […]
Reggae sound system culture constitutes one of the primary areas of interest for the SST research, given its longstanding history and truly global spread. In the last two decades, Europe has slowly become one of the most active continents for reggae and dub sound systems, with a new generation of practitioners putting into practice what […]
On December 8, 2022 I had the opportunity to accompany the Sonic Street Technologies team to the 4S annual conference in Cholula, Mexico. This occasion felt special not only because it was the first time that I would be able to present my research to a wider audience, but also because I would do so […]
Las SST bajo el volcán: la presentación en 4s El 08 de diciembre de este año tuve la oportunidad de acompañar al equipo de Sonic Street Technologies a la conferencia anual de 4s en Cholula, México. La ocasión sería especial no sólo porque sería la primera vez que presentaría los avances de mi trabajo de […]
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 […]
Certain SST, reggae sound systems in particular, have spread all over the world by means of physical migration, material resonance or mere imitation. In doing so, they often undergo a process of adaptation – showing how these techno-cultural apparatuses can themselves be repurposed in order to fit specific cultural, social and economic contexts that are […]
Researching the dynamic living music scenes that surround SST presents certain challenges. Not least amongst these is that the material we gather is most often oral, or social media posts, rather formal written records, let alone statistics. With SST this is always with the consent and participation of the professionals and aficionados of these scenes. […]
At SST we always experiment with ways to make our research more accessible and wide-reaching. When doing fieldwork alongside sound systems and other sonic street technologies professionals we come in contact with an astonishing body of knowledge and practices embodied in the life stories of fiercely creative people who are virtually unknown out of their […]
Huddersfield is a town in Yorkshire in the north of England where the Caribbean diaspora has a long-standing presence. For a brief period in the 1980s, it has unexpectedly developed into one of the key centres of sound system cultures in the UK. Our research agents in the area, Mandeep Samra and Gopal Dutta conducted […]
The Lewisham Sound System Trail was an event organized by the Lewisham Borough of Culture 2022 comprising of four open air sound system stages, or yards, set up in the Deptford area and featuring established and up and coming sound system operators, singers and MCs from the Lewisham borough. Unit 137, one of the four […]
SST hosted a research network meeting on Friday 6th May 2022 called Relationalities of Research. We invited research colleagues that are part of the SST network to share and explore our relationships as practitioners and researchers to our fields of enquiry and participants. We choose this topic, Relationalities of Research, as a common theme […]
This blog is the final iteration a series of soundwalk ethnographies aimed at verifying the resilience of the sonidero culture during Covid-19 restrictions. Young researcher Linette Rivera guides us through the streets of Mexico City again, this time in the district of Tepito in October 2021, where the people have designed a strategy to defeat […]
In this blog post, friend of the SST project, Dr. Enrico Bonadio of City, University of London reviews the just published Rude Citizenship: Jamaican Popular Music, Copyright, and the Reverberations of Colonial Power by Larisa Kingston Mann. Here at the SST project, we have been attending to the many ways that different kinds of technology […]
Over the years, certain SST cultures may grow to a level which the very same practitioners wouldn’t have ever expected. This is certainly the case for the Jamaican sound system: a globally spread, massively celebrated and widely inspiring culture – but also a local industry, which employs hundreds of professionals in different roles who together […]
El proyecto SST está interesado en documentar el impacto que tuvo la pandemia en la actividad de las tecnologías de los sonidos de las calles en todo el mundo, tanto en el sentido positivo como en el negativo. La prohibición de sesiones y el aumento de la represión policial son unos de los resultados negativos […]
The SST project is keen to document the impact that the pandemic had on the activity of sonic street technologies worldwide, in both bad and good ways. The ban on sessions and the increased police repression are among the most common negative outcomes experienced by all SST scenes at different latitudes.
SST se alegra en dar la bienvenida a una nueva bloguera invitada de la Ciudad de México. La joven investigadora Linette Rivera nos lleva a través de un paseo sonoro por dos cunas de la cultura sonidera en la Ciudad de México, el Mercado Jamaica y el Mercado Sonora, para comprobar si los sonideros funcionaban […]
SST is pleased to welcome a new guest blogger from Mexico City. Young researcher Linette Rivera takes us through a sound walk across two cradles of the sonidero culture in Mexico City, Mercado Jamaica and Mercado Sonora, to check out whether the sonideros were playing out despite Covid19-related restrictions. — The sonideros parties in […]
As researchers deeply invested in the popular culture of sound systems and other SST, we are well-aware that these are ongoing scenes established long before we arrived. Each specific SST operates within an existing ecology, that has developed usually across decades and below the radar of official or academic recognition. The knowledge that is produced […]
The history of sound system culture in Melbourne (and indeed Australia), is rich and diverse, yet on a continent largely dominated by rock music it has received little attention from the media or scholars [1]. Meanwhile, over the last decade more than a dozen sound systems have been built in Melbourne alone, a city of 5 million inhabitants which has prided itself […]
“Urabá Sound System: Sounding with Purpose” has been an “encuentro picotero” (a picós meeting), held from July the 2nd to July the 4th, 2021 in the Municipality of Apartadó, in Urabá Antioqueño – Colombia. The event included musical and cultural sessions, such as discussions on the context, history and challenges of the picó culture, and a “memory carousel” […]
El encuentro URABÁ SOUNDSYSTEM sonando con propósito, se llevó a cabo los días 2,3 y 4 de julio de 2021 en el Municipio de Apartadó, en el Urabá antioqueño – Colombia. Se realizaron conversatorios sobre el contexto, historia y desafíos de la cultura picotera, un carrusel de la memoria donde se compartieron fotografías, discos, emociones y se produjeron documentos con la intención de demostrar la sistematicidad, pertinencia y eficacia de la práctica picotera como un escenario de construcción de paz. […]
This article is the second part of an ongoing series on Instagram-based ethnographies investigating the visual cultural, textual, and affective norms of sonic street technologies globally. The previous post we explored some of the ways that we are using Instagram as a site to conduct ethnographic research. This week we are looking at some of the trends we have observed thus far in our visual […]
This article is part on an ongoing series on Instagram-based ethnographies investigating the visual cultural, textual and affective norms of sonic street technologies globally. Sound system cultures are multifaceted, diverse, and multi-sited phenomena that call for robust and eclectic methodological and theoretical orientations. Instagram-based research of its visual cultures was developed in response to […]
