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 […]
SST is pleased to report on a ground-breaking exhibition at the British Library in London. In recent years Black music culture has received more curatorial attention than ever before. This exhibition is a welcome contribution to that trend. Though the show does not focus on sound systems in particular, it provides a uniquely valuable story […]
Sonic street technologies’ relationship with music is organic and two-folded. The music can go from the street sessions and the house parties to the charts, and back again. The case of lovers’ rock is particularly representative. A homegrown British subgenre of reggae infused with soulful melodies and romantic lyrics, since the mid-1970s lovers’ rock found […]
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 […]
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 […]
Reggae sound systems can be found in the four corners of the world. Even more than the actual technological apparatus, it is the aesthetic and performative features of this Jamaican-born music machine that have had a durable and significant impact over popular and electronic music worldwide. In this blog, SST France team member Jean-Christophe Sevin […]
ST is always ready acknowledge scholarship exploring black music and technology. As well as well as the work of sound system and other professionals, researchers also have a valuable role to play in helping to give recognition and respect to the creativity that often starts at street level. Dr Monique Charles is an inspiring Black […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
By Aadita Chaudhury This last week, the Sonic Street Technologies team headed to Cholula, Mexico to be part of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) Conference at Cholula, Mexico. Each year, the 4S conference brings together researchers, practitioners and students of the discipline of science and technology studies, and configures and examines new […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
The visual side of the popular music and sound system cultures has always been an interest of the SST project as able to capture subtle nuances and foster interrogations (see some previous blog posts here, here, and here). Best known for his iconic images of Bob Marley and the Sex Pistols, British photographer Dennis Morris […]
By Aadita Chaudhury Before SST takes the month of August off, we wanted to share the creative brilliance of some of our friends and collaborators. In this week’s blog, we at SST want to share with you some creative works produced by some of our collaborators and associates. We hope you enjoy the diverse musical […]
One of the Sonic Street Technologies project’s main goals and commitments is to produce a global map of sound systems, sonideros, picós, radiolas and other independent, mobile audio systems playing recorded music. To produce this map, a survey form aimed at SST practitioners has been drafted, not without some difficulty. In order to collect quantitative […]
Sonic Street Technologies gode del supporto da parte di diversi collaboratori e di relazioni costruite negli anni. Anche prima di SST, alcuni membri del team lavoravano assieme come Sound System Outernational, collaborando con artisti, scrittori, musicisti, professionisti e appassionati di sound system da tutto il mondo. Hylu, fondatore di Unit 137 sound system, di stanza […]
Sonic Street Technologies has long enjoyed the support, shared interests and enthusiasm of many friends and collaborators over the years. Even before SST, several of the current team worked together as Sound System Outernational, collaborating with numerous artists, writers, musicians, sound operators and people passionate about sound system from all over the world. Hylu from Unit 137 has been one […]
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 […]