The intergenerational transmission of knowledge is crucial to the survival of any culture. Within the realm of sonic street technologies, this transmission occurs in the household, at sound system sessions, in workshop settings—or in record shops. Practitioners have consistently highlighted the significance of passing knowledge from elders to younger generations, as seen during the UK […]
In this blog post, two members of the SST Canada research team, Kavone and Betel, reflect on the process of gathering materials necessary to form an archival collection of ephemera. These preliminary, or in process reflections capture what we are witnessing in the midst of our work, and more importantly what we are not seeing […]
On Sunday, September the 15th, some of the SST research films were screened at the ????? ?????? ??????? ???? ???????? in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, UK. The event was organised by Let’s Go Yorkshire in collaboration with Sonic Street Technologies and with support from Zion Inna-Vision sound system. SST long-standing collaborator Gopal Dutta reports on this inspiring […]
SST is very happy to preview Sound System Culture Mini Festival, a live screening programme and street party in Huddersfield, UK, on Sunday 15th September, details here. There’re several reasons for why we’re so pleased to be associated with Let’s Go Yorkshire for this event. One is simply that it is a little-known fact that […]
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 […]
As a research project focused on popular music and culture it is our duty to reach out to the scene where this is, being it a small street dance or a massive international festival. The latter was the case when SST France team members Dr Jean-Christophe Sevin and Maria Emilia Escamilla travelled to Dub Camp festival last […]
The long term objective of the SST project is to establish sonic street technologies as an area of study. Therefore, having students and younger scholars getting involved is very important. We are pleased to welcome to the SST blog PhD candidate and sound system practitioner Giovanni Mugnaina from UNIBO (Italy) to report on the 8th […]
Sound System Outernational (SSO) in association with Sonic Street Technologies (SST) and the 8th Global Reggae Conference proudly presents: SSO#10 Frames and Frequencies: Films on Sound System Cultures Worldwide SSO#10 Frames and Frequencies is a one-day film festival premiering sound system films from six continents. Taking place on Thursday 15th February 2024, as a contribution to 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, […]
Cover image (C) Miguel Salvatore_Courtesy of Feminine Hi Fi We’re glad to announce a new SST collaboration which marks our first physical appearance in Belgium. Sound system culture: un rituel de resistance (A Ritual of Resistance) , is an upcoming event hosted by Brussels’ Cinéma Nova in partnership with Culture & Démocratie, Osmose, the Sonic […]
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 […]
The Jah Shaka Memorial Event is scheduled for next Sunday the 22nd of October. It will provide one more chance to the UK and international sound system community to gather in honour of the late great Jah Shaka, who passed away on April 12, 2023, and whose Nine Night celebration was held at Goldsmiths. Part […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Once again SST was proud to support a successful Sound System Outernational gathering, the SSO#9 premiere screening of UK Generation 2 Generation research documentary. This was based on the SSO#8 event, UK Sound System Reasoning Session, which took place at Goldsmiths in November 2022. That full day brought together different generations of British-based sound system practitioners […]
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 […]
“It came to a time which you would have known as the black consciousness era, people like Angela Davis were going around giving speeches, Martin Luther King, George Jackson, all those people. Well, the sound, Shaka sound, developed then. Because of our history and knowing that a main part of communication and unity is to […]
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 […]
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 […]
La culture des sound systems reggae constitue l’un des principaux domaines d’intérêt du projet de recherche Sonic Street Technologies, compte tenu de sa longue histoire et de sa diffusion mondiale. Au cours des deux dernières décennies, l’Europe est devenue l’un des continents les plus actifs en matière de sound systems reggae et dub, avec une […]
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 […]
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 […]
One of the downsides of doing academic research on popular and street cultures is that it is quite difficult for the research outputs to reach out to those who have contributed to the research in the first place – those practitioners who have and continue to build the richness of the culture. As part of […]
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 […]
South Africa has an impressive reggae sound system scene, with an history spanning over four decades. Most interesting, this scene little-known even in South Africa has developed without any direct influence from Jamaica or the UK. It has always been more-or-less self-sufficient, making it an extremely rich field of research for the SST project. […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
Held in Kingston Jamaica on Sunday the 20th of February 2022, ‘Sounds of the Future’ has been a research event bringing together professionals from the sound system scene to discuss the current state of the industry in Jamaica. The one-day event […]
SST has been a proud partner for the 7th staging of the Global Reggae Conference, organised by the Institute of Caribbean Cultural Studies and the Reggae Studies Unit together with the Perry Henzell Estate, and held at University of the West Indies, Mona Campus (Jamaica) between the 16th and the 19th of February, 2022. As […]
O Brasil pode reivendicar umas das mais ricas e diversificadas cenas e culturas do SST do mundo. É sobre isso que os nossos projetos planejm pesquisar, em profundidade e em detalhe. Por isso, temos o prazer de publicar, como primeira amostra do que está vindo, esta entrevista com a Dani Pimenta, co-fundadora do coletivo Feminine […]
Brazil can lay claim to possibly the richest and most diverse SST scenes and cultures anywhere in the world. Our projects plans to research this is depth and detail. So we are very pleased to publish this interview with Dani Pimenta, co-founder of the Feminine Hi-Fi collective as well as the Mapa Sound System Brazil […]
Intergenerational links in the SST scenes and the archiving of the culture by practitioners are two areas of pivotal interest for the SST research. Both themes reverberate strongly in the movie ‘In A Vanguard Style: A Documentary on Iration Steppas’, currently being premiered around the world before the official launch in February 2022. The story […]
Distant Drums is a mixed-media art installation designed and produced by Whispered Tales. It combines digital animation, music and dance to tell the story of Reggae sound system culture and the importance of music in the fight for racial equality and justice. Distant Drums impressively plays with the different elements which make a sound system […]
SST is excited to be partnering with the Institute of Caribbean Studies and the Reggae Studies Unit for the 7th Global Reggae Conference, to be held at University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica, between 16 and 19 of February, 2022. Over the last fifteen years […]