Remembering the Mighty June Elise Reid (Junie Rankin, Nzinga Soundz) 10th June 1958 – 12th September 2025 Dear June, we miss you greatly. Your enthusiasm, commitment, and love for the reggae sound system scene, for which you were a pioneer. I don’t have much experience with other music scenes – or research areas – apart from […]
“You never miss the water ‘til the well run dry” (Jamaican proverb). But also, you never know your culture ‘til you see it worldwide. Sound System Cultures Worldwide (7-8 November 2025) is a two-day event of film screenings, discussion and sound system sessions assessing the global impact of sound system cultures. Documentary films feature sound systems from […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
In the spirit of outernationalism for Sound System Outernational #8 SST asked for a report on the event we sponsored from Marcus Ramusyo Brasil, one of our Brazilian research collaborotors. This day long marathan session – from 10.30 am to 10.00 pm – was very well attended with about 150 participants, more than thirty of […]
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 […]
SST’s commitment to researching and supporting sound system culture comes to nothing unless we take some care of its future with the younger generation. Another commitment the project has besides work globally – is not to forget our local community in Lewisham where the project is based at Goldsmiths, University of London. These two […]
We are glad to announce the publication of the Sound System Outernational (SSO) guest-edited special issue of the Journal of World Popular Music – Volume 8, Number 1, available here. Edited by SSO team members Brian D’Aquino and Oana Pârvan, the special issue features some of the contributions originally presented during the international symposium ‘SSO#5: […]