What is a sound system?

What is a sound system?

The word sound system is usually referred to a PA system, however, in the context of Jamaican popular culture, a sound system is a group of disc jockeys, deejays, engineers, MCs, playing reggae music on a huge stack of handmade speakers.

A system is visually imposing as well as tuned to be extremely bass-heavy while maintaining cluster clear sound.

The sound system concept first became popular in the 1940s, in the parish of Kingston, Jamaica, then to the UK during windrush generation. Since sound system culture has grown bigger and bigger, today sound system culture is a global phenomenon.

A typical Jamaican-style sound system is built in such a way, the whole audio spectrum  is split into a 5 way frequency distribution, sub-bass, kickbass, midbass and high frequency speaker boxes of various shapes and sizes for maximum impact.

Reggae music is listed under UNESCO as World Heritage music, it has to be protected and promoted. 

Born in Jamaica, in 1950, Reggae music is a neighbourhood thing, people enjoyed staying united and enjoying the music together. Reggae has the vibe of upliftment.

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