British Soundsystem Culture
Taking a shallow dive into the 1950's and British Soundsystem Culture with Marvin Sparks
Channel One Soundsystem speaker stack at Notting Hill Carnival by Eddie Otchere / Museum of LondonMuseum of London
Caribbean migrants carrying a part of home to their new habitat powered a revolution in sound, spawned numerous subcultures and changed the way British people heard music.
Notting Hill Carnival 1979, Sound System on Portobello Road under the Westway (1979/1979) by Adrian BootNotting Hill Carnival
Who knows what the dancefloor (makeshift, or otherwise) would have sounded like without the towering speaker boxes pumping decibels of bass with the option of people chatting lyrics over beats?
In the 1950s, soundsystem operators travelled the seas from their Jamaican homeland to the UK in search of a better life, like many others in the first wave of the Windrush Generation.
Duke Vin by Giles MoberlyNotting Hill Carnival
Two notable names who would establish themselves as pioneers were Duke Vin and Count Suckle—friends from back home through their connection to Tom The Great Sebastian soundsystem.
"When I came here, the people was backward—them didn’t know what a soundsystem was," Duke Vin told The Independent newspaper before his passing in 2012.
Both played a pivotal role in introducing a new genre (ska) to Brits, who partied all night until the following afternoon, and would also partake in another famous aspect: clashing.
These foundations helped pave the road for future music-making generations and elements youth culture still use as backbones for their first raving experiences. Perhaps the most thrilling times come through the pass-the-mic/microphone relays.
Rising to main attention status in the 1980s, cassette tape recordings of deejays like Yellowman, Charlie Chaplin, Josey Wales and Super Cat chatting lyrics and getting reloads at Jamaican lawn parties spread at a feverish pace within British-based Caribbean communities.
It wasn’t long before inspiration took hold with UK versions like Saxon Sound, Sir Coxsone Outernational and Wassifa soundsystems popping up to cult status amongst Black youth.
We wouldn’t have first-generation Black Brits scoring national chart hits with lover’s rock, reggae and dancehall in the 1970s and 1980s.
Hardcore, jungle and drum & bass, UK garage, grime, dubstep, UK funky, bassline, deep house and more wouldn’t have flourished in the following decades without the traditions set before them. Respect the architects.
Festus and Coxsone Sound System by Jean Bernard SohlezNotting Hill Carnival
This digital work has been produced in collaboration with PRS Foundation and POWER UP. The article first featured in TRENCH x Union Black's Chapter One: Game Changers zine.
Words by Marvin Sparks
Photography by Notting Hill Carnival
Videos by BBC, PALM Pictures, Saffron Saffron, TOTP, DJ Eye Man, Llewellyn O'Reggio, Rasorder
Commissioned by TRENCH
