Jamaicans Want to Dance and Party

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In the late 1940s, many trained musicians left Jamaica for tourist hot spots like Montego Bay and Cordon Todio. Music historian Norman Stolzoff says that lots of Jamaican artists also joined a mass migration of West Indians who headed to the UK, the US, and Canada. The average Kingstonian in theLate 1940s had few options for live music. So sound system band kind of stepped in. They started playing house parties, small gatherings with their record players and small speakers. And they became quite popular.

Jamaica is famous around the world for its music, including genres like ska, dub, and reggae. It’s tempting to think that the powerful amplifiers and giant speakers at the dance parties were designed to perfectly capture Jamaica’s indigenous sounds. But it’s actually the other way around. Those speakers and amps came first. And the electricians, mechanics and engineers who built and adapted that technology would then play a decisive role in the creation of Jamaica’s modern music. They helped pioneer approaches to making and performing music that would spawn whole other scenes from the Bronx to the UK.

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