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Back in 1980, portable music became a reality in a big way...and I mean BIG!
Oversized, portable radio/ cassette players were marketed from Canal Street to K-Mart and at least initially had a cult following among young black men who wanted a little more bang for their buck. The Ghetto Blaster was born and it was here to stay! Ok, well not here to stay really because in a matter of months development of a portable, hand-held cassette player (with headphones!) would begin. Yes, the Walkman was to the 80's what the i-Pod is to the naughties but that's another blog right there.
Back to '80. What could be better that walking the streets of your neighbourhood playing your tunes and perhaps even bustin' out with a few moves on a corner while you waited for the lights to change. It was about community. It was about finding freedom. It was about bringing together like-minded music people who liked their sound....BIG! Sure, we know now that the audio quality wasn't the greatest but the experiences one could have and the people one could meet along the way seemed almost endless.
In Spike Lee's 1989 film "Do The Right Thing" Radio Raheem commanded respect when he cruised his neighborhood, not only because he was a menacing figure but because his Jam Box was always on and it was always booming with quality sounds.
Fast forward...
In 2006 one can't help but notice the influx of phones into the cell market that feature a loudspeaker. With many phones now having some form of mp3 compatibility, the number of "Radio Raheems" seems to have multiplied exponentially. It would seem by walking the streets and riding the subways of this city that more and more young men are feeling the need to...erm, crank up their phones and share the love with their increasingly perturbed onlookers. An embarrassing site, these new sound devices' small size is matched only by their aggressively poor sound quality, especially when pushed to full bars on the volume selector.
Why is it that Ghetto Blasters (*in capable hands) could have had such an impact whereas these pathetic little units are only capable of raising eyebrows (and aggression levels in crowded subways) rather than bystanders' spirits?
Tags:
1980, Boom Box, Do The Right Thing, Ghetto Blaster, iPod, Jam Box, New Music, Spike Lee, subway
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Posted on 11/15/2006
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