Rockers, soulheads and lovers: Sound systems back in da day

Abstract

Abstract This article explores the emergence of sound system culture in Britain, from post-war Caribbean migration to the early 1980s, in terms of House and Blues parties, clubs and dancehalls, bass culture, dance-floor corporeality, and raver’s sartorial aesthetics and interventions, with reference to oral history interviews with sound system pioneers, practitioners and ravers from my installation-based exhibition, Rockers, Soulheads & Lovers: Sound Systems Back in Da Day (New Art Exchange, Nottingham and 198 Contemporary Arts & Learning, London 2015–16).