'Too often only half the story is told And the background, the upheavals and changes the island of Jamaica went through just before and since independence, gets forgotten in the face of so much Prince Buster This essay aims to establish the centraiity of the Jukebox as major element in the development and sustainability of Jamaican popular music from mento to dancehall. It is intention of this essay to establish an iconic status for the jukebox and explore its relevance in affording a space for resistance and examine its importance as a catalyst of social interaction, urban poor catharsis, mimicry and masquerade. Invention Jukebox was an invention of the late 19th century which developed when Thomas Edison appUed for a patent for a or Speaking Machine. Gert J. Almind states mat particular invention became the basis of the first American automatic music machines with coin slots called 'nickel-in-the-slot machines'.1 Anodier invention was the disc record (vinyl), by Emile Berliner and patented in 1888. Pretty soon both disc and cylinder players were fitted with coin slots. According the Almind, the first demonstration of a coin operated phonograph took place in San Francisco in November 1889 by Louis Glass, general manager of the Pacific Phonograph Company. Glass and his partner William S. Arnold had applied for two patents. Coin Actuated Attachment for Phonographs (cylinder) and Coin Actuating Attachment for Phonographs (disc) that same year. Today, Louis Glass is often regarded as the inventor of the juke box concept. machines were an instant success. In fact, Louis T. Glass was able to boast at a 1890 Conference in Chicago for operators and manufacturers that the first 15 machines had made an estimated $4,000 from December, 1889, until May, 1890. That was a significant amount for the time. Almind also reminds us that; The first really successful coin-operated phonograph in the States was developed and filed for patent in 1891 by Albert K. Keller, who soon assigned the patent rights to the Automatic Phonograph Exhibition Company in New York. Albert K. Keller designed automatic phonographs with Edison mechanisms were at first manufactured in collaboration with Ezra T. Gilliland of the Gilliland Sales Company, and installed in arcades in many big cities.(Allmind, http://juke-box.dkl) By 1927, the American manufacturer the Automatic Music Instrument Company rolled out the world's first electrically amplified multi selection phonograph. This was a significant signpost in the evolution of the juke box. With amplification, the Jukebox was now able to compete with large orchestras, at the cost of a nickel. Juke box developed its name fromjuke joints which were popular in the 20s and 30s in the Mississippi Delta region of the United States. Jukejoints were makeshift drinking houses adjacent to cotton fields. Juke joints were generally considered seedy and low brow establishments, but offered jazz and rhythm and blues musicians a regular venue to play. Lorenzo Turner, points to the African origin of the word. He asserts that the word comes form the Gullah word Juk, meaning infamous and disorderly. This he says comes from the West African Wolof word Jug used to define someone who leads a disorderly life, and a Banbara word jugu meaning a wicked, violent or naughty person.2 In Jamaican creole jook is still a popular expression, but the word has multiple uses and interpretations. It denotes a specific pelvic movement when used to refer to a dance movement in popular music. In fact, Elephant Man's recent Jook Gal' music video, directed by American Gil Green, had scenes in ajuke joint with dance moves associated with the act of jooking; thus confirming the commonality of the word to the two distinct black cultures. Throughout the Caribbean and its diaspora, the word also has a sexual connotation to signify the act of coitus. …