Dubplates and Sound System Cultures

In the 1920s, many companies popularized the use of aluminum discs coated with nitrocellulose lacquer for instantaneous audio disc recording. In particular, the American company Presto produced a range of discs, cutting lathes, cutter-heads and other equipment, all of which served to encourage home audio recording, as well as the unexpected and experimental use of sound recording equipment. From the 1930s-1950s, a consistent model in the Presto catalog was the 6N semi-professional disc recorder. After being discarded from mainstream commercial uses from the late 1940s onwards, this low-cost yet reliable disc cutting lathe played an important role in development of the Jamaican music industry, being used in the studio of the most famous Jamaican disc cutter King Tubby. In Jamaica, the ability to cut discs on demand led to distinctive forms of anti-colonial sonic resistance in the form of dubplates (i.e. one-off lathe cut records). This research project employs media archaeology (Huhtamo and Parikka, 2011) to assess archival sources in dialogue with contemporary knowledge from disc cutters, and in doing so, brings attention to the buried stories of disc cutting technologies and dubplates in relation to Jamaican sound system culture and its wider reach in Canada and the UK.

Faculty Supervisor:

Owen Chapman

Student:

Partner:

Goldsmiths University

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Education

University:

Concordia University

Program: