Reggae: The Story of Jamaican Music

Fifty years ago the sound system was how music reached a downtown people in Kingston, Jamaica – people who didnt have radios or record players. It soon became a vital part of ghetto life. Larger than life characters like Coxone Dodd, Duke Reid and Prince Buster owned the biggest sounds of the time, consequently were treated as the areas unofficial mayors. Both Buster and Dodd tell riotous tales of those early days: the intense and often violent rivalry between competing outfits; how the dancehall was the social and cultural centre of ghetto life; and how the economics were vital to survival.