DANCEHALL on show in Los Angeles
AN exhibition saluting “communal listening” opened in Los Angeles this week. It includes numerous artifacts that define the Jamaican dancehall experience, including a sound system once owned by dub pioneer Osbourne ‘King Tubby’s’ Ruddock.
Dubbed the Hometown HiFi Exhibition, it is being held at Sonos Studio, Billboard magazine reports.
“The sound system is the great invention to come out of reggae,” exhibit curator Seb Carayol, a Frenchman, told Billboard. “It’s a tiny niche within the history of reggae but what it did for other music styles — hip-hop, electronic dance music — is impossible to measure.”
The exhibition also includes photographs of artistes including singer Barrington Levy and producer Henry ‘Junjo’ Lawes, who helped fashion the modern dancehall movement.
Album art by Wilfred Limonious, recording equipment and films are also part of the exhibition.
Two documentaries — 2006’s Musically Mad and a 10-minute film about contemporary sound systems — are part of the film component.
“It’s important to show sound system culture is alive and giving birth to (genres) like dubstep,” Carayol said.
The Hometown Hifi Exhibition is scheduled to run at Sonos Studio until April 24.
Original Post: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/DANCEHALL-on-show-in-Los-Angeles_16404788
About Author
