ENTITY · SOUND SYSTEM

Sir Coxsone Downbeat

Well supported

Clement Dodd's sound system, and the dominant set of the late 1950s. Downbeat's rivalry with Duke Reid the Trojan is the founding contest of Jamaican sound-system culture — fought with exclusive American R&B pressings, then with Dodd's own recordings once he began producing to feed the sound. Studio One grew directly out of that need.

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At a glance

Type: Sound system →
Era: Sound-system revolution →
Confidence: Well supported

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Recordings

Studio One Ska Fever! More Ska Sounds from Sir Coxsone's Downbeat, 1962–65

MIXCLOUD · rights discovery only · performs

A compilation of ska sides associated with Sir Coxsone's Downbeat, 1962–65.

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In stories

Story · ProbableThe Downbeat and the Trojan: How Two Kingston Rivals Built the Sound System

In 1950s Kingston, Coxsone Dodd's Downbeat and Duke Reid's Trojan turned rival dances into the foundation of an entire music industry.

Story · Well supportedLawn kings of downtown Kingston

How fenced yards, imported 78s and crowned sound men turned 1950s Kingston dances into an industry.

Story · ProbableFrom Kingston to the Bronx: DJ Kool Herc and the Sound-System Roots of Hip-Hop

How a Jamaican teenager carried the logic of the dancehall sound system into a South Bronx rec room and helped set hip-hop in motion.

Story · ProbableControlled chaos: the gun salute, and what replaced it

Live rounds fired into the air were once the highest compliment a Jamaican dance could pay a record. Nobody ran. Then the ordinary man took the sound and left the gun at home.

Story · ProbableFoundation sounds before the famous three

Long before Coxsone, Duke Reid and Prince Buster became reggae's founding trinity, a wider field of 1950s operators built the culture — and its DIY engineering habit followed Jamaican emigrants to London.