Soundclash

A soundclash is an event in the form of a competition in which two or more sound systems test their skills against and with one another. This is especially common in reggae and dancehall - but also in the dub and jungle area .

There are several ways such a party can go. Usually, three laps have to be completed. In the first two rounds, the sound systems are usually allowed to play two 10 to 20 minute sets alternately. Depending on the soundclash, the sound systems in the knockout system are eliminated, so if there are several candidates, two each play "against each other" and a jury or the audience decides who will go to the next round.

The third round usually consists of a "Dub fi Dub 'round, one in which only alternate Dubplate may be played, so a song that was specially recorded exclusively for a sound system and mostly on popular reggae or dancehall riddims based . The criteria by which the sound systems are judged in the Clash have changed significantly over time: In the 1970s, pre-release versions or dub versions specially mixed for the sound system were important, while today dubplates with “namecalling” (mentioning the Sound systems in mostly specially repackaged lyrics). Until the end of the 80s, the performance of the deejay was clearly in the foreground, whereas today the selection of songs plays a bigger role. Dubplates from various reggae legends are especially honored here, especially if they have already passed away. In addition, exclusivity plays a major role; a dubplate is particularly valuable if no other sound system has a similar one.

Depending on the soundclash, there may be other rules, such as the prohibition on playing regular songs (i.e. no published songs, only dubplates, etc.). A mostly unwritten rule is that no sound system is allowed to play a song that has already been played in the soundclash.

The winner is usually the sound system, which puts on an original, rare selection of songs and best playfully offends the "opposing" sound through comments from the deejay . Recordings of famous soundclashes on cassettes or CDs are very popular in the reggae scene.

The most famous soundclashes are the "World Clash" (New York City), "1-2-3 Badda dan Clash" (Biel, Switzerland), "War ina east" (Berlin), the "UK Cup Clash" (London) and "Death before Dishonor" (Montego Bay, Jamaica).

One of the most famous historical soundclashes took place on February 23, 1985 between King Jammy and the Black Scorpio sound system on Waltham Park Road in Kingston . It was here that King Jammy put on Wayne Smith's Under Mi Sleng Teng, which he produced for the first time . Its novel bassline, generated on a Casio synthesizer, delighted the audience so much that Jammy achieved a triumphant victory. This soundclash is considered to be the birth of “digital reggae” or ragga .

Soundclashes are to be distinguished from the DJ battles of hip-hop culture , in which the turntablism skills of the DJs are in the foreground.