A boombox is a transistorized portable music player featuring one or two cassette tape players/recorders and AM/FM radio, generally with a carrying handle. Beginning in the mid-1990s, a CD player was often included. Sound is delivered through an amplifier and two or more integrated loudspeakers. The device is typically capable of receiving radio stations and playing recorded music on cassette tapes or compact discs. Many models are also capable of recording onto cassette. In the 1990s, some boomboxes were available with MiniDisc recorders and players. Designed for portability, boomboxes can be powered by batteries as well as by line current.

The boombox was introduced to the American market during the late 1970s. The desire for louder and heavier bass led to bigger and heavier boxes; by the 1980s, some boomboxes had reached the size of a suitcase. Some larger boomboxes even contained vertically mounted record turntables. Most boomboxes were battery-operated, leading to extremely heavy, bulky boxes. Although the sound quality of early cassette tape recordings was poor, improvements in technology and the introduction of stereo recording, chromium tapes, and Dolby noise reduction made hifi quality devices possible. Several European electronics brands, such as Grundig, also introduced similar devices.

In East Europe, they also gained some popularity, and were also manufactured in eastern countries. Most well known were in the Soviet Union and East Germany, but also in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, Romania, both under license or own designs. Usually they were less sophisticated, but some of them could compete at some point with average western boomboxes.

thumb|Boomboxes manufactured in Japan and exported to the world in the 1970s and 1980s

thumb|A RX5100 National boombox

Boomboxes have been sold in Japan since 1967. The first three manufacturers were Crown, Matsushita (currently Panasonic) and AIWA, and AIWA's TPR-101 was exported from Japan. The Japanese brands rapidly took over a large portion of the European boombox market and were often the first Japanese consumer electronics brands that a European household might purchase. In some cases, there were even Japanese boomboxes manufactured as O.E.M. for European brands. Japanese brands innovated by creating different sizes, form factors, and technology, introducing such advances as stereo boomboxes, removable speakers, and built-in CD players.

thumb|right|A man holding a C-100F boombox by Conion, [[generic brand|an off-brand of Japanese corporation Onkyo at a Chicago Pride Parade ca. 1985]]

The boombox became popular in America during the late 1970s, with most then being produced by Panasonic, Sony, General Electric, and Marantz. It was immediately noticed by the urban adolescent community and soon developed a mass market, especially in large metropolitan centers such as New York, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C.

The earlier models were a hybrid that combined the booming sound of large in-home stereo systems and the portability of small portable cassette players; they were typically small, black or silver, heavy, and capable of producing high volumes.

In the mid-1980s, the boombox began to become a status symbol; the popularity among young urbanites caused increasing demand for extravagant boxes. The growing popularity of the compact disc (CD) in the late 1980s led to the introduction of the CD player in standard boombox design. During the 1990s, boombox manufacturers began designing smaller, more compact boomboxes, which were often made out of plastic instead of metal as their counterparts from the previous decade had been.

Boombox designs vary greatly in size. Larger, more powerful units may require 10 or more size-D batteries, may measure more than in width, and can weigh more than . Some take a 12-volt sealed lead-acid battery, or can be a portable enclosure for a car audio head unit.

Audio quality and feature sets vary widely, with high-end models providing features and sound comparable to some home stereo systems. Most models offer volume, tone and balance (left/right) controls.

More sophisticated models may feature dual cassette decks (often featuring high-speed dubbing, or sometimes even digitally controlled servo cassette mechanics), separate bass and treble level controls, five- or ten-band graphic equalizers, Dolby noise reduction, analog or LED sound level (VU) meters or even VFD, larger speakers, 'soft-touch' tape deck controls, multiple shortwave (SW) band reception with fine tuning, digital tuner with PLL (phase-locked loop), automatic song search functions for cassettes, line and/or phono inputs and outputs, microphone inputs, loudness switches, and detachable speakers, full function infrared remote control. A handful of models even featured an integrated record turntable, an 8-track tape player, a minidisc player/recorder, or a (typically black-and-white) television screen, although the basic radio/cassette models have historically been by far the most popular.

Cultural significance

The boombox quickly became associated with urban society, particularly black and Hispanic youth. The wide use of boomboxes in urban communities led to the boombox being coined a "ghetto blaster", a nickname which was soon used as part of a backlash against the boombox and hip hop culture. The character Radio Raheem in Spike Lee's drama film Do the Right Thing (1989) personifies the connotations associated with "ghetto blasters" and is a prominent example of the boombox's use by urban youth in American media. Cities began banning boomboxes from public places, and they became less acceptable on city streets as time progressed. Certain models like the JVC RC-M90 and the Sharp GF-777 were known as the boombox kings, having the power to drown out other ghetto blasters; they were frequently used in music battles. The Beastie Boys embraced the boombox as a signature, The Clash always had a boombox with them, and Schoolly D carried around a Conion C-100F in the UK.

Decline

The 1990s were a turning point for the boombox in popular culture. The rise of the Walkman and other advanced electronics eliminated the need to carry around such large and heavy audio equipment, and boomboxes quickly disappeared from the streets. As boombox enthusiast Lyle Owerko puts it, "Towards the end of any culture, you have the second or third generation that steps into the culture, which is so far from the origination, it's the impression of what's real, but it's not the full definition of what's real. It's just cheesy." The Consumer Electronics Association reported that only 329,000 boombox units without CD players were shipped in the United States in 2003, compared to 20.4 million in 1986.

The simplest way to connect an older boombox to an MP3 player is to use a cassette adapter, which interfaces an MP3 player's output directly to the cassette player's heads. The 'Line In' (also known as 'Aux In') can be used if the boombox has one.

Some modern boombox designs provide other connections for MP3 (and sometimes other digital formats) such as a USB connector for use with a removable USB drive, slots for various flash memory media such as SD, MMC, SmartMedia, and Memory Stick, or even a CD drive capable of reading MP3s directly from a CD, thus allowing for a relatively cheap and large music storage to be carried and played back at full volume.

Starting in mid-2010, there are new lines of boomboxes that use Bluetooth technology known as Stereo Bluetooth, or A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile). They use the wireless Bluetooth technology to "stream" audio to the boombox from a compatible Bluetooth device, such as a mobile phone or Bluetooth MP3 player. An example of this is the JAMBOX, which is marketed as a "Smart Speaker" as it can also function as a speakerphone for voice calls in addition to being an audio playback device.

Another modern variant is a DVD player/boombox with a top-loading CD/DVD drive and an LCD video screen in the position once occupied by a cassette deck. Many models of this type of boombox include inputs for external video (such as television broadcasts) and outputs to connect the DVD player to a full-sized television.

Some newer boomboxes, may also have DAB/DAB+ radio, internet radio, or network capabilities and various apps, like TuneIn, Spotify, MusicCast, DLNA, etc. Also they have Wi-Fi, Network RJ45 connection. However, this may limit their portability, as internet access is needed to use them at full potential. Without internet service, they can operate as standard, radio (both FM, AM and DAB), USB and CD player (if available), aux input, and bluetooth (if available).

Terminology

Before the term "boombox" came into widespread use, various other terms were used to describe them.

  • Radio cassette player
  • Radio cassette recorder
  • Stereo radio cassette recorder
  • Portable stereo
  • Portable stereo system
  • Portable radio cassette recorder
  • Portable stereo radio cassette recorder

Every day usage, often used shorter terms such as the following.

  • Radio
  • Stereo
  • Boombox
  • Ghetto blaster

See also

  • Audio player
  • AV receiver
  • Portable media player
  • Radio receiver
  • Shelf stereo
  • Vehicle audio
  • Wireless speaker

References

Notes

Further reading

  • CBS Sunday Morning – Boomboxes: A REAL blast from the past
  • New York Times Review – The Boombox Project
  • Photographer Lyle Owerko, documented the cultural history of the device in his 2010 book The Boombox Project: The Machines, the Music and the Urban Underground (), with a foreword by Spike Lee.
  • Boombox History
  • Mentions of the boombox in songs, movies, television, film and print at the Boombox Museum, PocketCalculatorShow.com
  • Huck Magazine Boombox Retrospective
  • Conion C-126F
  • Conion C-126F – ClassicBoombox.com