“Once-fertile but often-forgotten ground in the birth of the sound that has rocked skinheads in England and freedom fighters in apartheid era South Africa, from sound systems in Europe and from transistor radios all over the world.- Mel Cooke
From the 60s-90s Orange Street in Downtown Kingston was once the largest hub of most reggae recording and distribution on the planet. This street was the center for most of the hit makers of the golden era of reggae music. Unfortunately because of “progress” and technology the days of records and recording has been replaced with pirated CDs and home studios, which is making these music business’ slowly become a thing of the past. Thankfully the interest in reggae records in Europe and Japan is still alive which helps these stores continue to keep their doors open.
I’m not a historian, a writer, or Jamaican and if you want to know more about reggae check out this link to watch a documentary about the history of reggae music.
Here’s a few pictures of the owners of the record stores.
Sam Diephuis