Reggae Dancehall Pioneers: Tom Wong (Tom The Great Sebastian) | The Man Who Invented the Sound System

About this episode

This episode tells the story of Tom Wong, the Chinese-Jamaican merchant who invented Jamaica's first sound system and significantly influenced music culture.

In 1947 Kingston, a Chinese-Jamaican merchant named Tom Wong built Jamaica's first sound system and changed the world. He invented the lawn dance, the sound system clash, and gave Count Machuki the microphone that birthed the MC tradition. Everything downstream — reggae, dancehall, hip-hop — traces to his yard on Orange Street. This is the story of Tom The Great Sebastian: the man who started it all, and disappeared before anyone thought to remember him. Part of the Reggae and Dancehall Foundational Pioneers series on The History of the Caribbean.

People in this episode

Hosts: Joe, Kevin

Topics covered

• Reggae
• Dancehall
• Sound System
• Cultural History
• Pioneers
• Music Innovation

Keywords

• Tom Wong
• sound system
• reggae
• dancehall
• Count Machuki
• music history
• Jamaica
• cultural pioneers

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Kingston, Jamaica, Orange Street

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