Bring Back the Boombox!

The vintage boombox has become an icon of the 1980s with hundreds of bass pumping variations from major electronics manufacturers and obscure niche brands.

This lens explores ghetto blaster history and finds the best boombox gift items for your friends and family. Find the best of boombox culture from videos to vintage boxes for sale to ghetto blaster photos to retro boombox shirts and a new boombox book that is not to be missed.

Back in the day...

Boom boxes first became commercially available in the 1970s as an evolution of the basic portable radio-cassette recorder. As they became more popular manufacturers competed to bring out more powerful boxes with new features and better quality sounds. Electronics makers including major Japanese brands and smaller now forgotten marks each brought their ideas to market competing for the biggest sounds, clearest bass, flashy chassis and novel designs incorporating large speakers, gold and chrome faces and colorful lit up displays.

In the 1980s ghetto blasters became increasingly popular and spread through popular culture in hip hop, breakdancing, movies and music videos. As the decade progressed boom boxes began to become more refined and mass produced which brought down price but also the quality. In the end the ghetto blaster would be replaced by Walkman style personal stereos with headphones.

If you are looking for an original old school blaster then eBay is probably your best bet but be prepared to be bidding against collectors. Other good places to hunt down vintage gear is at thrift stores, pawn shops, swap meets and flea markets where you may still find a bargain!