One Grand Noise

Abstract

Having historicized the pertinent multi-sites and their initial Boxing Day connections, this chapter theorizes them as soundscapes, a trope that signified sheer noise, disorder, and wantonness to their oppressors. Within the frame of cultural imperialism, the Western hegemon meant for its erasure; but as a strategic act, those already dispossessed exploited this bias into a subversive remedy. In the maintenance of their own aesthetic judgment, this understanding emboldened and conferred on the enslaved another means of cultural resistance. With the present addition of earsplitting waves of soca music issuing from the gigantic speakers on flatbed trucks create a hi-fi environment, soundscapes rife with postmodern one grand noise.