Boombox is back

Before touch-screen iPods, satellite radio and portable CD players, we flipped cassettes on a metal box.

The boombox.

Fifteen years of premium beats blared from the two mounted speakers and cassette deck we carried with a handle. And then — poof — it nearly disappeared from street corners and apartment stoops.

Now boomboxes have suddenly resurfaced.

Pop singers Madonna and Lady Gaga featured them in recent music videos. They're on fashion runways in the form of screen-printed T-shirts, gold pendant jewelry and purses. A TV commercial features break-dancing babies skating to boombox beats.

Apparently, they're cool again. Music fans are paying triple their value — as much as $800 used on eBay — just to own a piece of history.

To most kids of the 1980s, they weren't just a box. Boomboxes, or ghetto blasters, forever changed listening habits. People could hear music on the go, said Lyle Owerko, a New York photographer who seems to be at the forefront of this renaissance.

Owerko has collected 40 boomboxes since the mid-'90s and is finishing a book due out this fall, “The Boombox Project,” about his musical treasures. Some work. Some are taped together. And some weigh more than 20 pounds.

“Remembering our first boombox is almost like remembering your first kiss,” Owerko said. “With all the turmoil in the world, people are reaching back to something they can touchstone to a time in their life that brought a good memory.”

The boombox was born in the late 1970s when several electronics companies released different versions of portable radios. More powerful and sophisticated models with cassette decks were introduced in the '80s. Soon after, they infiltrated mainstream consciousness through music videos, movies and television, appearing at nearly every summertime block party.

Hair-band fans fist-pumped to heavy metal. Radio Raheem carried his boombox wherever he went in the flick “Do the Right Thing.” A young Will Smith danced to boombox beats on his TV show, “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” Actor John Cusack professed his love with one in the 1989 romantic film “Say Anything.”

And, of course, rapper LL Cool J gave boomboxes a theme song in “I Can't Live Without My Radio.”

My radio, believe me, I like it loud

I'm the man with a box that can rock the crowd

Walkin' down the street, to the hardcore beat

While my JVC vibrates the concrete

Boomboxes are a symbol of rebellion and individualism, especially in hip-hop and punk rock circles. In the early days of the genres, hip-hop and punk music were distributed exclusively via boombox.

Hip-hop pioneer Fab 5 Freddy hit New York City streets with his lyrics in the 1970s and early 1980s. He went on to host TV's first hip-hop music video show, “Yo! MTV Raps.” If it hadn't been for his self-dubbed cassettes, no one would have heard his music.

Back then, your status depended on the volume, weight and appearance of your boombox. And you didn't have to pay too dearly to be cool — boomboxes sold for about $100 to $300 two decades ago, depending on the make, quality and craftsmanship.

Now those same retro models are in high demand, especially online. From Oct. 11 through Jan. 2, eBay pop culture expert Karen Bard has seen steady sales and purchases of vintage boomboxes. A glance at the site shows more than 1,500 retro models for sale, including a Sharp GF-909 boombox for $500.

“The highest-priced boombox during that time period sold for $800,” Bard said.

The boombox waned in popularity as newer technology took hold, but it never went away. Newer boombox models now employ that technology, sporting CD players and iPod decks. Lasonic's iPod Boombox i931, for instance, sells for about $150 at online stores such as Amazon.com and Buy.com.

But new millennium music fans appreciate the nostalgia of the vintage boxes — memories of being poolside or twirling to the beat of your favorite singer in your bedroom.

Omahan Melanie Lotspeich, 30, remembers listening to her Tiffany tape over and over while making up roller-skating routines. She used her peach-colored boombox to prop open her bedroom window so she could hear the music on her back patio.

“I'm sure I played ‘I Think We're Alone Now' a million times,” she said. “I remember rummaging through my parents' house looking for batteries.”

Omahan Dennis Anderson was 13 when he got his first boombox for Christmas. He quickly learned how to flip his Bell Biv Devoe tape from one side to the next and work the rewind button. The box was yellow and black with detachable speakers. He'd carry extra D-batteries in a hidden compartment.

You had to have a swagger to carry the box, he said. Muscles were a plus.

“I tried to do the Radio Raheem thing (carrying it on his shoulder), but usually I kept it down by my side,” said Anderson, 29. “Everyone around my building had little players. So they'd knock on my door to see if I could come out. They always asked me to bring it along.”

For Anderson, the box started friendships. And it helped him find romance.

“I got a girlfriend with that boombox,” he said. “She thought it was so cool. She became my oldest son's mother. She saw me with the boombox and I guess it sealed the deal.”

Two years later, his mom bought him a portable disc player and then a Walkman. He now owns an iPod touch.

But even though he has moved on, he's still fond of that '80s vibe.

“Boomboxes bring people back to how it was then. It was such a good era; music really meant something,” Anderson said. “I might get one so my kids know what it was like to flip that tape.”

Contact the writer:

444-1075, j.loza@owh.com

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