Hey child, get out your powerful magic player of the music. That’s right, it’s the boombox. It’s the thing you get out and put a tape in there in the tape deck and BAM, you’ve got such a sound you can bring with you and blast all over everyone’s face in the streets. And all it takes to run it is 12 double-D batteries. Get some batteries! And look at this fabulous photo project by Lyle Owerko. It’s called, appropriately, “The Boombox Project” and he even whipped up an excellent nutshelled history of the box too! It’s all here, all of it.

So this fantastic artist, photographer, designer, cool guy Lyle Owerko took a whole load of photos of fantastic boomboxes and here they are in this classic set! And from his massive research bank comes this little diddy too!

The Boombox Project

A Visual Timeline of the Era of the Boombox

Exactly when the term ‘boombox’ hit the streets is not known for sure. In the United States, department stores apparently began using the term in marketing and advertising as early as 1983. Street slang linguists pin the term down at 1981, and define the boombox as “a large portable radio and tape player with two attached speakers.” Initially, it became identified with certain segments of urban society, hence adopting epithetic nicknames, like ‘ghetto blaster,’ and ‘jam box.’ But as the masses began to embrace these gargantuan conglomerations of electronics, lights and chrome plated gadgetry an inherent form of portable entertainment and expression was born. The boombox as it has evolved is now an icon of popular culture, it has been referenced by rockers, poppers, hip-hoppers, and graffers alike. It is a symbol of rebellion and a way to shout your message at the system. Turn up the volume on your boombox, whatever the size, and let the capstan wheels of the tape deck drive a favorite mix-tape to life… As the defiant voice of punk rock legend, Joe Strummer sang “This is radio clash using audio ammunition…”

The grids, the circles, the rectangles. These fabulous boxes of pure energy deserve all the looks and glances they get. And when they’re blasting fantastic mixtapes and such, they’re even better. But they’re also fantastically lovely just to peek at, so let’s do some peekin.

And I bet you’d be pretty pumped up if you could do something neat with these images, right? I bet you would. So check it out – Owerko hooked himself up with a fresh deal over at that gelaskins website where they sell skin of the mac. Check that out, download some backgrounds, click around and have a little fun, [here], but first look at these boomers below.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies photography category.