Radio was playin', Desmond Dekker was singin'

[venta]

A quick question:



[Poll #1344729]

Edit: I don't mean "give me a list of names", I mean "which term would you naturally use in conversation if talking about such a thing".

If you're going to fill in an answer, please do so before reading on.

I would habitually refer to that sort of stereo (ie portable, speaker at either end, tape deck in the middle) as a ghetto-blaster. I seem to remember that that's what everyone was calling them in the 80s when I first started interacting with such things.

Problem is, I've no idea of the origin of the term. Which ghettos were being blasted exactly ? Is it possible that someone somewhere might find it an offensive term ?[*] Is it even in common enough usage now that I could expect someone to be sure what I meant - or am I just hopelessly outdated in my choice of name ?

What other words are there ? Apart from radio-cassette player, of course. I'm not very clear on what exactly a boombox might be - could it be one of those, or is it subtly different ? Can I still call it a ghetto blaster if it's got a CD player in it ? Does the choice of name depend on the kind of music player - could one still blast ghettos with Wagner, for example ?

[*] According to Wikipedia, yes. But it's a particularly shoddily written piece, plus I'm interested in what other people think.


_{That image is just quickly grabbed from google image search, so if you're in The Future, it's probably red-exed by now.}

Comments

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

I think it depends on the scale and appearance of it. If that was 3 feet long it would be a boombox; if it was black and plastic with round ends it would be a ghetto blaster. If it was only a foot long I would just call it a radio or cassette player. You can't really blast anything unless you have to carry the noise-making device on your shoulder.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

I also consider the shoulder-carrying to be essential, with the exception that some devices too *big* to be shoulder-mounted can still be called "ghetto blasters". But to be worthy of the name, you definitely need enough space between the speakers to place your head without muffling one or both channels.