Siren kings are members of a primarily Pasifika underground

youth subculture Youth subculture is a youth-based subculture with distinct styles, behaviors, and interests. Youth subcultures offer participants an identity outside of that ascribed by social institutions such as family, work, home and school. Youth subcultures ...

, originating in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, New Zealand, which gained popularity in the mid-2010s. The siren scene involves competitions where crews compete for the loudest and clearest sound produced by sirens (

loudspeaker A loudspeaker (commonly referred to as a speaker or speaker driver) is an electroacoustic transducer that converts an electrical audio signal into a corresponding sound. A ''speaker system'', also often simply referred to as a "speaker" or " ...

s or

public address system A public address system (or PA system) is an electronic system comprising microphones, amplifiers, loudspeakers, and related equipment. It increases the apparent volume (loudness) of a human voice, musical instrument, or other acoustic sound sou ...

s) attached to cars or

bicycles A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-powered assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist. Bic ...

, to win the title of siren king. The music produced to be used in siren battles is known as siren beats or siren jams, and is typically music inspired by

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

and

dembow Dembow is a Dominican musical genre that can be traced to a riddim that originated in Jamaican dancehall. When Shabba Ranks released "Dem Bow" in 1990, it did not take long for the dembow genre to form. Riddims were built from the song and th ...

that emphasises treble. In 2020, siren beat producer and high school student

Jawsh 685 Joshua Christian Nanai (born 5 November 2002), better known as Jawsh 685, is a New Zealand beat maker and music producer. While a student at Manurewa High School, in South Auckland, New Zealand, he made his breakthrough with the 2020 siren jam s ...

's song " Laxed (Siren Beat)" became popular on

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

, later becoming a global hit when sampled by American singer

Jason Derulo Jason Joel Desrouleaux (born September 21, 1989), known professionally as Jason Derulo (; formerly stylized as Derülo), is an American singer and songwriter.

, released as "

Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat) "Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat)", originally known as "Savage Love", is a song by New Zealand music producer Jawsh 685 and American singer Jason Derulo. The song was officially released on 11 June 2020, following the resolution of sample cl ...

History

The origins of the siren scene are the early 2000s in

South Auckland South Auckland is an imprecisely defined urban area of Auckland, New Zealand, with a young population, a relatively large Polynesian and Māori demographic, and lower incomes than other parts of Auckland. The name ''South Auckland'', though not ...

, New Zealand, primarily among Pasifika youth. The scene grew from car owners adding car battery-powered speaker systems to cars (known as "stacking"), and in 2010 battles between different siren crews began in public areas. During this time, bicycle use began to be popular among youth members of the siren scene. Popular locations for battles include carparks and reserves around

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, Avondale, the

Onehunga Onehunga is a suburb of Auckland in New Zealand and the location of the Port of Onehunga, the city's small port on the Manukau Harbour. It is south of the Auckland CBD, city centre, close to the volcano, volcanic cone of Maungakiekie / One Tree ...

shoreline and

Māngere Māngere () or Mangere is one of the largest suburbs in Auckland, in northern New Zealand. It is located on mainly flat land on the northeastern shore of the Manukau Harbour, to the northwest of Manukau City Centre and 15 kilometres south of ...

. By the mid-2010s, siren kings received strong police and community scrutiny, with reports of loudspeakers and fire alarms being stolen from schools, fire stations and community centres, and allegations that these were being sold on the black market. Police reports to media also associated siren battles as being associated with gangs. Due to police raids and attention, members of the siren crews began to carry large numbers of receipts for sirens, either in pockets or placed on car dashboards. By 2016, police no longer considered the siren scene as gang activity. Many members of suburban Auckland communities express frustration at the noise created by siren battles. In 2019, the

Auckland Council Auckland Council ( mi, Te Kaunihera o Tāmaki Makaurau) is the local government council for the Auckland Region in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority that has the responsibilities, duties and powers of a regional council and so is ...

created barriers to close off an Auckland public reserve at night time, however this was ineffective at stopping siren battles from taking place. Siren kings featured prominently in Pasifika photographer

Edith Amituanai Edith Amituanai (born 1980) is a New Zealand photographic artist. In 2007, she was the inaugural recipient of the Marti Friedlander Photographic Award. Examples of her work are held in the collections of Te Papa, Auckland Art Gallery, and th ...

's 2019 exhibition ''Double Take'', shown at the

Adam Art Gallery Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

in Wellington. In 2021, a half-hour documentary on siren kings was released by

TVNZ , type = Crown entity , industry = Broadcast television , num_locations = New Zealand , location = Auckland, New Zealand , area_served = Nationally (New Zealand) and some Pacific Island nations such as the Cook Islands, Fiji, and the So ...

, entitled ''Young and a Siren King''.

Competitions

Siren battles are typically judged competitions where contestants battle for the loudest, clearest sound. There are separate categories for cars and bicycles; often younger members of the crews compete in the bike category. Battles are usually done to win the title of siren king, but some battles can be to win each other's sirens. After the initial rounds, some battles end with a drownout round, a knockout round where contestants use their sirens together so judges can decide who has the more overwhelming sound. To compete in a competition, a car or bike must be outfitted with a sound system including sirens, typically a mix of

megaphone A megaphone, speaking-trumpet, bullhorn, blowhorn, or loudhailer is usually a portable or hand-held, cone-shaped acoustic horn used to amplify a person's voice or other sounds and direct it in a given direction. The sound is introduced into ...

s, industrial

s, pulled apart radios, and

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...

speakers. For bicycles, sirens need to be strapped to the bike (typically the handlebars), usually powered by a car battery.

Music

Song selection for siren battles is important, as the song will need to showcase treble over bass, because of how loudspeakers are intended to project speech. Some common song used by siren crews include

Celine Dion Céline Marie Claudette Dion ( ; born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Noted for her powerful and technically skilled vocals, Dion is the best-selling Canadian recording artist, and the best-selling French-language artist of all time. Her ...

's " The Power of Love" and "

My Heart Will Go On "My Heart Will Go On" is a 1997 song recorded by Canadian singer Celine Dion. The song serves as the main theme to James Cameron's blockbuster film ''Titanic'', based on an account of the transatlantic ocean liner of the same name which san ...

". Some siren crew members began to produce their own music to use, known as siren jams or siren beats. Often inspired by genres such as

and

, the songs focus on treble over bass, and are intended to sound best while played through siren speakers, taking into account the

Doppler effect The Doppler effect or Doppler shift (or simply Doppler, when in context) is the change in frequency of a wave in relation to an observer who is moving relative to the wave source. It is named after the Austrian physicist Christian Doppler, who d ...

. Most siren jams are shared online through sites such as

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

and

. In 2020, siren jam producer

from

Manurewa Manurewa is a major suburb in South Auckland, New Zealand. It was part of Manukau City before the creation of the Auckland super city in 2010. It is located south of the Manukau, Manukau City Centre, and southeast of Auckland CBD. The subur ...

saw success after his song " Laxed (Siren Beat)" became a

meme A meme ( ) is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural i ...

called the Culture Dance, where people would show traditional clothing styles. After initially gaining popularity on TikTok, the song saw global success when American singer

Jason Derulo Jason Joel Desrouleaux (born September 21, 1989), known professionally as Jason Derulo (; formerly stylized as Derülo), is an American singer and songwriter.

used the track as the basis for his song "

Savage Love Savage Love is a syndicated sex-advice column by Dan Savage. The column appears weekly in several dozen newspapers, mainly free newspapers in the US and Canada, but also newspapers in Europe and Asia. It started in 1991 with the first issue of t ...

", becoming one of the most successful songs of 2020.

References

{{Reflist 2010s in music 2020s in music Audio hobbies Car culture Competitions Culture in Auckland Cycling clubs Cycling events Cycling in New Zealand DIY culture Modified vehicles Motor clubs Musical subcultures New Zealand music New Zealand slang Nightlife Polynesian music Polynesian-New Zealand culture Polynesian-New Zealand culture in Auckland Sirens Subcultures Vehicle modification Youth culture

History

Competitions

Music

See also

References