Ways music videos create and communicates meaning using media language

opening scene is low camera angle of passing buildings, and street lamps. The weather helps contribute to the doom and gloom of the music video as its grey and cloudy.

Then the shot changes to the band in a car with an effect of passing light over the windsheild. the band members are shown quite apathetic as they take there turns to sing a line from the song.

the next few camera shots have more energy and movement involved as the song leads up to the chorus. the shots go from a shot of their car driving through a tunnel then the shot changes quickly to the driver swerving the wheel as the group sings ‘Non-lexical vocables’. This leads to a couple of short sharp shots switching between perspectives of being in the car and another shot done inside a car in front of the bands.

There is a lot of movement involved in this part of the song to convey in my opinion chaos. I think the producers of the music video did this, since a ghost town gives off the feeling of the feel of an apocalypse scenario , no society or civilisation to be found and with that it would also give off a more creepy atmosphere with no rules or laws.

as the song goes into its next verse the shot changes to the shadow of the bands car telling the audience its now night. the next few changing shots are dark shots of the car as it passes by the camera and then again another shot of the drive with his face only light by blue lighting to again tell the audience the mood of doom and gloom and now creepier factor of a ghost town

As the band starts singing the lyrics again they do a shot with interesting lighting choices by lighting only under their faces to give off more of an eerie tone. then the camera switches to different shots of the street lamp lit roads that the car is driving along and as the song leads back into the non lexical vocables, the scenes start get shorter and snappier showing fast driving scenes and the vocalists beginning to maniacally laugh with short switches between them and their car driving recklessly on the road and even dodging a turn into a wall.

Then the camera switches to a bright light and starts spinning with the bright lights flashing on screen. then the camera slowly and smoothly fades the bright lights to the windscreen again directed at on of the singers with a very monotone facial expression. and to lead to the final scene the camera start to do its spinning light affect to then finish on the shot of the band out of the car by the river thames throwing rocks into it. the band have a brief moment were they acknowledge the camera and pause what they are doing which gives of a great feeling of creepiness to the scene and then they go back to throwing rocks but getting slower and slower with more head turns to the camera until it fades to black.

Notes, dates and cultural, social and historical

• ghost town by the specials was released in June 1981
• Spent 3 weeks at number 1 in the official charts
• In 1981 unemployment rates in the UK were at the high with almost 3 million unemployed. This caused riots and inspired the theme of a ‘Ghost town’
• The unusual diminished chords and weird sounds within the song, represent the strange times of the people.
• the music video conveys meaning as the band are the only people present so they are inside a ‘ghost town’
• In 2002 Jerry Dammers (a member of the band) told the guardian newspaper: “You travelled from town to town and what was happening was terrible. In Liverpool, all the shops were shuttered up, everything was closing down … We could actually see it by touring around. You could see that frustration and anger in the audience. In Glasgow, there were these little old ladies on the streets selling all their household goods, their cups and saucers. It was unbelievable. It was clear that something was very, very wrong.”
• The music video reflects the depressing scenes around the country that the band witnessed on tour.

Background Information

• It is by “The Specials“
• It came out in 1981
• It was number 1 for 3 weeks when it came out
• It was in the UK top 40 list for 10 weeks
• It was single of the year in 1981 and won the NME Best Single
• It was one of the last songs The Specials made before they broke up
• The song was also inspired by the band splitting up and tried to make it relatable to the general public
• The Specials were formed in 1977 and were known for their mix of reggae and punk sound

Cultural, Social and Historical

• The songs themes are urban decay and deindustrialisation, and how that lead to unemployment and violence in cities
• In 1981 unemployment rates in the UK were at the high with almost 3 million unemployed
• 1981 was the height of youth unemployment as the UK reacted to Margaret Thatcher’s cuts and riots were erupting all over the country
• Ghost Town is believed to be a prophecy that sounds like an aftermath as the Ghost Town it describes of is gutted by recession and appears to be the terrain before a riot.
• The song includes lots of unusual sounds to represent the chaos and confusion occurring happening during 1981

Ways music videos create and communicates meaning using media language

• The name of the song is Ghost Town and in the video they are the only people there. It was also shot at night to give it a horror genre look and how we associate bad things happening in the dark at night.
• During the 80s racism was still a big problem and the band members wore dark suits whereas others wore bright clothes; possibly to show this.
• Mid-way through the song the car spins out showing how the unemployment rate in the UK is out of control at the time.

• Ghost Town was released in 1981
• It was produced by John Collins
• Won an NME award for best single
• Stayed at number 1 in the UK charts for 3 weeks

Cultural, Social and Historical Background

• In 1981 the industrial workplace had left cities in poverty and unemployment rates were at the highest level within the UK.
• In 2002 Dammers told The Guardian, “You travelled from town to town and what was happening was terrible. In Liverpool, all the shops were shuttered up, everything was closing down … We could actually see it by touring around. You could see that frustration and anger in the audience. In Glasgow, there were these little old ladies on the streets selling all their household goods, their cups and saucers. It was unbelievable. It was clear that something was very, very wrong.”
• As the band travelled throughout the UK they could evidently see the impact of recession on the country and how it had affected everyday life.
• The song rose significantly in popularity during the time of extreme riots in the country.
• The video’s locations include driving through the Rotherhithe Tunnel and around semi-derelict areas of the East End before ending up in the financial district of the City of London in the early hours of daylight on Sunday morning, where the streets were deserted as it was the weekend. The shots of the band in the car were achieved by attaching a camera to the bonnet using a rubber sucker: Panter recalled that at one point the camera fell off (briefly seen in the finished video at 1:18) and scratched the car’s paintwork, to the displeasure of the car’s owner. The original Ghost Town car can be seen (and sat in) at The Coventry Music Museum.

Communicating Meaning

• The song included a variety of unique and unusual sounds and instruments which was used to reflect the unusual and abnormal times people were living in.
• The clothing used in the video is black suits and brighter clothing, this could be to show the divide between rich and poor at the time in how the lower class workers lived in uncomfortable and worse areas whereas the rich continued their life as normal.

Ghost Town is by a British  band named the Specials and was released on 12 June 1981 and spent three weeks at number one in the uk top 40 charts and was awarded “Single of the Year” in 1981.

‘Ghost town’ was written to targeted the issue of unemployment, urban decay and violence in cities. The song specifically written about the decay where the band grew up in Coventry and places they witnessed decaying on their uk tour in terms of violence increasing and general decline in the city liveliness. The sing was rebased at a time in the uk when and increase in riots occurred due to racial tensions, and many ethnic minorities suffering from low aided jobs and bad housing conditions as well as corruption within police powers which lead to the governments attentions being raised in-order to help.

The music video was directed by Barney Bubbles and consists of bass player Horace Panter driving around London with the band intercut with views of streets and buildings filmed from the moving vehicle of around London ending with a shot of the band standing on the banks of the River Thames.

Cultural, Social and Historical Background

• The tour for the group’s More Specials album in autumn 1980 had been a fraught experience: already tired from a long touring schedule and with several band members at odds with keyboardist and band leader Jerry Dammers over his decision to incorporate “muzak” keyboard sounds on the album, several of the gigs descended into audience violence. 
• The industrial workplace in 1981 in UK had left the city suffering badly and unemployment rates were at the highest level within the UK.
• it was known that in the UK unemployment was heading up to 3 million people
• The video’s locations include driving through the Rotherhithe Tunnel and around semi-derelict areas of the East End before ending up in the financial district of the City of London in the early hours of daylight on Sunday morning, where the streets were deserted as it was the weekend. The shots of the band in the car were achieved by attaching a camera to the bonnet using a rubber sucker: Panter recalled that at one point the camera fell off (briefly seen in the finished video at 1:18) and scratched the car’s paintwork, to the displeasure of the car’s owner. The original Ghost Town car can be seen (and sat in) at The Coventry Music Museum.
• the song is remembered for being a hit at the same time as riots were occurring in British cities
• In 2002 Dammers told The Guardian, “You travelled from town to town and what was happening was terrible. In Liverpool, all the shops were shuttered up, everything was closing down … We could actually see it by touring around. You could see that frustration and anger in the audience. In Glasgow, there were these little old ladies on the streets selling all their household goods, their cups and saucers. It was unbelievable. It was clear that something was very, very wrong.”
• Jo-Ann Greene of Allmusic notes that the lyrics “only brush on the causes for this apocalyptic vision—the closed down clubs, the numerous fights on the dancefloor, the spiraling unemployment, the anger building to explosive levels. But so embedded were these in the British psyche, that Dammers needed only a minimum of words to paint his picture.^“ The club referred to in the song was the Locarno (run by the Mecca Leisure Group and later renamed Tiffanys), a regular haunt of Neville Staple and Lynval Golding, and which is also named as the club in “Friday Night, Saturday Morning”, one of the songs on the B-side. The building which housed the club is now Coventry Central Library.
•  As they travelled around the country the band witnessed sights that summed up the depressed mood of a country gripped by recession

The Specials-Ghost Town

Background Information/Facts

• Released 12th June 1981

•  Jo-Ann Greene of Allmusic notes that the lyrics “only brush on the causes for this apocalyptic vision.” —the closed down clubs, the numerous fights on the dancefloor, the spiraling unemployment, the anger building to explosive levels. 

• In an interview in 2011, Dammers explained how witnessing this event inspired his composition: “The overall sense I wanted to convey was impending doom”

• The song’s sparse lyrics address urban decay, unemployment and violence in inner cities.

• The group got ideas and inspiration from touring in the 1980s

• It was the last song recorded by the band before splitting up

• The song spent 3 weeks at No.1 and 10 weeks on the top 40 uk charts

• The band started in 1977 and broke up in 1981

• three of the major UK music magazines of the time awarded “Ghost Town” the accolade of “Single of the Year” for 1981

• The Specials record label/company was 2 Tone

• The video, directed by Barney Bubbles, consists of bass player Panter driving the band around London in a 1961 Vauxhall Cresta

• The video’s locations include driving through the “Rotherhithe Tunnel” and around semi-derelict areas of the East End before ending up in the financial district of the City of London in the early hours of daylight on Sunday morning, where the streets were deserted as it was the weekend.