Q2: Explain how representations used in Music Videos communicate information about their cultural and political contexts.
The Specials, who are an English band formed in 1977, produced a song called The Ghost Town, that was released on the 12th of June in 1981. This song managed to spend 3 weeks at no. 1 and 10 weeks in total on the UK Singles chart Top 40. Their music combines a danceable ska and rocksteady beat with punk energy. The binary opposition theory by Levi-Strauss can be linked to this song because there are 2 contrasting genres of music, which is Ska and Jazz.
Being in the top charts, helped them address the themes of urban decay, deindustrialization, unemployment and violence around the UK. They had confused their audience by producing “The Ghost Town” is it seemed different. The title track incorporated discordant horns, haunted chords and demonic vocal harmonies that was uncomfortable to listen to. Jerry Dammers, who was the keyboard player, stated that “the overall sense I wanted to convey was impending doom.”
The song was inspired by the economic state that the band saw when touring the UK. Local businesses were closing down and people were becoming unemployed. They said that “we were touring the country and we could literally see it happening.” They addressed the problems throughout their lyrics, referencing to the violence that was shown at their shows. When they noticed this violence, they decided to quit touring.
The St Pauls riots in Bristol 1980 happened due to police employing stop and search tactics on minorities. 130 people were arrested, 25 taken to hospital, including 19 police involved. Other similar situations started to occur, which was addressed in the song lyrics “the people getting angry”.
To give the song a gloomier atmosphere, the lighting of the music video was made to be very dark. This would have suggested the idea of a ghost town. during the middle of the music video, around 1min 13secs, a car swerves out of control. This could possibly signify how the employment situation in the UK at the time of 1981, unfortunately blew out of control. Through research, I’ve seen that 1981 was the height of employment, due to Margaret Thatcher’s decisions on closing down businesses, because they went “profitable”. This was what made the riots erupt all over the country.
The strong political message of the video is a challenge to the audience with a direct mode of address which is both angry and plaintive. The video was unusual for the time in conveying a strong social message (in contrast to the dominant style of pop music in the charts at the time), meaning that the audience of the time might well have been shocked or discomfited by it.
Finally, there is a hybrid mix of references the music video forms, as there’s an experimental combination of narrative, performance and concept. This means that the video can be read through a postmodern approach with reference to intertextuality and hybridity.