Judith Butler describes gender as “an identity instituted through a stylized repetition of acts”. In other words it is something learnt through repeated performance.
How useful is this idea in understanding how gender is represented in Music Videos?
Refer in detail to your chosen style models
style models
– young rising sons – high
the concept of orientalism can be applied to commons Letter to the Free, as commons music/video tries to change the stereotypes that have been given to black americans.
It was been produced to inspire people to gain more knowledge about their culture and heritage.
the music video aims to show the ‘hail’ the audience, in order to make them aware of the racism in the USA, caused by the 13th amendment. Throughout their lyrics, they use words to describe the situation of racism. for example “the caged birds sings fro freedom” “black bodies being lost in american dream”
it shows multi cultures, between white, black and jamaican culture. They mix the cultures together to educate people on other cultures – mixed reggae and rock together.
they used it to bring cultures together and gain knowledge about the problems in uk during that time, such as unemployment.
it was made to address the audience about the violence, unemployment problems in the uk during that time. “Government leaving the youth on the shelf’ they are acknowledging the problems that need to be changed and they use this to get the audience to engage and fight for change.
Representation and identity
Race and ethnicity through empire and colonialism (Atlantic slave trade)
The link between culture, imperial power and colonialism
Culture creates an accepted grid for filtering through he orient into western consciousness
V.G.Kiernan quote An economic system like a nation or a religion, lives not by bread alone, but by beliefs, visions, daydreams as well, and these may be no less vital to it for being erroneous
Edward Said The power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism
Paul Gilroy A civilizing mission that had to conceal its own systematic brutality in order to be effective and attractive
We are socially constructed and only understand who we are by exploring the other
ISA
Ideological State Apparatus
Hailing / interpolation the way you are called and others view you therefore how you view yourself
The dominant ideas are those of the ruling class
wretched of the earth 1961
Hybridity and ambiguity in culture cultural poly valence (many cultures)
We are looking at post-colonialism, specifically looking at identity and representation through the lens of Empire and Colonialism.
Orientalism
Orientalism is the stereotyping the East from the viewpoint of the West (Europe). This view is typically that people and the culture from the East is lesser than the Wests.
” the power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism ” – Edward Said Culture and Imperialism, 1993: xiii
Edward said, the link between culture, imperial power and colonialism ‘the power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism’,‘an accepted grid for filtering through the Orient into Western consciousness‘. Media is not neutral, western culture defines the orient as a lesser culture due to stereotypes. ‘an economic system like a nation or a religion, lives not by bread alone, but by beliefs, visions, daydreams as well, and these may be no less vital to it for being erroneous’
The Orient as the ‘Other’
In his book Orientalism, Edward Said, points out that ‘the Orient has helped to define Europe (Or the West) as its contrasting image, idea, personality, experience [as] . . . One of its deepest and most recurring images of the Other’. So what does this mean? What is the ‘Other’?
This means the recognition of the ‘Other’ is mainly attributed the French philosopher and psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. A good way to develop an understanding of this term is in his exploration of the mirror stage of child development, whereby, as we cannot actually see ourselves as whole, we use a reflection to understand who we are / who we are not. Lacan proposed that in infancy this first recognition occurs when we see ourselves in a mirror. Applying that theory to culture, communications and media studies, it is possible to see why we are so obsessed with reading magazines, listening to music, watching films, videos and television because, essentially, we are exploring ‘The Other’ as a way of exploring ourselves.
Louis Althusser: ISA’s & the notion of ‘Interpellation‘
‘All ideology hails or interpellates concrete individuals as concrete subjects, through the functioning of the category of the subject’.
Ideological state apparatus (ISA), is a theoretical concept developed by (Algerian born) French philosopher Louis Althusser, which is used to describe the way in which structures of civic society (education, culture, the arts, the family, religion, bureaucracy, administration etc) which keeps people in there place. ‘the ruling ideology, which is the ideology of ‘the ruling class’.
Frantz Fanon
In terms of post-colonialism, we can look at The Wretched of the Earth (1961), by Frantz Fanon, which for many is a key text in the development and ancestry of postcolonial criticism. Fanon was born in the French colony of Martinique and appears to recognise the ‘mechanics of colonialism and its effects of those it ensnared’ (McLeod 2000:20) when he remembers how he felt when, in France, white strangers pointed out his blackness, his difference, with derogatory phrases such as ‘dirty Nigger!’ or ‘look, a Negro!’
These articulated the way he was constructed as ‘other’ specifically through the way he was hailed, called, perceived and understood. ‘Colonialised’ people to reclaim their own past by finding a voice and an identity.
Antonio Gramsci – Hegemonic Struggle and the Chance to Reclaim
‘From America, black voices will take up the hymn with fuller unison. The ‘black world’ will see the light’ – Frantz Fanon ‘on national culture’
Hegemony is a tug of war for power, and that the balance of power can be changed, how certain cultural forms predominate over others, which means that certain ideas are more influential than other, post colonialism articulates a desire to reclaim, re-write and re-establish cultural identity and thus maintain power of The Empire.
Syncretism, double consciousness & hybridisation
“Ain’t No Black In The Union Jack” — A proposal for a new flag for the UK and other socially engaged art work by Gil Mualem-Doron
Paul Gilroy is insistent that ‘we must become interested in how the literary and cultural as well as governmental dynamics of the country have responded to that process of change and what it can tell us about the place of racism in contemporary political culture.’ (2004:13) His theme of Double Consciousness, derived from W. E. B. Dubois, involves ‘Black Atlantic’ striving to be both European and Black through their relationship to the land of their birth and their ethnic political constituency.
As with much postcolonial criticism the aim to understand and reconcile individual and national identity. Gilroy highlights Enoch Powell’s notorious 1968 ‘rivers of blood speech’ full of the ‘terrifying prospect of a wholesale reversal of the proper ordering of colonial power . . . intensified by feelings of resentment, rejection, and fear at the prospect of open interaction with others.’ (2004:111) Put presciently, ‘it has subsequently provided the justification for many a preemptive strike’.
The stress on ‘cross-cultural’ interactions is indeed a characteristic of postcolonial criticism. Often found by foregrounding questions of cultural difference and diversity, as well as by celebrating ‘hybridity’, ‘ambiguity’ and ‘cultural polyvalency’. A unique position where ‘individuals may simultaneously belong to more than one culture – the coloniser and the colonised’. (2016:198) Even Fanon suggests an emphasis on identity as ‘doubled, or ‘hybrid’, or ‘unstable’.
Definitions
Ghost Town by The Specials
Ghost Town by The Specials conveys a specific moment in British social and political history while retaining a contemporary relevance. The cultural critic Dorian Lynskey has described it as ‘’a remarkable pop cultural moment’’ one that “defined an era’’. The video and song are part of a tradition of protest in popular music, in this case reflecting concern about the increased social tensions in the UK at the beginning of the 1980s. The song was number 1 in the UK charts, post-Brixton and during the Handsworth and Toxteth riots.
The aesthetic of the music video, along with the lyrics, represents an unease about the state of the nation, one which is often linked to the politics of Thatcherism but transcends a specific political ideology in its eeriness, meaning that it has remained politically and culturally resonant.
The representations in the music video are racially diverse. This reflects its musical genre of ska, a style which could be read politically in the context of a racially divided country. This representation of Britain’s emerging multiculturalism, is reinforced through the eclectic mix of stylistic influences in both the music and the video.
Questions – Letter to the Free
looking at identity and representation through the lens of Empire and Colonialism.
perspective of the Atlantic salve trade:
orientalism: the power to narrate, or block other narratives from forming or emerging is very important to culture and imperialism = Edward Said
he suggested that culture is important as violence for creating “an accepted grid for filtering through the orient into western consciousness”
black slavery is done through belief, visions
as he came from middle east – he wanted to recognise that the non white doesnt have the power to narrate = dominant cultures ‘(white slave traders)
Orientism – ‘distort your vision’
postcolonial criticism challenges the assumption of a universal claim
Paul Gilroy puts it, ‘a civilising mission that had to conceal its own systematic brutality in order to be effective and attractive’
Jacques Lacan – theory of the orient as the other
Louis Althusser – theory of interpellation – ideology hails or interpellates concrete individuals as concrete subjects, through the functioning of the category of the subject
= ideology state apparatus (ISA)
Frantz Fanon – ‘mechanics of colonialism and its effects of those it ensnared”
came up with a 3 point plan:
antontio gamschi – hegemony – culture/society changes and shift (nothing is fixed – things move: cuture, power.
use the culture to challenge
media creates things to have the potential to change society, power, in the concept of hegemony:”the last poets” – “niggers are scared of revolution”
Britain haas a multi cultural community = workers from India, and other cultures come to work in Britain after the ww2
hybrid identity
ambrigurity = unsure
cultural polyvalency = having many cultural identities
immigrants grow up listening to reggae – living in Britain -becomes aware of rock – two tone expression (merge of two genres of music)
Paul Gilroy (British, black academic = ‘we must become interested in how the literary and cultural as well as governmental dynamics of the country have responded to that process of change and what it can tell us about the place of racism in contemporary political culture.’
talks about double consciousness = Paul developed from a black American W.E.B Dubois (talks about being a American black ‘split identity’ – thinking about two things – talks about being black and British (double consciousness)
Black History
Letter To the Free- Common :
Orientalism is the link between culture, imperial power and colonialism. The concept of orientalism can be linked to “Letter to the Free”, especially because of the prison-based setting, which emphasises how what used to be a mainly white-skinned government opposed African-Americans and instead of bringing equality, they imprisoned African-Americans based on their black skin colour. This imprisonment could also be based on the stereotypes held against black people as they are seen as the “criminals” in films and due to the upbringing of society, people held these beliefs of what they saw in films and applied it to the real life world. However, in the song, Common is emphasising how slavery, racism and this stereotype of African-Americans being “criminals” is still occurring in the 21st century. This is shown by the lyrics mentioned in the song such as “The American Dream”, which is the idea of equality across America and the hope for freedom in the US. However, Common juxtaposes this “American Dream” by mentioning the “Jim Crow Laws”, which were laws set in place to enforce racial segregation to the Southern States of America. Many African-Americans opposed the Jim Crow Laws and instead protested to try and emphasise that they want freedom, which is what spurred historical events such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the African-Americans sitting at the “White” chairs in Woolworths, Greensboro.
Fanon’s 3 phase plan can be applied to Common’s ‘Letter to the Free”. For example, phase 1 is the assimilation of colonial culture which corresponds to the ‘mother country’. Phase 1 is shown in “Letter to the Free” through the introduction, in which the audience are presented with Common appearing in a prison, although the camera enters the prison, thus emphasising the open door as an opportunity for freedom, Common is seen in the prison singing, emphasising how black people are mistreated and “imprisoned”, juxtaposing the freedom that the white people have. Phase 2 is immersion into an “authentic culture” and is shown in the music video by Common removing the stereotypes held against black people. This is shown through the lyrics, in which Common is standing up for the mistreatment of black people and is emphasising how it is wrong to mistreat people based on their skin colour. Finally, the 3rd phase is fighting, revolutionary and ‘the mouthpiece of a new reality in action’. This links to “Letter to the Free” because the symbol of the black box can be seen as revolutionary as it can be seen as an emphasis that black lives are revolutionary and the. box could emphasise how they are there. Phase 3 can also be applied to the music video as it is a source of motivation to encourage black people to speak out and the black and white video, emphasises how the message is more important than colour, thus meaning the use of black and white brings the attention to the message.
The use of different shots and eerie “prison music” (chains clattering) makes it appear as if the listener is taking a tour through the prison and the use of empty shots, create an eerie feel and make it feel as if the prison could be abandoned, thus creating a sense of disturbance and a horror feel, in which the eery setting could be to emphasise how it felt for black people being put in prison due to the colour of their skin. A black box constantly appears and is floating, and the shots of empty jail cells zoom into this black box, in which the shot appears in the chorus of “freedom”. Therefore, it is apparent that the black infinite box is a subliminal message that black is infinite and the infinite box represent the hopes and dreams of black people. The setting of the prison also lacks lights, and is quite dark, creating an eerie feeling and therefore making it seem scary to emphasise how black people felt. Loneliness can also be presented by the use of shots of long, empty corridors and the lack of people, thus emphasising the loneliness that black people faced.
Ghost Town – the Specials:
Hybridity is shown in the music video through the use of both black and white band members. Hybridity is also shown by the combination of ska and punk rock music, in which ska music originated from Jamaica, whereas punk rock music originated from the US. This means there has been a hybridity of two very different music genres and also a hybridity of different cultures. Ambiguity is presented in the introduction of the music video, the drive through the empty streets, as it can present a different message based on age, ethnicity, and gender, however, the introduction shot is mainly to emphasise the empty streets that have been introduced due to the high lack of unemployment and nobody going out to work. Finally, Cultural polyvalence is when you belong to more then one culture and is shown by the band members, who are all of different ethnicities and their combination of different ethnicity allow them to experience other cultures.
Phase 1 is shown by the combination of both ska and punk rock music, which are bringing different cultures together since ska originated in Jamaica, whereas punk rock originated in the US. Phase 2 is shown by the lack of people in the “Ghost Town” and the title “Ghost Town”, which gives the sense of loneliness and lack of employment. However, this juxtaposes the reality because during the employment crisis, there were many protests and riots, however the name “Ghost Town” could link to loneliness and a lack of people, which is not the case. Finally, phase 3 can be applied to this music video there is a resolution of the band all together, throwing rocks on the beach. They appear to be having a good time and there is no racism occurring, which emphasises an ideal world which is without any racism.
Similar to Common’s “Letter to the Free”, the black and white shots at the beginning can create an eerie feeling and the title “Ghost Town” could link to the horror genre, thus emphasising the scary reality of that society and the “Ghost Town” and riots occurring due to the employment crisis. The shots in the beginning also appear to be recorded in first person, the view of what the band members can see, which makes it feel as if the audience is with the and and also experiencing this ‘reality’ as well. The band also appear to break the ‘fourth wall’ by looking directly at the camera, which could appear as if they are trying to establish a relationship with the audience and are trying to send a message directly to the audience.
Jacques Lacan – Mirror Stage (First time children see themselves in the mirror – unnerving. Only see what they aren’t not what they are.)
Louis Althusser: ISA’s & the notion of ‘Interpellation’:
Frantz Fanon
Syncretism, Double Consciousness & Hybridisation
Black History
Dubois
Antonio Gramsci – Hegemony: struggle for a better society.
source link: http://mymediacreative.com/
we are looking at identity and representation through the lens of Empire and Colonialism.
“The power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism“
Edward Said Culture and Imperialism, 1993: xiii
‘In this view, the outlying regions of the world have no life, history or culture to speak of, no independence or integrity worth representing without the West.‘ (Said, 1993: xxi). Orientalism (1978) alongside Culture and Imperialism (1993) are key texts written by the respected academic Edward Said. He asked if ‘imperialism was principally economic‘ and looked to answer that question by highlighting ‘the privileged role of culture in the modern imperial experience’ (1997:3)
‘An economic system like a nation or a religion, lives not by bread alone, but by beliefs, visions, daydreams as well, and these may be no less vital to it for being erroneous’
V. G. Kiernan (American: The New Imperialism) (cit in Said, 1993:350)
The mode is characterised by ‘the desire to contain the intangibilities of the East within a western lucidity, but this gesture of appropriation only partially conceals the obsessive fear.’ (Suleri, 1987:255)
Similarly, ‘the East becomes the repository or projection of those aspects of themselves which Westerners do not choose to acknowledge (cruelty, sensuality, decadence, laziness and so on). At the same time, and paradoxically, the East is seen as a fascinating realm of the exotic, the mystical and the seductive.’ (Barry, 2017:195)
Overall, POSTCOLONIALISM operates a series of signs maintaining the European-Atlantic power over the Orient by creating ‘an accepted grid for filtering through the Orient into Western consciousness‘. (Said, 1978:238). Or as Paul Gilroy puts it, ‘a civilising mission that had to conceal its own systematic brutality in order to be effective and attractive’ (2004:8)
Postcolonial critical thought emerged as a distinct category in the 1990’s, with an aim to undermine the universalist claims that ‘great literature has a timeless and universal significance [which] thereby demotes or disregards cultural, social, regional, and nations differences in experience and outlook’ (Barry, 2017: 194). In other words, postcolonial criticism challenges the assumption of a universal claim towards what constitutes ‘good reading’ and ‘good literature’; questioning the notion of a recognised and overarching canon of important cultural texts – book, poems, plays, films etc – much of which is institutionalised into academic syllabi.
The arguments around postcolonial critical thought ‘constituted a fundamentally important political act’ (MacLoed, 200: 16)
For an interesting and consise overview of the development of ‘literary canons’ in literature, read Chapter 1 ‘Theory before Theory’ (particulary Literary Theorising from Aristotle to Leavis) in Beginning Theory by Peter Barry link here for extracts.
In his book Orientalism, Edward Said, points out that ‘the Orient has helped to define Europe (Or the West) as its contrasting image, idea, personality, experience [as] . . . One of its deepest and most recurring images of the Other’. So what does this mean? What is the ‘Other’?
Often discussed by contempoary philosopher Slavoj Zizek, the recognition of the ‘Other’ is mainly attributed the French philosopher and psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. A good way to develop an understanding of this term is in his exploration of the mirror stage of child development, whereby, as we cannot actually see ourselves as whole, we use a reflection to understand who we are / who we are not. Lacan proposed that in infancy this first recognition occurs when we see ourselves in a mirror. Applying that theory to culture, communications and media studies, it is possible to see why we are so obsessed with reading magazines, listening to music, watching films, videos and television because, essentially, we are exploring ‘The Other’ as a way of exploring ourselves.
“all ideology hails or interpellates concrete individuals as concrete subjects, through the functioning of the category of the subject”
Ideological state apparatus (ISA), is a theoretical concept developed by (Algerian born) French philosopher Louis Althusser which is used to describe the way in which structures of civic society – education, culture, the arts, the family, religion, bureaucracy, administration etc serve to structure the ideological perspectives of society, which in turn form our individual subject identity. According to Althusser, ‘the category of the subject . . . is the category constitutive of all ideology’ (214:188). In other words, we are socially constructed and what socially constructs us is ‘despite its diversity and contradictions . . . the ruling ideology, which is the ideology of ‘the ruling class’,’
Althusser noted that individuals often believe that they are ‘outside ideology’ and suggested the notion of ‘interpellation‘ as a way to recognise the formation of ideology. In that ideology ‘acts’ or ‘functions’ in such a way as to recruit subjects among individuals. In other words, the way in which society calls / addresses / hails you is interpellation, which is the way in which your subject identity is formed and which, more often than not, corresponds to the dominant ideology.
” ‘Ideology ‘acts’ or ‘functions’ in such a way to ‘recruit’ subjects among individuals . . . through the very precise operation that we call interpellation or hailing.”
Althusser 2014:190
hailing=following
interpellation= of an ideology or discourse) bring into being or give identity to (an individual or category).
In terms of postcolonialism, we can look at The Wretched of the Earth (1961), by Frantz Fanon, which for many (Barry, 2017, McLeod 2000 etc) is a key text in the development and ancestry of postcolonial criticism. Fanon was born in the French colony of Martinique and appears to recognise the ‘mechanics of colonialism and its effects of those it ensnared‘ (McLeod 2000:20) when he remembers how he felt when, in France, white strangers pointed out his blackness, his difference, with derogatory phrases such as ‘dirty Nigger!’ or ‘look, a Negro!’ (ibid).
In other words, what we have in this section of The Wretched of the Earth is a black man living in France, articulating the way he was constructed as ‘other’ specifically through the way he was hailed, called, perceived and understood i.e. interpellated by other ‘subjects’ of France, who clearly saw him through the lens of Empire – racial stereotyping, derogatory abuse – as acceptable social interaction. And if you think that is something of the past, look at the tweet received by ex-England international footballer Ian Wright (just posted when I was writing this blog post) or any number of racist incidents that occur everyday in your country, town, city, community and neighborhood. To recognise these incidents is to recognise the concept of ‘interpellation’ and which in terms of POSTCOLONIALISM is through the lens of Empire.
‘from America, black voices will take up the hymn with fuller unison. The ‘black world’ will see the light’
FRANTZ Fanon ‘on national culture’
As an early critical thinker of postcolonialism, Frantz Fanon took an active role, proposing the first step required for ‘colonialised’ people to reclaim their own past by finding a voice and an identity. The second, is to begin to erode the colonialist ideology by which that past had been devalued. (Barry, 2017:195). In the chapter ‘On National Culture’ (pp;168-178) Fanon presents three phases of action ‘which traces the work of native writers’:
‘It is well known that Alhussser drew part of his inspiration from Gramsci’ (Althusser, 2016: xxiv) the way in which class relations and subject is ‘exercised through a whole set of institutions . . . the place where encounters between private individuals occur.’ (ibid)
However, Gramsci suggests that power relations can be understood as a hegemonic struggle through culture. In other words, Gramsci raises the concept of Hegemony to illustrate how certain cultural forms predominate over others, which means that certain ideas are more influential than others, usually in line with the dominant ideas, the dominant groups and their corresponding dominant interests. In terms of postcolonialism Said, notes how ‘consent is gained and continuously consolidated for the distant rule of native people and territories’ (1993:59). However, this form of cultural leadership is a process of (cultural) negotiation where consent is gained through persuasion, inculcation and acceptance. Where dominant ideas, attitudes and beliefs (= ideology) are slowly, subtly woven into our very being, so that they become ‘common sense’, a ‘normal’, ‘sensible’, obvious’ way of comprehending and acting in the world.
For example, a way of reiterating European superiority over Oriental backwardness though image, sound, word, text, which in terms of postcolonialism, is ‘a flexible positional superiority, which puts the Westerner in a whole series of possible relationships with the Orient without ever losing him the relative upper hand.’ (Said, 1987:228) In other words, ‘being a white man was therefore an idea and a reality.’ (ibid). However, hegemony is a struggle that emerges from NEGOTIATION and CONSENT. As such, it is not total domination (not totalitarianism or explicit propoganda) but a continual exchange of power, through ideas. In this sense, postcolonialism articulates a desire to reclaim, re-write and re-establish cultural identity and thus maintain power of The Empire – even if the Empire has gone. Put another way, it is the power of representation, played out in the realm of the cultural and civic, looking to make an affect on the political and economic.
‘According to Said , ‘Imperialism did not end, did not suddenly become ‘past’ . . . A legacy of connections still binds countries . . . a vast new population . . . from former colonial territories now resides in metropolitan Europe’ (1993:341).
Indeed, in 1982, Noam Chomsky indicated that ‘new forms of domination will have to be devised to ensure that privileged segments of Western industrial society maintain substantial control over global resources, human and material, and benefit disproportionately from this control.’ (cited Said, 1993:343). But as we have already seen, culture is both accepting and subverting, reactionary and radical. It is also an evolutionary and organic means of expression and understanding that develops out of specific historical moments of interaction.
So the idea of a MEDIA LITERACY is to equip students with knowledge and understanding that allows them to see the legacy of connections. So that rather acting as an accepting, passive consumer of media texts, they are able to actively engage in the process of meaning-making. Breaking down the layers of construction to grasp the sociological history behind the message. This can be found in any text that you may be asked to look at for your course of studies. At present in the AQA Media Studies A level, students are asked to look at music videos by Common – Letter to the Free, and The Specials- Ghost Town. So in the next section, we can apply some of the ideas that we have presented so far.
“Ain’t No Black In The Union Jack” — A proposal for a new flag for the UK and other socially engaged art work by Gil Mualem-Doron
link here
Paul Gilroy is insistent that ‘we must become interested in how the literary and cultural as well as governmental dynamics of the country have responded to that process of change and what it can tell us about the place of racism in contemporary political culture.’ (2004:13)
His theme of Double Consciousness, derived from W. E. B. Dubois, involves ‘Black Atlantic’ striving to be both European and Black through their relationship to the land of their birth and their ethnic political constituency follow this wiki link for more on this point.
As with much postcolonial criticism the aim to understand and reconcile individual and national identity. Gilroy highlights Enoch Powell’s notorious 1968 ‘rivers of blood speech’ full of the ‘terrifying prospect of a wholesale reversal of the proper ordering of colonial power . . . intensified by feelings of resentment, rejection, and fear at the prospect of open interaction with others.’ (2004:111) Put presciently, ‘it has subsequently provided the justification for many a preemptive strike
Often found by foregrounding questions of cultural difference and diversity, as well as by celebrating ‘hybridity’, ‘ambiguity’ and ‘cultural polyvalency’. A unique position where ‘individuals may simultaneously belong to more than one culture – the coloniser and the colonised’. (2016:198) Even Fanon suggests an emphasis on identity as ‘doubled, or ‘hybrid’, or ‘unstable’.
Ghost Town by The Specials conveys a specific moment in British social and political history while retaining a contemporary relevance. The cultural critic Dorian Lynskey has described it as ‘’a remarkable pop cultural moment’’ one that “defined an era’’. The video and song are part of a tradition of protest in popular music, in this case reflecting concern about the increased social tensions in the UK at the beginning of the 1980s. The song was number 1 in the UK charts, post-Brixton and during the Handsworth and Toxteth riots.
The aesthetic of the music video, along with the lyrics, represents an unease about the state of the nation, one which is often linked to the politics of Thatcherism but transcends a specific political ideology in its eeriness, meaning that it has remained politically and culturally resonant.
The representations in the music video are racially diverse. This reflects its musical genre of ska, a style which could be read politically in the context of a racially divided country. This representation of Britain’s emerging multiculturalism, is reinforced through the eclectic mix of stylistic influences in both the music and the video.
Syncretism, double consciousness & hybridisation
these words are mechanisms for understanding cross-cultural identities.
paul Gilroy (british black accademic) writes about it (grab quote) maybe the place of racism in contemporary political culture.’
His theme of Double Consciousness, derived(developed the idea) from W. E. B. Dubois, <- talked about being black and american
(D.C) is the idea of being black & British or black and american being both
uses the term the vail in video w.e.b
edward cied talks about culture look more into orientalism
stuart hall
Representation of race and identity specifically looking through the lenses of post colonialism Atlantic slave trade.
KEY DEFINITIONS:
EDWARD SAID
“the power to narrate or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism”
Edward Said
JAQUES LACAN
LOUIS AlTHUSEER
GRAMSCI
FRANTZ FRANON
PAUL GILROY
Overview
Orientalism
The Orient as the “other”
Louis Althusser: ISA’s & the notion of ‘Interpellation’
Frantz Fanon
Hegemony (Gramsci)
Syncretism, double consciousness & hybridisation
Theorists Quotes