PAUL GILROY
Paul Gilroy is an English sociologist and cultural studies scholar, who explores the construction of racial ‘otherness’ as an underlying presence within print media communication during the 1970s and 80s. `He famously argues that criminalised representations of black males in media are a misrepresentation that hurts the reputation of the black community.
Racial otherness- Gilroy’s study of black representation ‘There ain’t no black in the union jack’ – focuses on the story of UK race relationships from WW2.
Post-colonial melancholia- Substandard living conditions produced racial representations. There were intensified fears that immigrant communities would fill up Britain.
GHOST TOWN
“Released on 20 June 1981 against a backdrop of rising unemployment” – Jon Kelly
“it expressed the mood of the early days of Thatcher’s Britain for many.” – Jon Kelly
“By mid-1981, the UK was already tense following April’s riots in Brixton” – Jon Kelly
“It sums up how it felt to be young at the time,” – Les Back, professor of sociology at Goldsmiths
THE GUARDIAN
“Despairing of rising unemployment and frustrated by the most unpopular government of the post-war era” – Alexis Petridis
“the worst mainland rioting of the century broke out in Britain’s cities and towns.” – Alexis Petridis
“Clearly the Specials and a whole generation had been hugely inspired by what had happened with punk, culturally, socially and politically,” – Alexis Petridis
“post-war wave of immigration…produced a series of anxieties”
“In the two decades following the Second World War… intensified fears that immigrant communities might swamp white Britain”
PAUL GILROY
On the BBC website, Jon Kelly it states:
– Released on 20 June 1981 against a backdrop of rising unemployment.
– Britain’s streets erupted with rioting 3 weeks later, a day before “Ghost town” was number 1 on the charts.
– With a mix of black and white members, The Specials, too, encapsulated Britain’s multiculturalism.
– Specials gigs began to attract the hostile presence of groups like the National Front and the British Movement.
On the guardian website, Neil Spencer states:
– It was the punk’s “summer of hate”, 1977 where people had spiky haircuts, a ripped t-shirt and a sawn-off school tie.
“THERE AINT NO BLACK IN THE UNION JACK”
CLAUDE LEVI-STRAUSS (BINARY OPPOSITIONS)
– He suggested that myths were used to deal with the contradictions in experience,
– This theory suggests that NARRATIVES (=myths) are STRUCTURED around BINARY OPPOSITIONS eg: good v evil; human v alien; young v old etc.
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PAUL GILROY
Paul Gilroy, an English sociologist and cultural studies scholar, explores the construction of racial ‘otherness’ as an underlying presence within print media communication during the 1970s and 80s, and argues that criminalised representations of black males regularly pour scorn on the black community.
When it comes to the 1990s, Gilroy diagnoses the existence of a media induced ‘post-colonial melancholia’ as a representational response to the UK’s declining global position in the late 1990s – a decline as a result of the loss of the post-war Empire (which the media quietens down with stories infused with Union Jack waving nostalgia. For Gilroy, those stories are also underscored by racial misrepresentations and the amplification of multicultural disharmony in the UK.
Ska story: the sound of angry young England:
The main irony of the Specials’ songs, and in fact of the entire ska movement, was that lurking just beneath the “happy,” infectious dance beat were often chilling stories of the racial divisiveness and economic deprivation that characterized the dawning of the Thatcher era.
Reggae: the sound that revolutionised Britain:
The two looks represented the different worlds inhabited by young white and black Britain, worlds which a year previously had been remote from each other but which by the summer of 1977 were unexpectedly and often uncomfortably rubbing shoulders.
The Specials: How Ghost Town Defined an Era:
Released on 20 June 1981 against a backdrop of rising unemployment, its blend of melancholy, unease and menace took on an entirely new meaning when Britain’s streets erupted into rioting almost three weeks later – the day before Ghost Town reached number one in the charts.
Abigail Gardner Ghost Town: A Haunting 1981 Protest Song That Still Makes Sense Today:
Perhaps because “Ghost Town” cannot be “placed”. It’s not explicitly against any one event. It does not exhort its listeners into any one particular political view. It is not part of any one social movement for change. It is, rather, a stealth protest song.
Alexis Petridis (Guardian music journalist)
As Ghost Town reached number one, its lyrics were horribly borne out. “Can’t go on no more,” sang the Specials, “the people getting angry.” As if on cue, the worst mainland rioting of the century broke out in Britain’s cities and towns. For the first and only time, British pop music appeared to be commenting on the news as it happened.
Directed by the graphic designer Barney Bubbles:
Barney Bubbles defined the look of the British psychedelic movement of the ’60s, then seemed to recede from sight. He resurfaced a few years later, helping to establish the aesthetic of British punk, then did the same for post-punk.
Binary:
Binary means 2 things that are opposite. For example, a male and a female in a film and show how different the characters are and how they play it. This is the form of narrative structure which is the low point of it. You could also suggest who has more power male or female and present how each character is preferred in the matter of binary talking.
BBC News – John Kelly
Released on 20 June 1981 against a backdrop of rising unemployment, its blend of melancholy, unease and menace took on an entirely new meaning when Britain’s streets erupted into rioting almost three weeks later – the day before Ghost Town reached number one in the charts.
But, clearly, it expressed the mood of the early days of Thatcher’s Britain for many. “It was clear that something was very, very, wrong,”
With a mix of black and white members, The Specials, too, encapsulated Britain’s burgeoning multiculturalism. The band’s 2 Tone record label gave its name to a genre which fused ska, reggae and new wave and, in turn, inspired a crisply attired youth movement.
Britain’s streets erupted into rioting the day before Ghost Town reached number one in the charts. This was due to Ghost Town being released on Released on 20 June 1981 against a backdrop of rising unemployment. it expressed the mood of the early days of Thatcher’s Britain for many. “It was clear that something was very, very, wrong,” the song’s writer, Jerry Dammers, has said. – Source (BBC, Jon Kelly)
The band was made up of white and black singers, at the time this was known as 2 Tone due to the record labels name to a genre which fused ska, reggae and new wave and, in turn, inspired a crisply attired youth movement. Vocalist Neville Staple said in Ghost Town that there was “too much fighting on the dance floor”, he sang from personal experience. The Specials to announce a gig promoting racial unity in their city on the day of Ghost Town’s release; the National Front announced a march in the area on the same day. By the evening of 10 July, Ghost Town was a number one single.
racial otherness – Gilroy studied the importance of black representation. The ‘ There ain’t no black in the Union Jack relates back to the race relations from the Second World war. Thus where the poster-war wave of immigration from the West Indies produced a series of worries and anxieties regarding immigrant behaviour. The black community are constructed as a racial ‘other’ in the predominantly white world of 1950s Britain. There were worries that immigrant communities would swamp / take over white Britain. These fears were further noted in the news in late 1970s and 1980s and routed the black community with assaults, muggings and other violent crimes. The study was called “There Ain’t No Black In The Union Jack” where he focused on how newspapers were lurid and racist towards black people.
Post-colonial Melancholia: Racial representations were “fixed in a matrix between the imagery of squalor and that of sordid sexuality” Gilroy argued that this was gated the black community out by saying they are a “other” race in the majority white Britain. The story of UK race relations post W.W. 2 : In 1950’s, the black community such as Indians and the Caribbean came to England as ‘we’ were in desperate need of filled job spaces.
The story of UK race relations post W.W. 2: After Gilroy’s study of how black people and immigrants where being pushed aside by people instead of being included and recognised. After that, 2 decades later, Britain was flooded with “fear” that immigrants and other races were going to “swamp” Britain.
Legacy of the Empire : Gilroy suggests that we live in ‘morbid culture of a once-imperial nation that has not been able to accept its inevitable loss of prestige’. England couldn’t accept the fact that it was loosing its empire power.
the search for albion – albionic nostalgia is a representation of Englishness that id marked by nostalgia and generally produces a whitewashed version of an idealised/ imagined a rural England.
BBC information on Ghost Town “Released on 20 June 1981 against a backdrop of rising unemployment, its blend of melancholy, unease and menace took on an entirely new meaning when Britain’s streets erupted into rioting almost three weeks later – the day before Ghost Town reached number one in the charts.” sums up the idea behind Ghost Town.
Info from TheConversation.com:
Ghost Town’: a haunting 1981 protest song that still makes sense today
It was their last song before splitting up and reforming as The Special AKA and stayed at the top of the UK charts for three weeks.
The music video was directed by Barney Bubbles and filmed in the East End of London, Blackwell Tunnel and a before-hours City of London.