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Letter to the Free, Music Video, Notes, Revision, Theory, Uncategorized

Letter to the Free

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Common

An American rapper and actor. He has won many awards such as grammys for best R&B song, best rap album at the grammys, and many more. He launched ‘Think Common Entertainment, a record label in 2011. He has acted / voice acted in films/tv shows: Date night, suicide squad, small foot, now you see me, never have I ever and many more.

13th amendment

Abolished Slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. There is a loophole in the 13th amendment- which allowed slavery to continue and provided more discrimination that still happens in today’s society.

Documentary:

Released in 2016. Film director and maker, Ava DuVernay, speaks about the history of racial inequality in the USA. Showing us that America’s prisons are filled with many more African-Americans than white Caucasians. It points out how much harm can be caused by slavery.

https://hautlieucreative.co.uk/media23al/wp-content/uploads/sites/58/2022/01/Music-as-Political-Protest.pdf

Cultural Hegemony

Key Concepts:
● Cultural resistance
● Cultural hegemony
● Subcultural theory

The Idea of Resistance and Political Protest

Key idea: the political, personal and cultural are always intertwined

Culture is what influences people’s hearts, minds and opinions. This is the site of popular change.

Antonio Gramsci

Hegemonic: dominant, ruling-class, power-holders
Hegemonic culture: the dominant culture
Cultural hegemony: power, rule, or domination maintained by ideological and cultural means.
Ideology: worldview – beliefs, assumptions and values

Functions by framing the ideologies of the dominant social group as the only legitimate
ideology.

(slide 3) The dominant social groups are shown through its economic, political, moral and social institutions.

Subculture

Working-class youth culture
Unified by shared tastes in style, music and ideology
A solution to collectively experienced problems
A form of resistance to cultural hegemony

Song lyrics

“We ain’t seen as human beings with feelings” I chose this lyric because it points out how people of colour are constantly being dehumanised.

“They stop, search and arrest our souls” I chose this lyric because people of colour don’t get the freedom deserve.

Post Colonialism

Looking at identity and representation through the lens of Empire and Colonialism.

Shadow of Slavery

Edward Said

Orientalism- the link between culture, imperial power and colonialism.

The arguments around postcolonial critical thought ‘constituted a fundamentally important political act’ (MacLeod, 200: 16)

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).

Jacque Lacan “The other”

Search for identity by looking at the mirror or other things. You are only self conscious and aware when you see yourself in the mirror.

Letter to the Free, Moving Image, Music Video

CSP: LETTER TO THE FREE

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A LETTER TO THE FREE:

Common:

  • Stage name Common (formerly Common Sense)
  • American actor and rapper
  • Mainstream attention was from work with the Soulquarians
  • Won a grammy for best R&B Single, with the song “Love of My Life”
  • When acting he played in films like; John Wick Chapter 2, Street kings and American Gangster along with many others.
  • Birthday: March 13, 1972 (age 49)

A letter to the free quotes:

“Slavery’s still alive, check Amendment 13” – references proof for the song, makes people realise that they haven’t actually seen that slavery is gone, they’ve only heard and thought they knew. However in Amendment 13 its said that you can still be a slave if you’re a criminal.

“Prison is a business, America’s the company” – shows that America is profiting off of arresting people, specifically black people.

“Instead of ‘n***a’ they use the word ‘criminal” – this is an example of how slavery hasn’t disappeared, its just changed to be something else that people turn a blind eye to because its behind a prison wall. As well as this, the racial slur used displays that its those same, white, racist people that still have the power and instead of openly acting in slavery, they “arrest” black people for little or no reason at all, then getting them into slavery in prison.

13th Amendment:

  • The film explores the “intersection of race, justice, and mass incarceration in the United States”
  • the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, adopted in 1865, which abolished slavery throughout the United States and ended involuntary servitude except as a punishment for conviction of a crime.
  • She examines the prison-industrial complex and the emerging detention-industrial complex, discussing how much money is being made by corporations from such incarcerations.
  • Made $566 USD in box office

Youth Culture: Jodie’s presentation 

Culture is what influences people’s hearts, minds and opinions. This is the site of popular change.

○ Attempts to change to laws or legislation
○ Organised political movements
○ Public protests
○ Petitions, marches

Antonio Gramsci: 1891 – 1937

● Antonio Gramsci: Italian philosopher writing in the 1930s
Key Terms:
● Hegemonic: dominant, ruling-class, power-holders
● Hegemonic culture: the dominant culture
● Cultural hegemony: power, rule, or domination maintained by ideological and cultural means.
● Ideology: worldview – beliefs, assumptions and values

POSTCOLONIALISM:

The Shadow of Slavery:

Most locations wealth comes from the 400 years of slave trading. Places like the UK thrived off of slave trading between America and Africa. African kings traded other tribes prisoners for guns, plants and guns, then America traded plants, guns and substances for slaves.

Edward Said:

“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 – “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.“

ORIENTALISM:

Europe’s view at the oriented of the world, implying the the west side of the word is better than the east, promoting stereotypes. For example stereotypes like Muslims are terrorists and black people are criminals, orientalism is what those races define the wests views on them.

Jacques Lacan:

“We cannot actually see ourselves as whole, we use a reflection to understand who we are / who we are not“

We can never discover who we are, because we cannot look at ourselves from the outside. We can only apprehend a reflection of ourselves. Finding ourselves is useless, we will never find out who/what we are, however we can find out who we are not.

Music Video

common

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Lonnie Rashid Lynn, known by his stage name Common, is an American rapper and actor. He debuted in 1992 with the album Can I Borrow a Dollar?, and gained critical acclaim with his 1994 album Resurrection. He maintained an underground following into the late 1990s.

In the 2000s Common began to land bit parts in television shows and movies. His early films included the crime drama American Gangster (2007), the sci-fi adventure Terminator Salvation (2009), and the comedy Date Night (2010). 

Common earned numerous awards during his career, including Grammys for his collaborations with Erykah Badu and Kanye West on “Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip-Hop)” (2002) and “Southside” (2007), respectively. For “Glory,” a song he performed with John Legend for the movie Selma, the two artists earned a Grammy and an Oscar. In 2017 Common won an Emmy for “Letter to the Free,” which was featured in DuVernay’s documentary 13th (2016).

Letter to the Free, Moving Image, Music Video, Notes

CSP 7: Letter to the Free, Common

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Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr. (Common)

  • born March 13, 1972, Chicago, Illinois, US
  • American hip-hop artist, actor, and activist who became a mainstream success in the early 21st century, known for intelligent and positive lyrics that were performed in a spoken-word style.
  • He was the first rapper to win a Grammy Award, an Academy Award and an Emmy Award
  • Net Worth: $45 Million
  •  launched ‘Think Common Entertainment, a record label in 2011

13th (2016)

  • American documentary film by Ava DuVernay
  • explores the “intersection of race, justice, and mass incarcentration in the United States;”

Key Concepts:

‘Slavery’s still alive, check Amendment 13
Not whips and chains, all subliminal
Instead of ‘nigga’ they use the word ‘criminal’

Highlights the fact that racial injustice is still very prominent within society, even though it isn’t entirely obvious – it has been masked by

‘For America to rise it’s a matter of Black Lives’

Post Colonialism Under the Shadow of Slavery

 The historical period or state of affairs representing the aftermath of Western colonialism and  the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. 

Edward Said – Orentalism

  • the stereotyping of the East – exaggerates religious and cultural differences causing their humanity to be overlooked and the culture misunderstood
  • justifies the assertion of Western power over the East
  • when the West views the East in this way – it creates policies which marginalises them
  • ‘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

Jacques Lacan – ‘The Other’

  •  the recognition of the ‘Other’ – 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
  • To link this to postcolonialism would be to suggest that the West uses the East / the Orient / the ‘Other’, to identify and construct itself. How it sees itself as the ‘West’ as opposed to . . . in other words, it acts as The Other, a mirror by which a reflection of the self can be measured out and examined

Letter to the Free, Moving Image, Music Video, Postcolonialism

Letter to the free

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Music Video – Letter to the Free is a product which possesses cultural and social significance. It will invite comparison with other music videos allowing for an analysis of the contexts in which they are produced and consumed.

This is a targeted CSP and needs to be studied with reference to two elements of the Theoretical Framework (Media Language and Media Representation) and all relevant contexts

Common is an Oscar and Grammy award winning hip/hop rap artist who wrote Letter to the Free as a soundtrack to The 13th – a documentary by Ava DuVernay named after the American 13th amendment (the abolition of slavery). His output is highly politicised, existing in the context of a variety of social and cultural movements aimed at raising awareness of racism and its effects in US society (e.g.: Black Lives Matter). The product can also be considered in an economic context through the consideration of if and how music videos make money (through, for example, advertising on YouTube).

What needs to be studied? Key Questions and Issues

Media Language

Detailed study of Letter to the Free should help students to develop an understanding of how music video can serve a range of functions while communicating multiple meanings.
Analysis should include:
• Mise-en-scene analysis
• Cinematography
• Semiotics: how images signify cultural meanings
• Aesthetics

Narrative

• How does Letter to the Free appeal to its target audience?
• How is the narrative being constructed by the song lyrics reinforced?
• How does the narrative position the audience?
• How can the narrative invite a range of responses?
• What pleasures does the narrative offer the audience?
• How is the narrative incorporating views and ideologies?
• What is the role of Common in the narrative?

Genre

• Identification of the conventions of the Performative music video.
• How music videos serve the needs of media producers
• How music videos meet the expectations of audiences
• Genre theory including Neale


Media Representations

Letter to the Free explicitly focuses on the history and contemporary experience of African Americans and allows for an exploration of the effect of social, cultural and political context on representations of ethnicity.
• Representation of ethnicity, with focus on how Common is a black man exploring black culture-specific issues.
• Use of specific historical and contemporary experience to construct a political narrative and argument
• How representations invoke discourses and ideologies and position audiences
• Representation of gender within the video and in the context of wider representations of women in the music industry
• Representation of place
• Common as celebrity persona

Theories

  • The idea of culture as a site of political struggle (re: Jodie’s presentation for Ghost Town see below)
  • The the theory of hegemony – Gramsci
  • Theories of representation including Hall
  • Drawing on theories of Postcolonialism (Gilroy)
  • Theory of the Public Sphere – Habermas

Key Concepts:
● Cultural resistance
● Cultural hegemony
● Subcultural theory

The Idea of Resistance and Political Protest:
● When we first think about political protest, what comes to mind?
○ Attempts to change to laws or legislation
○ Organised political movements
○ Public protests
○ Petitions, marches
● However, we can look at political protest in terms of:
○ Cultural resistance
○ Everyday people
● Why look at cultural resistance?
○ Overt political protest is uncommon. When it occurs, it often results in a backlash.
○ Even if overt political protest does results in changes in legislation, it won’t necessarily change public
opinion.
○ Culture is what influences people’s hearts, minds and opinions. This is the site of popular change.
Key idea: the political, personal and cultural are always intertwined

Common LYRICS

Pages: 1 2
Audience, Exam Prep, Music Video

ghost town

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When we first think about political protest, what comes to mind?
○ Attempts to change to laws or legislation
○ Organised political movements
○ Public protests
○ Petitions, marches
However, we can look at political protest in terms of:
○ Cultural resistance
○ Everyday people
Why look at cultural resistance?
○ Overt political protest is uncommon. When it occurs, it often results in a backlash.
○ Even if overt political protest does results in changes in legislation, it won’t necessarily change public
opinion.
○ Culture is what influences people’s hearts, minds and opinions. This is the site of popular change.

Hegemonic: dominant, ruling-class, power-holders
● Hegemonic culture: the dominant culture
● Cultural hegemony: power, rule, or domination maintained by ideological and cultural means.
● Ideology: worldview – beliefs, assumptions and values

Cultural hegemony functions by framing the ideologies of the dominant social group as the only legitimate
ideology.
The ideologies of the dominant group are expressed and maintained through its economic, political, moral,
and social institutions (like the education system and the media).
These institutions socialise people into accepting the norms, values and beliefs of the dominant social
group.

As a result, oppressed groups believe that the social and economic conditions of society are natural and
inevitable, rather than created by the dominant group.

Birmingham school was the first to notice youths which were punks and teddy-boy etc which therefore invented the idea of the teenager.

Bringing race into the picture in the 1980s, Paul Gilroy
highlighted how black youth cultures represented
cultural solutions to collectively experienced problems
of racism and poverty.

Music influenced kids to stand up against racism.

Margret Thatcher proposed black people as a threat to white British citizens.

Police didnt do anything about white on black crimes as they were brainwashed by news papers and the government to believe it was right and that it was black peoples fault.

New cross fire 1981 when a believed white British citizen set alight a group of black people celebrating a friends birthday police said they were on drugs fought and killed each other even though there were witnesses.

Exam Prep, Music Video, NEA

ghost town

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Forms of political protests:
– Attempts to change laws or legislation
– Organised political movements
– Public protests
– Petitions
– Marches

  • Direct resistance against society and government can lead to conflict and backlash so the use and expression of meaning in video and lyrical videos can be used as a more subtle form of rebellion.
  • BBC’s quotation and ideas 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.”

ANTONIO GRAMSCI

Prezzy wannabes, Gramsci, and you - Nevada Current

: Italian philosopher writing in the 1930s

Key Terms:
● Hegemonic: dominant, ruling-class, power-holders
● Hegemonic culture: the dominant culture
● Cultural hegemony: power, rule, or domination maintained by ideological and cultural means.
● Ideology: worldview – beliefs, assumptions and values

When writing in the 1930s Gramsci researched why so many people followed and believed in fascist Germany.

It became the idea about hegemony, where more powerful people would change peoples views and imbedded their own political views deep into their culture as the easiest way to make someone believe in such extreme views is to access their emotional and mental state and to get them to truly believe in what they are told, which is done through this hegemony. —–>

  • Cultural hegemony functions by framing the ideologies of the dominant social group as the only legitimate
    ideology
  • The ideologies of the dominant group are expressed and maintained through its economic, political, moral,
    and social institutions (like the education system and the media).
  • As a result, oppressed groups believe that the social and economic conditions of society are natural and
    inevitable, rather than created by the dominant group.

Paul Gilroy + GHOST TOWN QUOTES AND NOTES

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.

Racial Otherness: Gilroy explored the idea of racial otherness being underlying in print media during the 1970s and 1980s, he mainly focused on how the idea of black males regularly was set to be a criminal one. Gilroy’s main focus and research was in his study of black representation in the UK. 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.

Quotes:

  • “It was clear that something was very, very, wrong,” the song’s writer, Jerry Dammers
  • “I saw it develop from a boom town, my family doing very well, through to the collapse of the industry and the bottom falling out of family life. Your economy is destroyed and, to me, that’s what Ghost Town is about.“
  • “No job to be found in this country,” one voice cries out. “The people getting angry,” booms another, ominously.

Ghost Town, Music Video, Notes

genre

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Genre

: A style or category of art, music, or literature.

People like to have a general idea of what film they are about to see. But audiences get bored with too much repetition; they like to see a genre change, and evolve by responding to contextual influences to do with the way society changes.

‘Genre’ is the relationship of similarities and differences.

‘Genre’ is really important for institutions and audiences.

As well as a genre, movies also often have sub-genres

‘. . . saddled with conventions and stereotypes, formulas and
clichés and all of these limitations were codified in specific genres. This was the very foundation of the studio system and audiences love genre pictures . . .’

Scorcese, A personal Journey through American Cinema (1995)

This quote is saying that all genres are the same but different in some sort of way.

People like to have a general idea of what film they are about to see. But audiences get bored with too much repetition; they like to see a genre change, and evolve by responding to contextual influences to do with the way society changes.

‘the somewhat dubious assumption that genres shaped by the film industry are communicated completely and uniformly to audiences‘ (Altman 1999, p. 15)

Key Terms:

Steve Neale: Neale believes that films of a type (genre, like romance or horror) should include features that are similar, so the audience know what genre it is, but also include features that are different, to keep an audience interested. This is his theory of repetition and difference.

repertoire of elements: The repertoire of elements are key elements of a film that are consistently repeated throughout a genre. Each genre has its own repertoire of elements which defines it as that genre

verisimilitude: the appearance of being true or real.

construction of reality: Social Construction of Reality. The term social construction of reality refers to the theory that the way we present ourselves to other people is shaped partly by our interactions with others, as well as by our life experiences.

sub-genres: a genre that is part of a larger genre The series is part of the booming ”urban fantasy” subgenre, which features supernatural creatures interacting with ordinary humans in a contemporary city.— Jennifer Schuessler.

hybrid genres: Some media texts are hybrid genres, which means they share the conventions of more than one genre. For example Dr. Who is a sci-fi action-adventure drama and Strictly Come Dancing is a talent, reality and entertainment show. The Twilight films are a hybrid genre, combining horror, fantasy, teen and romance.

levels of verisimilitude:  a theoretical concept that determines the level of truth in an assertion or hypothesis. It is also one of the most essential literary devices of fiction writing. Verisimilitude helps to promote a reader’s willing suspension of disbelief

iconography: the visual images and symbols used in a work of art or the study or interpretation of these.

Steve Neale

The work of Steve Neale is often referred to when discussing genre. One area he looks at, is the relationship between genre and audiences. For example, the idea of genre as an enabling mechanism to attract audiences based around predictable expectations. 

Thomas Schatz

Exam Prep, Moving Image, Music Video

ghost town

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Key Concepts:


● Cultural resistance
● Cultural hegemony
● Subcultural theory

Context:


● Race Relations
● Thatcher’s Britain

Case Studies:


● Rock Against Racism
● Rock Against Sexism
● 2 Tone

The Idea of Resistance and Political Protest:


● When we first think about political protest, what comes to mind?
○ Attempts to change to laws or legislation
○ Organised political movements
○ Public protests
○ Petitions, marches
● However, we can look at political protest in terms of:
○ Cultural resistance
○ Everyday people
● Why look at cultural resistance?
○ Overt political protest is uncommon. When it occurs, it often results in a backlash.
○ Even if overt political protest does results in changes in legislation, it won’t necessarily change public
opinion.
○ Culture is what influences people’s hearts, minds and opinions. This is the site of popular change.
Key idea: the political, personal and cultural are always intertwined

Cultural Hegemony:


● Antonio Gramsci: Italian philosopher writing in the 1930s
Key Terms:
● Hegemonic: dominant, ruling-class, power-holders
● Hegemonic culture: the dominant culture
● Cultural hegemony: power, rule, or domination maintained by ideological and cultural means.
● Ideology: worldview – beliefs, assumptions and values
● Cultural hegemony functions by framing the ideologies of the dominant social group as the only legitimate
ideology.
● The ideologies of the dominant group are expressed and maintained through its economic, political, moral,
and social institutions (like the education system and the media).
● These institutions socialise people into accepting the norms, values and beliefs of the dominant social
group.
● As a result, oppressed groups believe that the social and economic conditions of society are natural and
inevitable, rather than created by the dominant group.

Subcultural Theory: The Birmingham School (1970s)


● In the 1970s, a group of cultural theorists in Birmingham applied Gramsici’s theories to post-war
British working-class youth culture
● Looked at working class cultures like the teddy-boys, mods, skinheads, and punks – subcultures
unified by shared tastes in fashion, music and ideology.
● They argued argued that the formation of subcultures offered young working class people a solution
to the problems they were collectively experiencing in society.
Positives of The Birmingham School’s subcultural theory:
● Validated the study of popular culture – previously considered superficial
Criticism The Birmingham School’s subcultural theory:
● Focused on white working class masculinity
● Ignored ethnic minority, female and queer youth cultures

Race:


● Bringing race into the picture in the 1980s, Paul Gilroy
highlighted how black youth cultures represented
cultural solutions to collectively experienced problems
of racism and poverty

Post-War British Race Relations:

After WW2, many Caribbean men and women migrated to Britain seeking jobs.
They were faced with racism and discrimination, and found it difficult to find
employment and housing.

During the 1970s and 1980s, the children of these Caribbean immigrants were
reaching adulthood. They were subject to violence and discrimination from both
the state and far right groups. However, they more likely to resist the racism of
British society compared with their parents.

Racism from the State: The Police


● Frequent clashes between the police and black youth
● Widespread fears over law and order, black street
crime and the figure of ‘the mugger’
● SUS laws
● New Cross Fire (1981)

Exam Prep, Institution, Moving Image, Music Video, Notes, Theory

CSP 6: THE SPECIALS – GHOST TOWN

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By Jon Kelly
BBC News Magazine		-‘Released on 20 June 1981 against a backdrop of rising unemployment’
-‘a depiction of social breakdown that provided the soundtrack to an explosion of civil unrest’
-‘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.’
-‘ it expressed the mood of the early days of Thatcher’s Britain’
by Stephen Rodrick, 1990
Chicago Reader		-‘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.’
John Bradbury, drummer of the Specials-‘”I saw it [Coventry] develop from a boom town, my family doing very well, through to the collapse of the industry and the bottom falling out of family life. Your economy is destroyed and, to me, that’s what Ghost Town is about.”

Thatcher’s Britain

  • Prime Minister 1979-90
  • Militant campaigner for middle class interests
  • Extreme attitude towards immigration
  • British Nationality Act 1981: introduced a series of increasingly strict immigration procedure and prevented Asian people from entering Britain

‘British national identity
could be swamped by people with different
culture’ – 1978 Interview

‘firm immigration control
for the future is essential if we are to achieve
good community relations’ – Conservative Manifesto

Resistance and Political Protest:

  • When you first think of political protest, you think of: petitions, political marches and movements, attempts to change legislation, protests etc…
  • However, when this occurs, it often results in backlash, mostly from the government in question
  • Even if protest does change legislation, it doesn’t always change opinions
  • It is culture that has the biggest influence on the way people think – this is the site of popular change
  • politics, people and culture are always intertwined

Cultural Hegemony:

  • Theorised by Antonio Gramsci, an Italian philosopher in the 1930s
  • Hegemonic – dominant, ruling, most powerful
  • Hegemonic Culture – the dominant culture
  • Cultural Hegemony – power, rule or domination maintained by ideological or cultural means

Cultural hegemony functions by encouraging the ideologies of the dominant social group as the only legitimate ideology. Their ideologies are expresses and maintained through economic, political, moral and social institutions. These institutions surround the people in their every day life, and eventually influence their subconscious into accepting the norms, values and beliefs of the dominant social group. As a result, oppressed groups are lead to believe that the social and economic conditions of society are natural and inevitable, rather than created by the dominant group.

Subcultures

  • Working class youth culture
  • unified by shared tastes in style, music and ideology
  • a form of resistance of cultural hegemony

Teddy Boys 1950s/60s: responded to post-war social changes

Skinheads 1960s: responded to social alienation as a result of 1950s conservatism and expressed working class pride

Punks 1970s: a reaction to capitalist middle class culture, alienation from adult working class, social, political and economic crisis of 1970s which resulted in mass youth unemployment. Believed in anti-establishment and individual freedom

Rude Boys 1960s/80s: reacted against oppression from state, police, racists. Emphasised self-confidence through listening to Jamaican ska lyrics about oppression and poverty

Post War British Race Relations

  • After WWII, Britain faced a mass labour shortage which lead to the migration of half a million people from the Caribbean (the Windrush generation 1950s-70s) searching for jobs
  • However, they faced severe discrimination which made it difficult for them to find employment and housing
  • During the 1970s and 80s, the children of the Wind Rush Generation were reaching adulthood, but found it difficult to find employment due to having faced the same prejudice their parents did – the difference was that they were willing to resist this racism

Racism from the state/police:

  • A clash between the police and black youth
  • police generated the idea that black people were criminals – more likely to steal, use drugs, start fights etc
  • Black community targeted by SUS Laws –  a stop and search law that permitted a police officer to stop, search and potentially arrest people on suspicion
  • New Cross Fire 1981 – fire started by racist arsonist, killing 13 black people, whose charges were completely dismissed

Racism from far-right groups – The National Front:

  • NF was a far-right group
  • promoted the end of immigration and the reparation of non-white brits
  • Blamed immigration for decline in employment, housing and welfare
  • 1970s – NF gained support of disillusioned of white youth leading to radical attacks and violence

Black Music as Resistance

Paul Gilroy – brought race into the societal divide and changes in the 1980s; he highlighted how black youth cultures represented cultural solutions to collectively experienced problems of racism and poverty

  • Black music offers a means of articulating oppression and challenging what Gilroy has termed ‘the capitalist system of racial exploitation and domination
  • The lyrics of many reggae songs revolve around the black experience, history, culture and consciousness of economic and social deprivation as well as criticising the the continuing enslavement of racist ideology

Rock Against Racism 1976-82

  • RAR campaign fought for the eradication of racism in the music industry against the rise of fascism among white working class youths
  • People believed they could prevent their audiences from being prejudice by the messages they put across in their music
  • RAR took advantage of the emerging subcultures who had similar anti-establishment ideologies as well as provided many different musical forms to which the campaign could project their anti-racist politics
  • RAR organised hundreds of musical events which united white bands with black bands – it was highly successful in shining a light on multiculturalism and unity
  • RAR’s fusion of youth culture and politics has been widely celebrated for making politics fun

Two Tone Britain

  • 2 Tone Records was founded by Jerry Dammers 1979 from The Specials which advocates the eradication of racism in British society
  • This created a new genre of British music that fused punk with Jamaican reggae and SKA
  • The bands signed by 2 Tone Records were largely multi-cultural, eg The Specials and The Selector, and represented the exact aim of RAR
  • 2 Tone bands were most vocal after the election of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1979 – writing lyrics about the politics of racism, sexism, violence, unemployment, youth culture and a corrupt system of government
  • 2 Tone gigs often attracted members of the right-wing which caused huge disruption