Criticism The Birmingham School’s subcultural theory: ● Focused on white working class masculinity ● Ignored ethnic minority, female and queer youth cultures
What is a 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
Post-War British Race Relations: ● To understand the political significance of black music in the 1970s and 1980s, we must first understand the racial situation in post war Britain. ● 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.
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.
‘The political, personal and cultural are always intertwined.‘
cultural hegemony(Antonio Gramsci) – the dominant culture, power, rule, or domination maintained by ideological and cultural means. The ideologies of the dominant group are expressed and maintained through its economic, political, moral, and social institutions. 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 theory) In the 1970s, a group of cultural theorists in Birmingham applied Gramsci’s theories to post-war British working-class youth culture. They argued argued that the formation of subcultures offered young working class people a solution to the problems they were collectively experiencing in society.
Black music offered a means of articulating oppression and of challenging what Gilroy has termed, ‘the capitalist system of racial exploitation and domination’.
Key Concepts: ● Cultural resistance ● Cultural hegemony ● Subcultural theory Context: ● Race Relations ● Thatcher’s Britain Case Studies: ● Rock Against Racism ● Rock Against Sexism ● 2 Tone
We first think of these ideas:
○ Attempts to change to laws or legislation ○ Organised political movements ○ Public protests ○ Petitions, marches
However, we can look at:
○ Cultural resistance ○ Everyday people
The political, personal and cultural are always intertwined
Who is 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
Birmingham School
● In the 1970s, a group of cultural theorists in Birmingham applied Gramsici’s theories to post-war British working-class youth culture
What is a 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
Political protest: ○ Attempts to change to laws or legislation ○ Organised political movements ○ Public protests ○ Petitions, marches
Political protest can be seen 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:
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
The Birmingham School (1970s)
● They argued argued that the formation of subcultures offered young working class people a solution to the problems they were collectively experiencing in society.
● Looked at working class cultures like the teddy-boys, mods, skinheads, and punks – subcultures unified by shared tastes in fashion, music and ideology.
Teddy Boys: 1950/60s ● Responding to: post-war social changes ● Music: influenced by American rock n roll ● Style: upper-class Edwardian fashion (narrow trousers, lapelled jackets), fused with an element of rebelliousness in the form of exaggerated hairstyles and shoes (quiffs and creepers)
Skinheads: 1960s
● Responding to: social alienation. ● Rejected: late 50s conservatism, as well as the ‘peace and love’ middle class hippy movement of 60s ● Expression of: working class pride ● Music: West Indian music (ska, rocksteady, reggae) ● Style: shaven heads, Dr Marten boots, braces, shirts, and cropped trousers ● Politics: Original skinheads were anti-racist, however the movement quickly polarised
Punk: 1970s ● A Reaction to: ● 1) Capitalist middle class culture that has achieved dominance and legitimacy (hegemony) ● 2) Their alienation from the adult working class culture of their parents and grandparents ● 3) The social, political and economic crisis of the mid1970s, resulting in high youth unemployment ● Values: anti-establishment, emphasis on individual freedom, on doing it yourself. ● Fashion: emphasised ugliness, shock value, irony. Used items like safety pins, ripped shirts, chains. ● Music: often self-produced and independently distributed, the music is loud and aggressive, with lyrics expressing antiestablishment views and working class concerns.
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
Gilroy
Gilroy highlighted how black youth cultures represented cultural solutions to collectively experienced problems of racism and poverty
Racial otherness: ‘Ain’t no black in union jack’- His book
Civilisation: For Gilroy, the 9/11 World trade Centre terrorist attack in 2001, and it’s aftermath, radically altered both the tone and nature of the media-orientated representations regarding race and racial difference.
Legacy of the Empire: Gilroy suggests that we live in a ‘morbid culture of a once-imperial nation that has not been able to accept its inevitable loss of prestige’ (Gilroy, 2004) He argued that the British are undergoing a crisis of national identity: the loss of the British Empire has forced a collective question regarding British identification.
Race Relations
1970s and 1980s: 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)
Racism from Far-Right Groups: The NF (national front) ● The National Front was a far-right group ● Advocated the an end to immigration and the repatriation of non-white Britons. ● Blamed immigration for the decline in employment, housing and welfare. ● In the 1970s, the NF gained the support of disillusioned white youth ● Racial attacks, violence and intimidation
Margaret Thatcher:
● Prime Minister 1979-1990 ● Militant campaigner for middle-class interests ● In an 1978 interview: ‘British national identity could be swamped by people with different culture’ ● Hard line attitude towards immigration ● Conservative Manifesto: ‘firm immigration control for the future is essential if we are to achieve good community relations’ ● British Nationality Act of 1981: introduced a series of increasingly tough immigration procedures and excluded Asian people from entering Britain.
● Scapegoating
Rock against Sexism
Rock Against Sexism was British anti-sexist campaign that used punk as a vehicle to challenge sexism, promoting female musicians while challenging discrimination in the music industry between 1979 and 1982.
Why was RAS needed?
– 1970s saw a plethora of sexist song lyrics, record covers and band advertisements, many depicting violence towards women.
– The terms ‘feminism’ and ‘sexism’ were not in common currency during this time, and there was widespread scepticism among young people with regards to organised feminism.
BBC News
The Specials: How Ghost Town defined an era
Jon Kelly
Specials gigs began to attract the hostile presence of groups like the National Front and the British Movement. When vocalist Neville Staple sighed wearily on Ghost Town that there was “too much fighting on the dance floor”, he sang from personal experience.
“But you don’t listen to Ghost Town and think it’s weird. I was 11 when it was released and I don’t remember going, ‘What’s this?’ At the time there were a lot of political songs in the charts. But if a record like that got to number one today you’d go, ‘Wow, that’s bizarre.'”
“It sums up how it felt to be young at the time,” he says. “But at the same time it’s timelessly resonant. “There are a handful of tunes that do that and Ghost Town is one of them.”
The conversation (news)
‘Ghost Town’: a haunting 1981 protest song that still makes sense today
Abigail Gardner
It’s an odd, eerie song, nodding to pop convention and sitting wilfully outside of it. It’s included, in passing, in Dorian Lynskey’s beautifully written book on protest songs, “33 Revolutions Per Minute”, but unlike the band’s “Free Nelson Mandela” does not merit its own chapter.
Claude Levi-Strauss (Binary Oppositions)
This theory suggests that NARRATIVES (=myths) are STRUCTURED around BINARY OPPOSITIONS eg. good and bad.
As such, it encourages students to understand narrative as a structure of key (oppositional) themes that underpin action and dialogue to develop a set of messages that the audience are able to decode and understand.
It creates a dominant message (ideology) of a film, TV programme, advert, music video, animation etc. So in this way audiences are encouraged to make a judgements about characters, groups, places, history, society etc.
Texts can be seen to either support the dominant ideologies of a society, which would make it a reactionary text ,or to challenge, question or undermines the dominant ideologies of society, in which case it could be seen as a radical text.
This is a targeted CSP and needs to be studied with reference to two elements of the Theoretical Framework (Media Language and Media Representation).
1 TASK 1: MAKE SOME GENERAL NOTES ON THIS MEDIA PRODUCTION: NAMES, DATES, NUMBERS, ETC
Ghost Town is a product which possesses cultural, social and historical significance. It will invite comparison with the other CSP music video allowing for an analysis of the contexts in which they are produced and consumed.
2 TASK 2 Continue your notes: WHAT IS THE CULTURAL, SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND? Use ppt from Jodie below
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 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.
3 TASK 3:Continue to build up your notes (in preparation for the unseen essay) by reading see BOTH: 1. Paul Gilroy chapter in the Mark Dixon AND 2. some of the linked articles below.
1. Media Theory for A level by Mark Dixon
Look specifically at pp. 72-73 & 77-79 – Paul Gilroy chapter in Media Theory for A level book by Mark Dixon.Think about the following key terms:
racial otherness (72-73)
post-colonial melancholia (72-73)
the story of UK race relations post W.W. 2 (72-73)
4 TASK 4:MAKE SOME NOTES ON THE WAY IN WHICH THIS MUSIC VIDEOS CREATES AND COMMUNICATES MEANING THROUGH NARRATIVE
You should INLCUDE SOME SEMIOTIC TERMS ANALYSIS (ie the use of signs) which should specifically look at:
You should also focus on GENRE
Mise-en-scene – ie what can you see in each shot
Cinematography – ie how does the camera frame each shot & how are the shots edited together
How the story / narrative is constructed (this post should be helpful or this BBC Bitesize post). Put another way, how could TODOROV, LEVI-STRAUS & PROPP be applied to this music video.
Think about how the visuals link to the song lyrics (is it a LITERAL OR METAPHORICAL interpretation, eg the journey through a deserted landscape, or the way lyrics refer to effects of political and economic conditions)
Make sure you reference Neale! You may remember that we looked at Steve Neale when we looked at AS TV CSP (link here)
How the music video genre uses intertextuality and hybridity to establish meanings
ASSESSMENT
We will complete an unseen question in class. This question could look at either MEDIA LANGUAGE and / or REPRESENTATION. THAT MEANS THE QUESTION DOES NOT REQUIRE YOU TO TALK ABOUT INSTITUTION AND / OR AUDIENCE
