Music Video: The Specials - Ghost Town CSP

 

1) Why does the writer link the song to cinematic soundtracks and music hall tradition?

 more attuned to “mood music”, with nods to cinematic soundtracks and music hall tradition, it reflects and engenders anxiety. The whispered chorus of “This Town/ is coming like a Ghost town

2) What subcultures did 2 Tone emerge from in the late 1970s?

emerged stylistically from the Mod and Punk subcultures 

3) What social contexts are discussed regarding the UK in 1981?

England was hit by recession and away from rural Skinhead nights, riots were breaking out across its urban areas. 



4) Cultural critic Mark Fisher describes the video as ‘eerie’. What do you think is 'eerie' about the Ghost Town video? 

The sensation of the eerie occurs either when there is something present where there should be nothing, or there is nothing present when there should be something.

Here, in a major capital city, where the streets should be teeming, there is no-one but The Specials, a group of young black and white men, from a depressed and demoralised Midlands town. They are in charge.

5) Look at the final section (‘Not a dance track’). What does the writer suggest might be the meanings created in the video? Do you agree?

It’s just a cry out against injustice, against closed off opportunities by those who have pulled the ladder up and robbed the young, the poor, the white and black of their songs and their dancing, their futures

1) How does the article describe the song?

It starts with a siren and those woozy, lurching organ chords. Then comes the haunted, spectral woodwind, punctuated by blaring brass. Over a sparse reggae bass line, a West Indian vocal mutters warnings of urban decay, unemployment and violence.

2) What does the article say about the social context of the time – what was happening in Britain in 1981?

blend of melancholy, unease and menace took on an entirely new meaning when Britain's streets erupted into rioting almost three weeks later

3) How did The Specials reflect an increasingly multicultural Britain?

With a mix of black and white members, The Specials, too, encapsulated Britain's burgeoning multiculturalism. 

4) The article discusses how the song sounds like a John Barry composition. Why was John Barry a famous composer and what films did he work on?

He arranged the James Bond theme tune 

1) Focus on the Media Language section. What does the factsheet suggest regarding the mise-en-scene in the video? 

style of British social realist films. This genre is characterised by sympathetic representations of working-class men, The video’s low-budget shoot, the social and political nature of the subject-matter of both video and song all reflect the codes and conventions of this film genre.

2) How does the lighting create intertextual references? What else is notable about the lighting?

inter textual reference to the Expressionist aesthetic from the silent film The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari (1920)

3) What non-verbal codes help to communicate meanings in the video?

The singing of the song with expressionless faces and direct mode-of-address with zombie-like, stiff body movements are suddenly relaxed in the manic middle section.

4) What does the factsheet suggest regarding the editing and camerawork? Pick out three key points that are highlighted here.

• The band are generally shot as a group, emphasising the relationship between them. Most of the shots are on-board travelling shots.
• The sequence near the start consists of a series of establishing shots and low angle shots which make the scenery loom in an intimidating way.
• The video ends with superimposition of a long cross-dissolve of the tunnel lights to the stone-throwing shot, to unsettling effect.

5) What narrative theories can be applied to the video? Give details from the video for each one.

Equilibrium - The band setting off together looking for something to do, accompanied by the eerie

diegetic sound

disruption - This could be seen as the bleakness and emptiness of the streets because, ‘Bands don’t play no more  too much fighting on the dance floor’.

New equilibrium Their bleak arrival at the river, having found nothing else to do.

6) How can we apply genre theory to the video?

The mise-en-scene of the Ghost Town video uses the style of British social realist films. This genre is characterised by sympathetic representations of working-class

7) Now look at the Representations section. What are the different people, places and groups that are represented in the Ghost Town video? Look for the list on page 4 of the factsheet.

The video represents a number of different ideas, locations and groups including ‘Thatcher’s Britain’, the city, urban youth, race and masculinity.

8) How can Gauntlett's work on collective identity be applied to the video?

 This means that the text offers a place for men to see their problems being enacted and perhaps compare them with their own lives in what was a time of economic deprivation for many when many traditionally masculine jobs were disappearing.

9) How can gender theorists such as Judith Butler be applied to Ghost Town?

These musicians seem to be ‘performing’ the structures of patriarchy which include brotherhood, camaraderie and male solidarity.

10) Postcolonial theorists like Paul Gilroy can help us to understand the meanings in the Ghost Town music video. What does the factsheet suggest regarding this?

there is double consciousness (Gilroy) here. This term refers to the experience of being part of a black minority in a predominantly white culture, seeing black representations being constructed for white people from the

outside with very little self-representation. Black musicians, as part of a music industry in the UK which was controlled by the white majority,