Ghost Town
The Specials - Ghost Town: Blog tasks
Reading and questions
Read this excellent analysis from The Conversation website of the impact Ghost Town had both musically and visually. Answer the following questions
1) Why does the writer link the song to cinematic soundtracks and music hall tradition?
Written in E♭, more attuned to “mood music”, with nods to cinematic soundtracks and music hall tradition, it reflects and engenders anxiety.
2) What subcultures did 2 Tone emerge from in the late 1970s?
2 Tone had emerged stylistically from the Mod and Punk subcultures and its musical roots and the people in it, audiences and bands, were both black and white
3) What social contexts are discussed regarding the UK in 1981?
Riots were breaking out across its urban areas. Deprived, forgotten, run down and angry, these were places where young people, black and white, erupted. In these neglected parts of London, Birmingham, Leeds and Liverpool the young, the unemployed, and the disaffected fought pitch battles with the police.
4) How can we apply cultural critic Mark Fisher’s description of ‘eerie’ to the Ghost Town video?
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. Drive round an empty city at dawn. Look at the empty flats.
Now read this BBC website feature on the 30th anniversary of Ghost Town’s release.
1) How does the article describe the song?
Few songs evoke their era like the Specials' classic Ghost Town, a depiction of social breakdown that provided the soundtrack to an explosion of civil unrest.
its blend of melancholy, unease and menace took
2) What does the article say about the social context of the time – what was happening in Britain in 1981?
by 1981, industrial decline had left the city suffering badly. Unemployment was among the highest in the UK.
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) How can we link Paul Gilroy’s theories to The Specials and Ghost Town?
In the music video the representtion shows diversity thrugh races and shows the liquidity of cluture
5) 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?
"There's something frenzied and mad about that record," he says. "It has such a kaleidoscope of influences - jazz, (film score composer) John Barry, Middle Eastern music, a solid reggae undertone and stuff that sounds like nothing else.
Close-textual analysis of Ghost Town
Watch the video several times and make bullet-point notes of your close-textual semiotic analysis using the following headings:
1) Mise-en-scene: Setting, Lighting, Colour, Actor/performer placement and movement, Costume and props. How are some of these aspects used to create meanings?
Location: London: It should be grand, rich and joyful however from the music video it is created to been seen as more lonely and eerie looking.
There is a lot of low key lighting to heighten the eeriness and thriller vibe and show how dark metaphorically London is.
2) Cinematography: Camera shots and camera movement.
There a lot of low angle shows in the beginning to give the emphasises of the title by show the large building compared to the views. Creates more sense of bleakness and isolation
3) Editing: Pace, juxtaposition, timing.
Pace: Slow. Makes it quite eerie and makes the view focus on the message of the music video
Now apply media theory to the video - perhaps by considering whether Ghost Town reinforces or challenges some of the media theories we have studied. Make bullet-point notes on the following:
1) Goodwin’s theory of music video.
A link between the visuals & lyrics (complement, contradict or amplify)
Genre characteristics (heavy metal in industrialised settings; rap music in urban street contexts etc.)
Contain intertextual references (references to popular culture)
2) Neale’s genre theory.
the video clearly uses recognisable genre conventions of film genres such as social realism and horror to create something familiar to audiences and yet new and different as it was in the form of a music video.
3) Gilroy’s diasporic identity/postcolonial theory.
music video are racially diverse
This representation of Britain’s emerging multiculturalism, is reinforced through the eclectic mix of stylistic influences in both the music and the video.
4) Bricolage and pastiche.
A merging of British film genres such as social realism and hammer horror in order to create something new (as music videos were in 1981).
The lighting, colour and camerawork also create intertextual references to these film genres.
5) Strinati’s definition of postmodernism.
the combination of an arthouse film-style with a popular genre of music
Reading and questions
Read this excellent analysis from The Conversation website of the impact Ghost Town had both musically and visually. Answer the following questions
1) Why does the writer link the song to cinematic soundtracks and music hall tradition?
Written in E♭, more attuned to “mood music”, with nods to cinematic soundtracks and music hall tradition, it reflects and engenders anxiety.
2) What subcultures did 2 Tone emerge from in the late 1970s?
2 Tone had emerged stylistically from the Mod and Punk subcultures and its musical roots and the people in it, audiences and bands, were both black and white
3) What social contexts are discussed regarding the UK in 1981?
Riots were breaking out across its urban areas. Deprived, forgotten, run down and angry, these were places where young people, black and white, erupted. In these neglected parts of London, Birmingham, Leeds and Liverpool the young, the unemployed, and the disaffected fought pitch battles with the police.
4) How can we apply cultural critic Mark Fisher’s description of ‘eerie’ to the Ghost Town video?
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. Drive round an empty city at dawn. Look at the empty flats.
Now read this BBC website feature on the 30th anniversary of Ghost Town’s release.
1) How does the article describe the song?
Few songs evoke their era like the Specials' classic Ghost Town, a depiction of social breakdown that provided the soundtrack to an explosion of civil unrest.
its blend of melancholy, unease and menace took
2) What does the article say about the social context of the time – what was happening in Britain in 1981?
by 1981, industrial decline had left the city suffering badly. Unemployment was among the highest in the UK.
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) How can we link Paul Gilroy’s theories to The Specials and Ghost Town?
In the music video the representtion shows diversity thrugh races and shows the liquidity of cluture
5) 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?
"There's something frenzied and mad about that record," he says. "It has such a kaleidoscope of influences - jazz, (film score composer) John Barry, Middle Eastern music, a solid reggae undertone and stuff that sounds like nothing else.
Close-textual analysis of Ghost Town
Watch the video several times and make bullet-point notes of your close-textual semiotic analysis using the following headings:
1) Mise-en-scene: Setting, Lighting, Colour, Actor/performer placement and movement, Costume and props. How are some of these aspects used to create meanings?
Location: London: It should be grand, rich and joyful however from the music video it is created to been seen as more lonely and eerie looking.
There is a lot of low key lighting to heighten the eeriness and thriller vibe and show how dark metaphorically London is.
2) Cinematography: Camera shots and camera movement.
There a lot of low angle shows in the beginning to give the emphasises of the title by show the large building compared to the views. Creates more sense of bleakness and isolation
3) Editing: Pace, juxtaposition, timing.
Pace: Slow. Makes it quite eerie and makes the view focus on the message of the music video
Now apply media theory to the video - perhaps by considering whether Ghost Town reinforces or challenges some of the media theories we have studied. Make bullet-point notes on the following:
1) Goodwin’s theory of music video.
A link between the visuals & lyrics (complement, contradict or amplify)
Genre characteristics (heavy metal in industrialised settings; rap music in urban street contexts etc.)
Contain intertextual references (references to popular culture)
2) Neale’s genre theory.
the video clearly uses recognisable genre conventions of film genres such as social realism and horror to create something familiar to audiences and yet new and different as it was in the form of a music video.
3) Gilroy’s diasporic identity/postcolonial theory.
music video are racially diverse
This representation of Britain’s emerging multiculturalism, is reinforced through the eclectic mix of stylistic influences in both the music and the video.
4) Bricolage and pastiche.
A merging of British film genres such as social realism and hammer horror in order to create something new (as music videos were in 1981).
The lighting, colour and camerawork also create intertextual references to these film genres.
5) Strinati’s definition of postmodernism.
the combination of an arthouse film-style with a popular genre of music
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