Music Video: The Specials - Ghost Town
Our second Music Video CSP is The Specials - Ghost Town.
This is a culturally significant British music video text from 1981. Like Common, it reflects social, cultural and political contexts through both the lyrics and the video itself.
First, here's a video giving you an update on school reopening and teaching the key points from the lesson on Ghost Town:
Notes from the lesson
AQA introduces this text with a simple statement: “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.”
Social, cultural and historical context
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 Specials: redefining genre
The Specials played a type of ska music known as 2-Tone - named after The Specials' record company. A hydrid mix of Jamaican reggae, American 1950s pop and elements of British punk rock, it was popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was also notable for its mixed race bands - the Specials had both black and white members - and its stand against racism at a time of racial tension in the UK. Margaret Thatcher had been elected in 1979 with the warning that Britain was being "swamped" by non-white people. In constrast, Ska and 2-Tone was prominent in anti-racism campaigns in the 1980s.
You can watch part 2 of the Two Tone story here - recommended as it gets more into the culture and includes more from our theorist Paul Gilroy.
Ghost Town: social and historical contexts
Ghost Town 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 Specials: Ghost Town video analysis
The video combines eerie shots of a deserted East End of London with the band in a 1962 Vauxhall Cresta lip syncing. The mise-en-scene and cinematography seem to reference a range of film styles including British social realism, thriller and horror genres, with the expressionist lighting drawing attention to the different meanings of the lyric ‘ghost town’.
The strong political message of the video is a challenge to the audience with a direct mode of address which is both angry and plaintive. The video was unusual for the time in conveying a strong social message (in contrast to the dominant style of pop music in the charts at the time), meaning that the audience of the time might well have been shocked or discomfited by it.
Conduct a close-textual semiotic analysis of the video focusing on how meanings are created. Think about the following areas in particular:
- Narrative
- Mise-en-scene: setting, lighting, colour, actor placement/movement, costume and props
- Camerawork and editing
Ghost Town and media theory
Andrew Goodwin's theory of music video is a useful one to learn when analysing Ghost Town. His theory states that music videos contain some or all of the following elements:
- 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)
- Contain notions of looking (e.g. screens within screens)
- Include objectification of females (e.g. male gaze)
- Include demands of the record label (close ups of lead singer, symbols or motifs associated with the band / performer etc.)
- Video will be performance, narrative or concept based.
Applying Neale’s genre theory
Music video was still a very new media form in 1981 so it’s therefore difficult to find ‘repetition and difference’.
However, 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.
Applying Gilroy’s diasporic identity
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.
The song and video offers evidence of Gilroy’s Black Atlantic diasporic identity theory – that black culture is forged through travel and hybridity, a “liquidity of culture”. The Specials are representative of ska – itself an international hybrid music genre blurring reggae and American 1950/60s pop and later elements of punk rock – which brings in working-class British culture (linked in part to Coventry in the Midlands where they were formed).
Ghost Town and Postmodernism
The hybrid mix of references and music video forms – an experimental combination of narrative (the journey), performance and concept – means that the video can be read through a postmodern approach with reference to intertextuality and hybridity.
We can see examples of 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. Arguably, the narrative offers an example of bricolage - a postmodern take on the 'road movie' but with no destination or quest to complete (which is perhaps why the video ends with them aimlessly throwing stones into the River Thames).
Finally, it could be argued that the combination of an arthouse film-style with a popular genre of music (the song reached #1 in the British chart) provides an example of Strinati’s definition of postmodernism as a blurring of art and popular culture.
Industry contexts
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.
The song and video offers evidence of Gilroy’s Black Atlantic diasporic identity theory – that black culture is forged through travel and hybridity, a “liquidity of culture”. The Specials are representative of ska – itself an international hybrid music genre blurring reggae and American 1950/60s pop and later elements of punk rock – which brings in working-class British culture (linked in part to Coventry in the Midlands where they were formed).
Ghost Town and Postmodernism
The hybrid mix of references and music video forms – an experimental combination of narrative (the journey), performance and concept – means that the video can be read through a postmodern approach with reference to intertextuality and hybridity.
We can see examples of 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. Arguably, the narrative offers an example of bricolage - a postmodern take on the 'road movie' but with no destination or quest to complete (which is perhaps why the video ends with them aimlessly throwing stones into the River Thames).
Finally, it could be argued that the combination of an arthouse film-style with a popular genre of music (the song reached #1 in the British chart) provides an example of Strinati’s definition of postmodernism as a blurring of art and popular culture.
Industry contexts
Ghost Town video director Barney Bubbles said: "A good video can sell a record which might not do so well," Bubbles told Smash Hits magazine in 1982. "The record companies know that. I think Chrysalis would agree that The Specials’ 'Ghost Town' video helped sales a good deal. This year I intend to make videos which are really inexpensive but really inventive. It can be done, you know."
In 1981 opportunities for revenue directly from music videos were very limited and their economic value came as a marketing tool to advertise the single. This function was particularly important pre-internet, with the popularity of broadcast pop shows such as Top of the Pops (MTV was launched in 1981 but had limited availability in the UK initially). However, the Ghost Town video is now on YouTube with revenue opportunities through viewing and advertising. It also provides a link to The Specials YouTube subscription channel which has opportunities to purchase their back catalogue and new material.
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?
2) What subcultures did 2 Tone emerge from in the late 1970s?
Mod and Punk subcultures
3) What social contexts are discussed regarding the UK in 1981?
4) Cultural critic Mark Fisher describes the video as ‘eerie’. What do you think is 'eerie' about 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?
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.
[...]
The song's much-celebrated video - in which the band, crammed into a Vauxhall Cresta, patrol empty, crumbling streets - seems unlikely promotional material for a hit single.
2) What does the article say about the social context of the time – what was happening in Britain in 1981?
A depiction of social breakdown that provided the soundtrack to an explosion of civil unrest. "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."
3) How did The Specials reflect an increasingly multicultural Britain?
They used a reggae beat as well as take influences from other cultures.
4) How can we link Paul Gilroy’s theories to The Specials and Ghost Town?
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?
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:
- opens with low angle shots of high rise buidings
- shot east end of london early in morning
- create sense of foreboding , looming over audience, threat
- entire video drive through ghost town
- 40 secs in see band in car: dressed in classic sca/ two tone costume
- creates sense of genre + dark glasses
- tunnel shots w/ strip lighting reflecting on wind shield: eerie creepy atmosphere
- pace of editing in chorus increased dramatically, w/ car veering from one side to another
- camera movements, turning over entirely, horror genre
- classic music vid convention: pace of edtiing
- tunnel shots creates sense of travelling but not getting anywhere bc shot isnt changing: narrative? meanings behind video?
- traveling w/ no purpose: atmosphere in britain in 1981
- lighting + colour: uplighting in car: horror
- abandoned cars lit from inside: inside, ghostly,
- shadows on walls enacting lyrics of song
- lighting used to create effects
- not in black and white, although looks like it could be: greys, blues, muted colours
- creates atmosphere: ominous, eerie, dangerous
- band member ejected from car at one point.
- shots towards end suggest losing control: out of control
- video ends banks of the thames: londons industry on the other side of river
- mindlessly throwing rocks into river suggests hopelessness aimlessness of lives for working class people in 1980s
- slow fade 2 black
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?
40 seconds in we see the band dressed in classic sca/ two-tone costume, capturing the genre. The band themselves are crammed into the car, and we can see strip lighting appear on the windshield while they mouth the lyrics with little emotion. This continues the creepy atmosphere.
Lighting is used to suggest horror: Abandoned cars are lit from inside and shadows dance on the walls of the town enacting the lyrics of the song. The use of lighting especially helps create the ghostly atmosphere of the music video.
The music video uses muted colours, almost looking like it could be black and white, with primarily cool blues and warm greys.
2) Cinematography: Camera shots and camera movement.
The camera in the video is consistently moving at a slow pace along with the music, moving through the streets of East London. This hand held camera movement positions the audience into the setting of this ghost town, somewhat like they're in the car along with the band, looking up at the buildings.
Around 1:04 minutes in, the camera begins to swerve and topple, at one point turning over entirely, matching with the maniacal and jarring shift in the music and the movement of the car. This has conventions of the horror genre and helps the eerie atmosphere of the music video.
3) Editing: Pace, juxtaposition, timing.
A fast pace is a classic music video convention, however it is juxtaposed with the eerie build up and falling action being slower paced.
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.
> Link between lyrics, music and visuals.
> Genre characteristics
2) Neale’s genre theory.
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.
The music itself is a social commentary and protest of the state of Britain at the time, commenting on political tensions and unease. The genre of ska and the existence of the specials can be seen as a political statement due to the racially divided Britain in the 80s: The Specials is a mixed race band representative of a genre of music which can be considered a hybrid of reggae, American pop and punk rock. These elements accumulate in a hybrid of Black culture with working class British culture, supporting Gilroy's diasporic identity theory.
4) Bricolage and pastiche.
Narrative bricolage: hinting at road movies with no destination or quest to complete so they don't end up going anywhere.
5) Strinati’s definition of postmodernism.
the song is really good tbh
A/A* Extension reading
There is so much excellent reading on The Specials and Ghost Town in particular. This Guardian feature by Alexis Petridis describes the social context and the band’s relationship superbly.
Along similar lines, this is an excellent piece on music reflecting the mood of a country – written during the 2011 London Riots but linking back to Ghost Town in 1981.
The career of the director of the Ghost Town video, Barney Bubbles, and his influence over graphic design in the 1970s is laid out in this website article that will appeal to any arts students.
Finally, here are some extracts from an academic research paper on Rock Against Racism at the time Ghost Town was released. It refers to Gilroy and other theorists and gives you a superb introduction to university-level reading. You'll need to login using your Greenford Google login to read it.
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