Music Video - Ghost Town ~ The Specials

The Specials - Ghost Town: Blog tasks

Background and historical contexts

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?
Its not part of any social movements for change 

2) What subcultures did 2 Tone emerge from in the late 1970s?
Punk and Mod subcultures. Ska and Jamaican rock

3) What social contexts are discussed regarding the UK in 1981?
There was a recession and there was riots in urban areas

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

The music video shows this through its monochrome colour scheme and low-key lighting through out the video to show the cities abandonment and loneliness.

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?
The song wasn't romantic nor for dancing but its a cry for injustice

Now read this BBC website feature on the 30th anniversary of Ghost Town’s release. 

1) How does the article describe the song?
It starts with a siren and those woozy, lurching organ chords. 

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

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?

-Visual representation of the liquidity or culture

-Reflects the black diasporic identity 

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?
He is famous for composing evocative and emotionally rich soundtracks and he did James Bond films.

Ghost Town - Media Factsheet

Watch the video several times before reading Factsheet #211 - Ghost Town. You'll need your GHS Google login to access the factsheet. Once you have analysed the video several times and read the whole factsheet, answer the following questions: 

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

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. The bleakness of the final shot where the band throw stones into the Thames is very powerful and nihilistic. This example gives you an idea of the look of these films for comparison.

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

In the car, the band are lit dimly by a limited interior light source which could be a handheld torch to light the faces of those in the back from a low angle. This is highly effective and good for a low budget filmmaking technique to suit the eerie genre

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.

• One scene is cut like an action sequence of a car chase.
• The video ends with superimposition of a long cross-dissolve of the tunnel lights to the stone-throwing shot, to unsettling effect.
• The band are generally shot as a group, emphasising the relationship between them.

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

Todorov: the music video may be interpreted as a depiction of societal disequilibrium, wherein the band assumes the role of protagonists seeking to reestablish equilibrium which can be characterized by peace, economic stability, and the absence of civil unrest

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

Neale, repetition and difference is shown through their outfits and blank facial expressions which is the repetition of the subcultures MODS, rude boys and skin heads.

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 city
• The urban youth
• Masculinity
• Race

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

The media offers us a sense of identity, the band's genre and diversity brings together many people and creates a new identity.

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

She referred to it as a ‘performance’. 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?

Black musicians had limited control in terms of self-representation and were often side-lined in bands which were multi-ethnic because white people were the majority whereas they were the minority

Bonus content! Ghost Town - Media Magazine feature

There is an interesting article on the Ghost Town music video in Media Magazine MM79. It includes an interview with one of the founding members of the group plus an analysis of the video itself.   

A/A* Extension reading: Music video and Ghost Town

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. 

• In 1981, Britain was in a state of crisis: the government was as unpopular as any since the war, unemployment was rampant and riots were breaking out across the country.

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.

•  Forget the lyrics for a moment: the mood is the message

Enjoy this phenomenal long read by GQ editor Dylan Jones who links the history of London since 1981, music, race relations and riots to Ghost Town and the Specials.

• The Specials were advocates of late-1970s postmodern ska, the inventors of two-tone and – for the briefest of times – quite simply one of the coolest, most important British bands of the post-punk period

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.

• Barney Bubbles defined the look of the British psychedelic movement of the ’60s, then seemed to recede from sight

This Rolling Stone article offers some industry context regarding how artists can make money from music videos.

• Videos festooned with ads make roughly $2 per 1,000 YouTube views — which is a crude but useful formula, as the revenue depends on a ton of factors, such as what country the clip is viewed in.

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.