A-Level Media - Ghost Town by The Specials - Media Language, Representation & Context
Summary
TLDRThis guide explores the music video 'Ghost Town' by The Specials, a significant piece for A-Level Media Studies students. The video depicts a desolate London, void of people, reflecting the high unemployment and social unrest of the 1980s under Thatcher's rule. The band, known for their diversity, portrays a mix of races in a car, symbolizing unity amidst the societal decay. The video's bleak tone and chaotic scenes resonate with the anger and disillusionment of the era, challenging racial stereotypes and highlighting political neglect. The Specials' unconventional blend of punk, ska, and new wave music complements the video's message of unity and rebellion against societal decline.
Takeaways
- 🎥 The music video 'Ghost Town' by The Specials is a significant piece for AQA A Level Media Studies students.
- 🏙️ The video features low-angle shots of urban London, emphasizing its emptiness and creating a creepy, isolated atmosphere.
- 🚗 A car filled with seven racially diverse individuals symbolizes a tight-knit community facing shared struggles.
- 😔 The serious and sad expressions of the individuals in the car reflect the overall depressing tone of the video.
- ⏳ The context of the video is rooted in the socio-economic hardships of the 1980s in Britain, particularly the high unemployment and poverty affecting young men.
- 🌟 The Specials were a diverse and unconventional band, blending various music genres and cultural influences, which is reflected in the video.
- 💥 The video portrays a sense of rebellion and anger among young men, resonating with the social unrest and riots of the time.
- 👮♂️ The introduction of 'stop and search' laws in the 1980s is linked to increased racial tension and police abuse, impacting the narrative of the video.
- 🌈 The video promotes racial harmony and suggests that societal problems are political rather than racial, challenging mainstream media narratives.
- 🎨 The editing, lighting, and color grading in the video contribute to the portrayal of despair, nostalgia, and the dangerous environment of the time.
- 📉 The video concludes with a representation of a desolate London, abandoned by the government, and a generation of young men left feeling worn down and angry.
Q & A
What is the significance of the music video 'Ghost Town' by The Specials in the context of AQA A Level Media Studies?
-The music video 'Ghost Town' by The Specials is significant in AQA A Level Media Studies as it is one of the optional set texts on the specification. It provides a visual representation of socio-political issues of the time, making it a relevant case study for students.
How does the music video 'Ghost Town' depict London in the early 1980s?
-The video depicts London through low angles of urban settings, tracking shots through streets, and a variety of perspectives showcasing both working-class and upper-class areas. The absence of people in the usually bustling streets adds a creepy, isolated, and abandoned feel, reflecting the socio-economic conditions of the time.
What is the significance of the car and its occupants in the 'Ghost Town' music video?
-The car and its occupants symbolize a diverse and tight-knit group of young men, representing the unity among different races and social classes. Their serious and sad facial expressions align with the video's overall tone of loneliness and sadness.
How does the music video 'Ghost Town' reflect the socio-economic conditions of Britain in the 1980s?
-The video reflects the high unemployment and poverty during Margaret Thatcher's era, particularly affecting young men. It shows the anger, disillusionment, and rebellion of the youth against the government's policies and societal issues.
What was the impact of the 'stop and search laws' introduced in the early 1980s on the racial dynamics in Britain as portrayed in the video?
-The 'stop and search laws' led to many people feeling that the police were abusing these laws, primarily targeting black individuals. This contributed to the racial tension and xenophobia in society, which is subtly critiqued in the video through its portrayal of racial harmony.
How does the music video 'Ghost Town' challenge the mainstream media's portrayal of racial discrimination and division?
-Instead of reflecting the racial discrimination and divide encouraged by the mainstream media, the video shows racial harmony among the band members and implies that societal problems are political rather than racial, challenging the stereotypes of the time.
What makes The Specials' band composition and music style unique in the context of the 'Ghost Town' music video?
-The Specials were known for their diverse and quirky band composition, featuring both white and black singers, which was unusual at the time. Their music style was a hybrid of British punk rock, ska, Jamaican music, and new wave, making them alternative and unconventional compared to mainstream music.
How does the editing and cinematography in the 'Ghost Town' music video contribute to the portrayal of chaos and rebellion?
-The fast-paced editing, canted angles, handheld shots, and close-ups on the band members' faces create a sense of chaos and rebellion. The car swerving dangerously adds to the wild and rule-breaking atmosphere, engaging the audience in the video's narrative.
What is the significance of the warmer color balance in the upbeat section of the 'Ghost Town' music video?
-The warmer color balance in the upbeat section represents nostalgia, contrasting with the cooler colors that conveyed depression. It reflects a longing for the past when London was more exciting, bustling, and filled with opportunities.
How does the portrayal of male aggression and masculinity in the 'Ghost Town' music video relate to the socio-economic conditions of the 1980s?
-The portrayal of male aggression and masculinity as dangerous and aggressive reflects the frustration and anger felt by young men due to the lack of job opportunities, poverty, and political decisions of the time. It is a commentary on the societal issues rather than a promotion of stereotypes.
What message does the 'Ghost Town' music video convey about the impact of government policies on the lives of young men in Britain during the 1980s?
-The video conveys a message of abandonment and desolation, representing Britain and London as places left to deteriorate by the government. It shows young men as victims of political decisions, expressing their anger, frustration, and desire for change.
Outlines
🎥 'Ghost Town' Music Video Analysis
This paragraph introduces the music video 'Ghost Town' by The Specials, highlighting its relevance to students studying AQA A Level Media Studies. The video is characterized by its depiction of an empty London, showcasing both working-class and upper-class areas, but notably absent of people, creating an eerie and isolated atmosphere. The narrative focuses on seven racially diverse individuals in a car, reflecting a sense of community and shared hardship. The video's tone is set as depressing, and historical context is provided, linking the video's themes to the high unemployment and social unrest in 1980s Britain under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The Specials are recognized for their diverse band members and genre-blending music, which includes punk rock, ska, and new wave influences. The video's message is one of unity against societal and political issues, rather than racial division.
🎼 The Specials' Unique Musical and Visual Style
This paragraph delves into The Specials' unconventional approach to music and music videos, which contrasts with mainstream music of the 1980s. The band's music is described as a hybrid of various genres, including Jamaican ska, British punk rock, and new wave, reflecting the band members' diverse backgrounds and interests. The video's editing is noted for its fast pace, use of canted angles, handheld shots, and close-ups, which contribute to a sense of chaos and rebellion. The narrative shifts to a more upbeat section with dancing and nostalgia for a more vibrant past, indicated by warmer color grading. The video also includes darker scenes with low-key lighting and shadows, reinforcing themes of danger, aggression, and the harsh realities of the time. The use of silhouettes and shadows emphasizes the idea of a ghost town, with the remaining 'ghosts' of people left behind. The video concludes with a sense of resignation and weariness among the young men, reflecting the broader societal disillusionment of the era.
📚 Educational Resource for Exam Boards
In the final paragraph, the script invites viewers to subscribe for more educational content related to AQA and other exam boards such as OCR, Edexcel, GCSE, and A-Level. The video aims to provide an easy-to-understand guide to 'Ghost Town' by The Specials, suitable for students preparing for their exams. Viewers are encouraged to leave comments with any questions or feedback, promoting an interactive learning experience.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Urban Settings
💡Tracking Shots
💡Diversity
💡Isolation
💡Margaret Thatcher
💡Riots and Protests
💡Stop and Search Laws
💡Racial Harmony
💡Hybrid Genre
💡Fast-Paced Editing
💡Nostalgia
💡Desolation
Highlights
The music video 'Ghost Town' by The Specials is relevant for AQA A Level Media Studies students as it is one of the optional set texts.
The video uses low angles and tracking shots to establish an urban setting, specifically London.
The absence of people in the streets of London creates a creepy, isolated, and abandoned atmosphere.
Seven racially diverse individuals are shown in a car, suggesting a sense of community and shared experience.
The overall tone of the video is depressing, reflecting the socio-economic context of 1980s Britain.
The video is set against the backdrop of high unemployment and poverty during Margaret Thatcher's era.
Young men, particularly young black Afro-Caribbean men, were most affected by the socio-economic conditions of the time.
The video represents the anger and isolation felt by young men, who were not previously represented in music videos.
The summer of 1981 saw riots and protests against government policies and police actions.
The introduction of stop and search laws led to perceived police abuse and racial profiling.
The video shows racial harmony amidst societal racism and xenophobia, suggesting political rather than racial blame for societal issues.
The Specials were a diverse and unconventional band, combining various musical genres and cultural influences.
The video's editing, with quick cuts and canted angles, creates a sense of chaos and rebellion.
A contrast in color grading between the bleak present and the nostalgic, warmer past is used to evoke nostalgia.
The video uses low-key lighting and shadows to represent danger and aggression associated with male stereotypes.
The idea of a ghost town is reinforced through imagery of abandoned cars and haunting shadows.
The portrayal of young men as worn down, beaten, and fearless by their circumstances.
Disorientating spinning shots and the sound of sirens contribute to the video's desolate and abandoned feel.
The act of throwing stones into the River Thames symbolizes the lack of opportunities and the frustration of the youth.
The video encapsulates the anger, aggression, and violence felt by young men due to political decisions in the 1980s.
Transcripts
hello and welcome to my easy to
understand guide to the specials music
video
ghost town this music video is going to
be particularly relevant for you if you
study aqa
a level media studies as it is currently
one of the optional set texts on that
specification
the video starts off with lots of low
angles of urban settings which sets the
scene for the audience we get lots of
tracking
shots through the streets which really
helps us to
work out that this is london it's
immediately recognizable to a lot of
audiences
we're seeing london from a variety of
perspectives so we see lots of
working class style smaller buildings
and run down areas and we see lots of
tall tower blocks that perhaps look a
little bit more
um upper class what is unusual is that
there's no people
london is obviously a very busy uh town
with a lot of people who live
and work there and so seeing the town
and the streets empty
is very unusual and it adds this kind of
quite creepy isolated abandoned feel to
the video
we get a shot through the exterior of
the car through the windscreen so that
we can see the people inside it
we can see that there are seven people
in the car uh there's a mixture of races
which has this feeling of kind of
diversity
and because they're all crammed into
this car adds this sense of like
friendship and community like they're
part of quite a tight-knit group
they've got quite serious facial
expressions that seem quite sad
which fits in with the vibe of the song
it feels quite lonely and sad
the overall tone of the video um is is
quite depressing
so it's really important to understand
the context of this video to understand
why it's all represented like this so um
back in the 80s uh when margaret
thatcher was prime minister
we had this idea of um there was a huge
period of really high
unemployment and poverty uh in britain
all over britain in fact
um and the people that were most
affected by this
tended to be young men um and in
particular
young black afro-caribbean men because
there was a lot of poverty at the time
there was a huge increase in crime
um you know the streets became quite
violent there was a lot of rioting
and protests and men became particularly
angry and disillusioned
they'd had jobs and they could no longer
work and they couldn't provide for their
families
and so young men became really angry and
there wasn't
really there weren't really any artists
at the time that had represented this
anger and this feeling of isolation
in a music video and the specials then
brought this video out and it really
resonated with audiences because it
allowed them to
identify with a lot of the issues that
they were facing
there was a summer of riots in in 1981
where
people were rioting and protesting
against the way the government had kind
of run the country and against the
police
and they just wanted to have their
voices heard and that's when this video
kind of came out and it was this idea
representing the idea of young males um
rebelling young males rioting and being
angry and showing that they're angry and
and complaining and saying this life
isn't what i want it's not what i had
and i want the old life back there were
also some new laws introduced in the
early 1980s
um called stop and search laws which
were
laws that enabled the police to
basically stop anyone
um if they thought they looked
suspicious and what happened
was that um many people felt that the
police were abusing these laws
and using them primarily to stop people
who were black
many mainstream news outlets and many
people
blamed immigrants at the time in
particular young black men
for taking the jobs uh and causing
unemployment and it caused a lot of
friction
um within society in britain where
there was a lot of racism and xenophobia
anti-immigration propaganda a
particularly racist political party the
national front at the time
actually started marching and and trying
to drum up support
blaming immigrants blaming black people
for
the poverty and the crime and the
unemployment that was around at the time
it reflects the anger that people felt
it reflects
the problems that people had but rather
than
reflecting the racial discrimination and
divide that was being encouraged in the
mainstream media
this video shows racial harmony
and implies that these problems are
faced by
everyone and that there wasn't
necessarily a racial
group to blame but more of a political
party to blame
the specials were known as a really kind
of diverse quirky band so
um they were friends um you know they'd
worked together before having a mixture
of both white and black singers within
the band
which was i guess quite unusual and and
often still is within certain genres of
music
and they also mixed together like
different genres from different cultures
as well
so they often had like british punk rock
which was quite popular in that sort of
early 1980s period
but mixing it with like a sort of scar
influence like jamaican music
and also mixing it with a kind of new
wave music that was coming in in the 80s
as well so a real hybrid
genre song and music video
so very unconventional in terms of other
bands and what was happening in
mainstream music
but the specials were not mainstream
they were alternative and that is why
you get this mix of ethnicity
and you get this mix of culture and you
get the mix of
like a jamaican influence and british
punk rock and scar and new wave
so there's a reason why they combine all
these genres and it's because of their
interest as abandoned and how they came
together and their friendship
it becomes quite fast paced at points so
the editing cuts quite quickly there's
lots of canted angles and handheld shots
lots of close-ups on their faces and
they look quite crazed in their facial
expression
and this creates the idea of kind of
chaos and rebels breaking the rules and
being
you know daredevils exciting and a bit
wild
the car is swerving all over the place
which makes them seem quite dangerous as
well
so this creates quite a kind of wild
situation where the audience is perhaps
expecting them to crash
or you know concerned that they're doing
something dangerous
some audiences might be quite engaged by
this because uh you know they might
quite like this idea of being rule
breakers and not conforming
let me get a lot more kind of an upbeat
section where they're kind of dancing
within the car
um and it's quite comical um you know
they're describing them the boomtown era
so they're talking about
um a better time when london was much
more exciting
and bustling and filled with people and
jobs and actually you get a difference
in the um color balance so where they've
color graded the shots
the shots here are a lot warmer whereas
before they were a lot cooler
so the cooler colors made it feel more
depressing and now in this scene here
they feel more warmer
so when they're talking about the past
it adds this idea of like nostalgia and
they're
they're warmly looking back over how
london used to be
in the shot of the alleyway we get very
low-key lighting and lots of long
dark shadows the colors go back to being
quite blue
and that creates quite a bleak
representation of the town
it feels very dangerous and you're
seeing um
you know this idea playing on the idea
and the stereotypes of
male aggression and masculinity being
dangerous and aggressive
the camera tracks past sort of abandoned
cars and this idea of vandalism
um and perhaps this links into the idea
of poverty
and the lack of jobs that were around at
the time this idea that crime often
occurs in those situations
we see a lot of shadows here lots of
haunting shadows in the car itself
of the car uh silhouettes and shadows of
people in the alleyway
and this idea that perhaps all we're
seeing now are shadows of people left
behind
um so again kind of adding to this theme
of london becoming like a ghost town and
being abandoned all that's left are the
ghosts
and no actual people and then we go back
to the car swerving and the fast-paced
editing
they've got no seat belts on very
naughty um which again adds to this kind
of wild rebellious feel but as the car
um is swerving all over the place and
you know flying around basically the men
are going all out of their seats and
flying all over the car
but it's this idea that it's dangerous
but they're not afraid they don't seem
scared by this
so adding to this representation that
they've been kind of worn down and
beaten by
this um this town and the situation in
it so that they're
no longer even scared they're just tired
and then we get this kind of spinning
rotating shots with blue lighting
it's really disorientating for the
audience um
we get reflections of the car going past
which has this idea that their life is
passing them by
um we then see them throwing stones in
the river thames which again is quite a
young
you know immature thing to do maybe this
idea of throwing stones into a river
um this idea that men have nothing else
to do and and
that again reflective of the time period
you know that perhaps reflects this idea
of a lack of job opportunities
you know the fact that these men are
young and bored and angry and they just
want something to do
and then we get this kind of siren like
noise um it's like
it feels like the wind it almost feels
like a police car as well so
um it makes it feel again desolate
abandoned
so the wind is whistling through but if
you do interpret it as a siren
like a police car again it links to this
idea of crime and and law
so all together the video really
representing britain and london as being
you know an abandoned isolated desolate
place that has been
left to rot essentially by the
government and representing young men as
being angry and aggressive and violent
and again that's typically a typical
stereotypical representation of men and
masculinity
but it's it's there because it
represents how young men really did feel
in the 1980s as a result of a lot of
political decisions that were being made
at the time
so that was my easy to understand guide
to ghost town by the specials
don't forget to hit subscribe um if you
would like some more videos for aqa or
indeed any of the other exam boards ocr
educast at both gcc or a-level and if
you've got any comments you can leave a
comment below and i'll answer your
questions
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