The Specials - Ghost Town

 The Specials - Ghost Town

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?

It is a protest song and does not push a singular political view, it reflects and engenders anxiety 

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

Mod, Punk, Ska, Jamaican rocksteady and American pop

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

Riots across urban areas because of the recession 

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

The setting is completely isolated and the buildings tower over the camera showing how intimidating the brutalist designs for the buildings are and how threatening they seem 

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?

He suggests that it became a protest song that united young people, it became a serious song that people felt connected to and like it represented them rather than just any other song that they just dance to  

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. Then comes the haunted, spectral woodwind, punctuated by blaring brass.

"odd angular song"

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

The industrial decline left the city suffering badly therefore many young people were left unemployed

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?

The music video 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 was a film score composer who worked on the James Bond franchise 

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 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 men, the highlighting of bleak (often urban) environments and a sense of hopelessness.

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

There is cutting between day and night, dark and light, which is disorienting for the audience and plays with timeframe to make the ‘ghost town’ feel as menacing by day as night. The Expressionist style featuring shadows, chiaroscuro lighting (sharp contrast between dark and light) contributes to this.

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

Non-verbal codes play a memorable role in contributing to the atmosphere of 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 handheld camera movement makes the audience feel disorientated 

The band is shot as a group emphasising the relationship between them

Low angle shots to make the buildings seem intimidating

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

Todorov - The band are searching for the river and find it at the end

Barthes - The car travelling provides action codes

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

Neale - the band uses different music video conventions as the members are not dancing however it repeats 2-tone conventions like the expressionless faces and the "rudeboy" outfits

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?

Gauntlett suggests that media texts may offer us a sense of collective identity, by being an audience member and finding things in common with others via our shared tastes.

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

She referred to these 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?

The double consciences of being in the experience of being part of a black minority in a predominantly white culture

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. 

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.

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 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.

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

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.