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?

Starting with a Hammond organ’s six ascending notes before a mournful flute solo, it paints a bleak aural and lyrical landscape. 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. Ska and the related Jamaican Rocksteady were its musical foundations, sharpened further by punk attitude and anger. It was this anger that Dammers articulated in “Ghost Town”, galvanised both what he had seen on tour around the UK in 1981 and what was happening in the band, which was riven by internal tensions.

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

England was hit by recession and away from rural Skinhead nights, 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) Cultural critic Mark Fisher describes the video as ‘eerie’. What do you think is 'eerie' about the Ghost Town video?

Perhaps because “Ghost Town” cannot be “placed”. It’s not explicitly against any one event. It does not exhort its listeners into any one particular political view. It is not part of any one social movement for change. It is, rather, a stealth protest song Starting with a Hammond organ’s six ascending notes before a mournful flute solo, it paints a bleak aural and lyrical landscape. Written in E♭, more attuned to “mood music”, with nods to cinematic soundtracks and music hall tradition, it reflects and engenders anxiety.

Personally I think that the song could be described as eerie is due to the specific feelings it gives off of mystery and a lack of a chorus that makes it so possibly unpredictable but also aimless and the video gives off the same feeling as they drive around aimlessly through dark alleys and with very hard lowkey lighting reminiscent of hammer horror of the 70s.

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?

This was not a dance track. It wasn’t the “romantic” one the DJ played at the end of the night.

When “Ghost Town” played, the Skinheads sang along with Terry Hall, smiled manically and screeched. They joined into to the “ghastly chorus” and became, for a few minutes, part of that army of spectres. Because protest sometimes has no words. 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. See the streets before the bankers get there and after the cleaning ladies have gone. And put young, poor, disadvantaged people in that car. See how “Ghost Town” makes sense. Now.

I think that you could still find a way to dance to it even if its a bit unorthodox, there's a certain vibe to it that could allow for a bit of a head bop due to the sax and reggae inspirations.

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. Over a sparse reggae bass line, a West Indian vocal mutters warnings of urban decay, unemployment and violence.

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

Released on 20 June 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 - the day before Ghost Town reached number one in the charts. And whatever similarities might exist between the tough economic environments of 1981 and 2011, the fact this odd, angular song could become such a massive hit might be astonishing to modern ears.

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. The band's 2 Tone record label gave its name to a genre which fused ska, reggae and new wave and, in turn, inspired a crisply attired youth movement.

4) How can we link Paul Gilroy’s theories to The Specials and Ghost Town?

The idea that through through diaspora and having members that are black in a time where racism and discrimination against black people was high shows Britain’s emerging multiculturalism, is reinforced through the eclectic mix of stylistic influences in both the music and the video.

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?

"When I think about Ghost Town I think about Coventry," says Specials drummer John Bradbury, who grew up in the city. "I saw it develop from a boom town, my family doing very well, through to the collapse of the industry and the bottom falling out of family life. Your economy is destroyed and, to me, that's what Ghost Town is about." 

Mystery Men (1999), SLC Punk! (1998) and Sus (2010)

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. 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?

The mise-en-scene of Ghost Town also makes use of a visual style that borrows from expressionist cinema. (see example in image). In the car, the band are lit eerily by a limited interior light source and what looks like a handheld torch to light the faces of those in the back from a low angle. This is a highly effective low budget filmmaking technique suited to the aesthetic. The lighting design makes a virtue of available ‘natural’ sources, such as the harsh yellowy reflections of the lights in the tunnel on the windscreen as they pass over the band members, the grey skies and dark streets. It isn’t black and white, but it sometimes feels as though it is since the colours are so bleak and desaturated. 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?

The car is a Vauxhall Cresta, which signifies the importance of the 1960s to the two-tone culture that influenced both The Specials and other bands. This term was coined by a band member and described not just the multi-ethnic mix of band members but also the mixture of musical influences on them. The dress code reflects what working-class men both black and white might have worn on a night out clubbing. 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.

Editing is used to control the pace of the video and camerawork distorts our sense of day and night. One scene is cut like an action sequence of a car chase. Both its style and short shot duration give a frenetic feel. This is reinforced by handheld, disorienting camerawork with whip pans and canted angles.

• travelling shots
• cross-dissolve
• low angle shots

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

Todorov: Equilibrium The band setting off together looking for something to do, accompanied by the eerie diegetic sound and the green traffic light, an arbitrary sign that things are being set in motion.

Disruption This could be seen as the bleakness and emptiness of the streets because,

‘Bands don’t play no more – too much fighting on the dance floor’.

Recognition Could be identified as the upbeat break in the middle of the song that contrasts times gone by with now: ‘We danced and sang, and the music played in de boomtown’.

Attempt to repair The is the continued aimless drive, the shadowy figures and ghostly conflicts

encountered in the car chase style scenes.

New equilibrium Their bleak arrival at the river, having found nothing else to do.

Barthes: Hermeneutic codes Whose car are we in? Where are the band going? Why does everything seem to be shut down?

Action codes These include the car travelling from location to location.

Semantic codes Uses of these include the band being dressed smartly, connoting their intention to go out, and the car steering wildly connoting danger from an unseen presence.

Symbolic codes Include the contrast between past and present

Referential codes The lyrical references to historical/social contexts, such as joblessness and urban decay.

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

Performative The performer or band appear in the video

performing it in some way – this could be a

literal performance or just one band member

lip-synching.

Narrative The video has an identifiable story, usually

connected in some way with the lyrics

(although not always).

Concept-based There is a motif or idea that defines the visual

style of the video – it may be abstract or more

obviously connected with a symbolic code

defined by the lyrics.

The video for Ghost Town is performative because it features a ‘performance’ by the band – they are singing the song together in the car. It is also narrative in that it has a simple premise that the group are looking for somewhere to go out but are thwarted and end up throwing stones into the river. There is a secure concept to the video, which is the journey and the eeriness of the location, the zombie-like appearance of the band. Neale’s approach to theorising genre tells us that genres hybridise. Ghost Town is an example of how music videos often borrow from different cultural reference points. As discussed, the visual aesthetic for Ghost Town draws strongly on two cinematic influences - expressionist cinema of the 1920s and the social realist mode of film-making that began in the 1960s. The musical genre of ska had strong links to the 1960s, when it became popular in the UK with the mod sub-culture. Two-tone culture had diverse influences as reggae, ska, and punk / new wave.

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.

Hall – Reception Theory A preferred reading of the video would have seen the protest

message at the heart of the video being accepted. In this sense, the video can be understood as intending to have a unifying effect on a sub-culture of British Youth – uniting them in anger at the establishment rather than ‘fighting amongst themselves’, particularly in the case of race riots. Its messages about racial integration, signified in part by the multi-ethnic band members themselves, are more complex to understand in terms of how they would be received. Youth culture at the time was divided into many subgroups. Some groups were antagonistic towards others and the early 1980s saw a resurgence in far-right racists groups. Ironically, some of

these racist subcultures adopted ska music and fashions despite the ideologies of tolerance communicated by the ska bands of the time. This means negotiated or even oppositional readings may have been taken by the subgroups within the band’s fandom.

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. In this sense the song and video nurture a sense of male collective identity, and shares the experience of trying to negotiate identity. This means that the text offers a place for men to see their problems being enacted and perhaps compare them with their own lives in what was a time of economic deprivation for many when many traditionally masculine jobs were disappearing.

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

Judith Butler is a useful theorist to explore in relation to this text. Butler suggested that gender was not defined by the sex we are born with, but is a collection of behaviours by members of a biological sex often based on attitudes and expectations held by society. She referred to these as a ‘performance’. These musicians seem to be ‘performing’ the structures of patriarchy which include brotherhood, camaraderie and male solidarity. Butler also argued that unless the media could also begin to transgress, (or cross) boundaries in the way it represented gender, it is difficult for society also to lessen its reliance on gender stereotypes. This is because stereotypes circulate in the media as well as in society itself. The total absence of women is a significant point in itself. Feminist theorists might argue that the video eclipses women’s own feelings of hopelessness. Perhaps the effect of unemployment on their realities, etc. are ignored in this text which frames these as exclusively male issues.

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?

Post-colonial theorists also use the idea of in-groups, who are the people who have power and influence in society and are often the greater number. Out-groups tend to have less power – they are perhaps fewer and/or more marginalised (made to feel powerless). The video challenges the notion of in-groups and out-groups by mixing ethnicities and focusing more on social class and the bonding potential of music. Post-colonialists might argue that there is double consciousness (Gilroy) here. This term refers to the experience of being part of a black minority in a predominantly white culture, seeing black representations being constructed for white people from the outside with very little self-representation. Black musicians, as part of a music industry in the UK which was controlled by the white majority, had limited control in terms of self-representation and were often side-lined in bands which were multi-ethnic.