Collective Identity - Music

What’s this got to do with media?
“…media representations of ‘race’
and ethnicity are constructed in
accordance with dominant
ideological positionings which
serve to shape and control how
individuals understand others’, and
their own, identities.”
Fatimah Awan
Stuart Hall proposes that
the media, as a principal
form of ideological
dissemination, produces
representations of the
social world via images and
portrayals.
Fatimah Awan
We must also consider Hall’s (1990)
notion that identity is not necessarily
‘fixed’, but a fluid phenomena; ‘Perhaps
instead of thinking of identity as an
already accomplished historical fact …
we should think, instead, of identity as
a “production”, which is never
complete, always in process…
Fatimah Awan
Establishing that the media have the
power to dictate which representations of
ethnic minorities are chosen and
circulated in the public arena, research
into minority representation has revealed
two fundamental issues underlying the
area: underrepresentation and
stereotypical representation. It is
suggested that through such
representations, ethnic minorities
continue to be subordinated in
accordance with white ideological
hegemony
Fatimah Awan
1

Ethnic minority viewers commented that
an ethnic individual alone (for example, a
solitary black character in a soap) cannot
represent the richness of an entire
community.
Channel 4, Race, Representation and the
Media 2007, Research Report
The repetitive framing of particular images in certain
ways eventually leads to those images being seen as
the definitive statement on ‘those’ people and the
groups to which ‘they’ belong .
http://www.newinfluencer.com/mediapedia/black-and-
white-media/
Various characters within “Kidulthood” are
shown to be involved in criminal activities such
as drug dealing and gun making. It can be said
that “black people, particularly Afro-
Caribbeans are portrayed in the media as
criminals” as “the media are highly selective in
the way in which they construct and represent
the world back to us” Kruger, Stephen. Rayner,
Philip. & Wall, Peter. (2004). Media Studies:
The Essential Resource
Joseph Harker wrote that “when it comes to
imagery surrounding black people; I’m used to
relentlessly negative - knife crime,
underachievement representations”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009
/oct/05/london-black-children-awards
2

“The hegemonic model acknowledges that much
of the media is controlled by a relatively small
group of people (who are generally male, middle
class and white) and that the viewpoints
associated with these groups inevitably become
embedded in the products themselves.” This
suggests that these small groups of people use
their own views of ethnic minorities in order to
represent them, due to the fact that they may not
know how to represent them if they are not part
of that social group themselves. This shows that
audiences are being provided with already
established views on a social group thus
reiterating the hypodermic needle theory.
http://jaleesadenton-mest4.blogspot.com/ &
Baker, James. Clark, Vivienne. & Lewis, Eileen.
(2003). Key Concepts & Skills for Media Studies
It can be said that the media choose to represent
ethnic minorities in ways which reinforce
stereotypes in order to maintain a hegemonic
society relating to how “a dominant class or group
maintains power by making everyone accept their
ideology as normal or neutral, through cultural
influence rather than force.”
http://jaleesadenton-mest4.blogspot.com/ &
Williams, Kevin. (2003). Understanding Media
Theory
3

• Define the social category Black British
• In the past what did it mean to be Black British?
• Hypothesise what it means to be part of the collective
group ‘Black British’ in contemporary Britain
• How do the media represent contemporary ‘Black
Britain’?
• How can music artists be seen as anti-hegemonic in
their representation of ‘Black Britain’?
• How can the music industry been seen as hegemonic?
• How do people use the media to help form an sense of
collective identity?
Get thinking?
4

Black British collective identity
• “The creation of a supposedly multicultural society has created a
situation where it’s increasingly difficult to define what it means to be
British. There is no longer any clear distinctive about being British…”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A809895
• Why is this quote useful to explain contemporary ‘Black British’
collective identity?
• Black Britain defines itself crucially as part of a diaspora. Its unique
cultures draw inspiration from those developed by black populations
else-where. In particular, the culture and politics of black America and
the Caribbean have become raw materials for creative processes which
redefine what it means to be black, adapting it to distinctively British
experiences and meanings. Black culture is actively made and re-made.
(Paul Gilroy ‘Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack’ )
Black British Collective Identity
5

Film
HISTORICAL CONTEMPORARY
6

MUSIC
HISTORICAL CONTEMPORARY
7

MUSIC – Historical - Reggae
Music was seen not merely as a form of
entertainment, but it also functioned as a vehicle
for social and political aspirations. Reggae music,
which originated among the working classes in
Jamaica in the late 1960’s, was a mode of
expressing the collective struggles of the black
poor.
In its initial stages the British reggae market was
dependent on the Jamaican one. The political
situation in Jamaica, which was reflected in the
reggae tradition, had special significance for the
black community in Britain.
Simon Jones wrote that 'the
1970’s as a whole were
characterised by an
extraordinary degree of
synchronisation between the
political ideologies expounded
in Jamaican popular music and
the conditions of race and
class oppression experienced
by Blacks in Britain'. 9

Music by the Wailers affected the black
British community, especially with their first
two albums, Catch a Fire (1973) and Burnin'
(1973). In them subjects concerning anti -
imperialism and racial solidarity were raised,
thereby creating a sense of race and class
consciousness.
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/bob+marley/concrete+jungle_20021669.
html
http://www.shmoop.com/concrete-jungle/lyrics.html
10
‘Marley combined social comment on the life and conditions of the
dispossessed classes in the Kingston ghettoes and political
commentary on Jamaican society with invocation of Rasta philosophy’
Public Lecture on Popular Culture as a Factor of Intercultural
Understanding: The Case of Reggae
By Professor Stuart Hall

11
‘That music, and wider message which it bears, has
nowhere taken such profound roots as amongst
the alienated black youth in English cities – the
children of those of Jamaican unemployed who
came to Britain as immigrant labour in the 1950s
and 1960s, who have become in their turn
alienated from white society and from the racism
of the ‘home country’*
In the late 1970s Black British reggae
groups such as Aswad, Steel Pulse and
Matumbi, emerged, and Britain
developed its own unique brand of
reggae, characterized by a merging of
soft soul and reggae.
‘the formation of a black counter-
culture of resistance among second
and third generation blacks in Britain…
An additional irony is the degree to
which this specifically black counter-
culture has influenced and inter-
penetrated the sub-cultures of white-
youth’*

These bands connected with disenchanted
youth all over Britain. They sang about
isolation and rejection from a society that
didn’t understand them.
http://www.lyrics007.com/Steel%20Pulse%20Lyrics/Drug%20Squad%20Lyrics.html
These bands were formed by first generation,
British-born blacks who eloquently voiced the
fear and anguish of growing up in a
predominantly white society. Brought up on
British pop and their parent’s records, they
combined a punk attitude with a Jamaican
reggae sound.
Their efforts to become successful mirrored thousands of young black kids across the
UK who were coping with right-wing backlash to the influx of Caribbean immigrants.
The National Front were stirring up racial hatred and he governments SUS law
resulted in hundreds of black people stopped and searched on the mere suspicion of
committing a crime. It wasn't long before there was rioting in the streets. The British
reggae bands provided the soundtrack to that struggle. 12

• The assimilation of blacks is not a
process of acculturation but of cultural
syncretism (Bastide, 1978).
• The Specials can be used as a symbol
of this process
• It is impossible to theorize black
culture in Britain without developing a
new perspective on British culture as a
whole.
• (Paul Gilroy ‘Ain’t No Black in the
Union Jack’ )
• Assimilation - the social process of
absorbing one cultural group into
harmony with another
MUSIC – Historical – 2Tone
13

• Smiley Culture - what
was he representative
of?
14
MUSIC – Historical – Smiley Culture

• Acculturation = modification of
the culture of a group as a result
of contact with a different culture
• Syncretism = fusion of differing
belief systems - the result is
heterogeneous.
• Fusion = style of cooking that
combines ingredients and
techniques from very different
cultures or countries.
• Heterogeneous = consisting of
elements that are not of the same
kind or nature
15
How does this relate to our hypothetical collective identity?

• In the period leading up to his death
[Marley], it was a space filled primarily
by the ‘two-tone’ cult. In this
movement, earlier Caribbean form,
particularly ska, which had been
exposed by the serious reggae fans’
search for musical authenticity behind
Marley’s obvious comprises, were
captured and rearticulated into
distinctively British styles and
concerns
Union Jack’ )
16

Mix of British and
Jamaican music
Combined white
and black styles
First multicultural
racial music
Fusion of Ska and
Punk
The coming
together of
politics and youth
1979
The Specials,
Madness, The
Selector, The
Beat, The
Bodysnatchers
First time blacks
and whites played
together in the
same band
Had it’s own style
– Pork pie hat,
black and white
dress code
The Rude Boy
character exuded
cool, more
appealing to
British working
class audience
Lyrics reflected
contemporary Britain –
and young people’s lives
irrespective of colour
The movement
allowed blacks
and whites to
share experiences
17

• …the cultural institutions of
the white working class were
hosting an historic encounter
between young black and
white people. This meeting
precipitated not only fear of
the degeneration of the white
'race' in general… but also the
creation of a youth sub-culture
in which black style and
expertise were absolutely
central. (Paul Gilroy ‘Ain’t No
Black in the Union Jack’ )
18
Music rooted in black culture was a distinct vehicle through which
black and white youth were able to have a voice and be heard

19
Consider the differences between the collective identity represented through
Reggae and the collective identity represented through 2Tone

• In his egalitarianism Ethiopianism and anti-imperialism, his critique of
law and of the types of work which were on offer, these young people
found meanings with which to make sense of their lives in post-
imperial Britain.
• The two-tone bands appreciated this and isolated the elements in
Marley's appeal that were most appropriate to the experiences of
young, urban Britons on the threshold of the 1980s.
• They pushed the inner logic of his project to its conclusion by fusing
pop forms rooted in the Caribbean with a populist politics. Marley's
populism had been focused by die imperatives of black liberation and
overdetermined by the language of Rastafarianism.
• Theirs was centred instead on pointing to the possibility that black
and white young people might discover common or parallel meanings
in their blighted, post-industrial predicament.
• (Paul Gilroy ‘Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack’ )
20

• The experience of living side by side
in a ‘ghost town' had begun to raise
this question. The Specials' song,
which topped the chart as the
rioting of 1981 was at its peak,
asked, 'Why must the youth fight
against themselves?' and cleverly
entangled its pleas against both
racism and youth-cultural
sectarianism. The two-tone
operation depended on being seen
to transcend the various prescriptive
definitions of 'race' which faced
each other across the hinterland of
youth culture.
Union Jack’ )
21

• How does the legacy of 2 Tone relate to the multicultural landscape of today
and contemporary Black Britain?
• Culture is not a fixed and impermeable feature of social relations. Its forms
change, develop, combine and are dispersed in historical processes. The
syncretic cultures of black Britain exemplify this. They have been able to detach
cultural practices from their origins and use them to found and extend the new
patterns of metacommunication which give their community substance and
collective identity.
• The defensive walls around each sub-culture gradually crumble and new
forms with even more complex genealogies are created in the synthesis and
transcendence of previous styles. The effects of this can be seen not only
where the cultural resources of the Afro-Caribbean communities provide a
space in which whites are able to discover meaning in black histories, style and
language, but also where a shared culture, overdetermined by its context of
the urban crisis, mediates the relationship between the different ethnic groups
that together comprise black Britian.
• (Paul Gilroy ‘Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack’ )
‘RACE’ ETHNICITY, SYNCRETISM
AND MODERNITY
22

MUSIC – Grime and UK Rap
• Discuss how Grime and UK
rap artists are continuing
where 2 tone left off
• Think about who they’re
talking to and who they
ultimately represent
• Think about the roots of the
music
• Think about why this music
comes under the genre
‘urban’ and also how it can
be seen as anti-hegemonic
24

Collective Identity - Music

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