The Specials - 'Ghost Town'

 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?

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.

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?
The whispered chorus of “This Town/ is coming like a Ghost town”.

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?
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.


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

1) How does the article describe the song?

2) What does the article say about the social context of the time – what was happening in Britain in 1981?
By 1981, industrial decline had left the city suffering badly. Unemployment was among the highest in the UK.

3) How did The Specials reflect an increasingly multicultural Britain?

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

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?


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? 

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

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

4) What does the factsheet suggest regarding the editing and camerawork? Pick out three key points that are highlighted here.

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

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

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.

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

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

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?

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