The specials ghost town.

1) Why does the writer link the song to cinematic soundtracks and music hall tradition?
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.
3) What social contexts are discussed regarding the UK in 1981?
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?
Mark Fisher states that weird and eerie is when there is something where there I supposed to be nothing which related to ghost town since the music video should not have a horror category to it since that category is only for movies.

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?
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.

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

1) How does the article describe the song?
It is an odd, eerie song nodding to pop convention and sitting wilfully outside of it.
2) What does the article say about the social context of the time – what was happening in Britain in 1981?
Britain faced recession and riots broke out in the urban areas.
3) How did The Specials reflect an increasingly multicultural Britain?
It consisted of a group of black and white men from a depressed Midlands
4) How can we link Paul Gilroy’s theories to The Specials and Ghost Town?
The ghost town is  cultural black music however it is derived from white cultural music and consists of white members.
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?
There's something frenzied and mad about that record," he says. "It has such a kaleidoscope of influences - jazz, (film score composer) John Barry, Middle Eastern music, a solid reggae undertone and stuff that sounds like nothing else.
"It has such a kaleidoscope of influences - jazz, (film score composer) John Barry, Middle Eastern music, a solid reggae undertone and stuff that sounds like nothing else.
Close-textual analysis of Ghost Town

Watch the video several times and make bullet-point notes of your close-textual semiotic analysis using the following headings:

1) Mise-en-scene: Setting, Lighting, Colour, Actor/performer placement and movement, Costume and props. How are some of these aspects used to create meanings?
The setting was an abandoned road and was quite isolated which could be referring to how the ethnic minority working class are isolated from the rest of the world and the upper class who are successful. The actors are a mix of black and white which disregards division and rather promotes diversity. The lighting was quite dim throughout the music video to Gove an ominous and eery effect, the lighting also got darker as the video progressed which may be referring to how the social problems in UK were getting more worse than better.

2) Cinematography: Camera shots and camera movement.
There were a lot of closeups in the beginning to raise the audiences suspicions and not show the full landscape to intrigue the audience.

3) Editing: Pace, juxtaposition, timing. 
The pace and timing is really slow and drags on for a while to drag the suspense on for a while and build up tension.

Now apply media theory to the video - perhaps by considering whether Ghost Town reinforces or challenges some of the media theories we have studied. Make bullet-point notes on the following:

1) Goodwin’s theory of music video.
Godwin  believed that a music video can promote a song by though the way it analysis the lyrics and ghost town reinforces this theory because it uses the social context of their lyrics to promote the song because of the rioting that was at its peak in the Uk.

2) Neale’s genre theory.
Neale states that a film must match the genre's conventions to be identified as part of that genre and ghost town challenges this by using the conventions of a horror genre in the music video although the song is not of a horror genre.
3) Gilroy’s diasporic identity/postcolonial theory.
Gilroy believes in a genre which consists of a mix of all races an ghost town reinforces this because it is actually very multicultural consisting of white and black actors.4) Bricolage and pastiche.
Pastiche is a genre that consists of many different media texts brought together which is evident in ghost town since it brings horror and social matters together.
5) Strinati’s definition of postmodernism.
Strinati theory states that art in music represented what was going on in life at the the time and ghost town reinforces this because it use its art to represents the social realism.