Black on Black sounds

Introduction CLAIMING STRUCTURES, BIDDING FOR THE MAINSTREAM Chapter 1 Black and Asian Britain and the Cultural Mainstream Chapter 2 Be Ourselves and Be Mainstream? 'Black' British Film Revisited Chapter 3 'Landmarks': The Evolution of Black and Asian Narrative Film in Britain from the 1960s to the 1980s CASE STUDIES Chapter 4 Black Youth Films in the 1990s Chapter 5 Asian British Film since the 1990s Chapter 6 1990s Television Drama: Mainscreening Black and Asian British History Conclusion VOICES Mike PHILLIPS: Art, the Myth of Black Culture and the Struggle for British Identity Horace OVE: Belmont Olympic Julian HENRIQUES: Reggae Sound Systems, the Body and Film-Making Practices Parminder Vir in Interview Gurinder Chadha in Interview Bibliography Index

Contemporary research conducted by, among others, Naomi Cumming, Tia DeNora and Maria Spychiger demonstrates that examining the concepts of self and identity in the context of music leads to significant and interesting results. Music not only influences the understanding of our social and cultural roles as music-makers, but also contributes to the construction of self-image. It seems that the question of musical self and musical identity is also one of the central questions asked by contemporary composers. In their case, musical identity is very clearly marked; moreover, it requires constant reinforcement and verification on their part. In order to both illustrate and problematise the issue of musical identity of a modern composer, I have chosen two artists whose statements and approach to self-presentation provide great contrast. It was on the example of György Ligeti that Charles Wilson characterised the rhetoric of autonomy. On the other hand, in the statements of Jonathan Harvey we find its total rejection and a more fluid conception of identity. Ligeti placed very strong emphasis on his artistic independence in relation to his contemporaries, as well as the exceptional nature of his works, which could not be categorized as belonging to any current musical movement. On the other hand, Harvey claimed that contemporary composers’ personalities are inevitably “polyphonic” and the creative process in many aspects resembles kleptomania. Both composers took a great deal of effort to create their musical identities. The two self-presentations, at first glance very contrasted, hide attitudes that are not so distant from each other. The composers’ self-presentations are also supplemented by analyses of musicologists. On the one hand, the composers’ words are eagerly quoted; on the other, similar research procedures are applied in interpreting their works. Regardless of their declared compositional intentions, their suggestive descriptions of music turned out to be an important hermeneutic clue for researchers. Ligeti’s autonomous individuality is now perceived through the prism of various cultural identities and environmental influences, while Harvey’s “polyphonic self” is examined in the context of the integrality and continuity of his output. From one perspective, one could decide that the rhetoric of autonomy has lost its relevance and is no longer attractive to researchers. However, in the twenty-first century, the social expectation of individuality and integrality of a creative artist is still strong.KeywordsMusical selfMusical identityGyörgy LigetiJonathan Harvey

Guthrie Ramsey’s Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop is a fascinating account of the relationship between music and African American identity. Surveying an array of black music styles – blues, bebop, rhythm and blues, soul music, gospel music, and hip hop in films – Ramsey explores ways that African Americans have identified themselves in music. He draws upon his experience as a jazz and gospel pianist and his family’s participation in the Great Migration to generate an ethnographic method positioning family narrative at the intersection of racial identity and musical expression. He is also concerned with the ways in which African Americans have used music to construct positive and flexible concepts of “race.” As Ramsey argues early in the book: “My use of the term race music intentionally seeks to recapture some of the historical ethnocentric energy that circulated in these styles, even as they appealed to many listeners throughout America and abroad. […] I use the word race […] not to embrace a naive position of racial essentialism, but as an attempt to convey the worldviews of cultural actors from a specific historical moment.” (3, original italics) Ramsey’s explanation of “race music” or, rather, raced music, resonates in interesting ways with the concept of “race records” that emerged in the young American recording industry in the 1920s. The success of Mamie Smith’s 1920 recording of “Crazy Blues” prompted early record labels to initiate marketing campaigns targeting African Americans, Italian Americans, Jewish Americans, and others as distinct markets with specific musical tastes connected to their racial and ethnic identities. This trend substantiated a form of racial essentialism in sounds; record company executives assumed a homology between race and music consumption. In reality, however, American listening habits traversed racial and ethnic boundaries, creating a series of musical intercultures (see Slobin; Stanyek) evidenced in listening habits during the so-called “Jazz Age” and “Swing Era” of the 1920s and 30s. During this period, African American music became America’s popular music. While this intercultural listening challenged the marketing of “race records,” assumptions about racial identity and musical meaning continued to structure the way African American music was portrayed in American popular culture. Race Music strategically reclaims the notion of “race” from the inside out, from an emic or insider’s view of black music and its relationship to African American culture. Ramsey’s race music (re)presents the creative strategies African Americans employed in crafting their own identities in sound and how those sounds circulate as symbols in a variety of social contexts. Like the New Negro discourse of the Harlem Renaissance and the concept of Black Art during the 1960s and ‘70s, Ramsey’s race music is about self-determination, about reclaiming the ability to define oneself in sound. Ramsey develops three historical frameworks for locating the articulation of music and identity: Afro-modernism in the 1940s, black nationalism and soul music in the 1960s, and the “post-industrial moment” of the 1990s. These three historical frames illustrate important moments in which new understandings about the relationship between racial and musical identity were conceived in African American culture. One moment focuses on musical experimentalism and ideas about “modernity” in the 1940s that led to the creation of bebop. Ramsey also demonstrates how critical

Does equality exist in the 21st century, or, are minorities still forced to fight for equality? In nineteenth century, Britain, racism was blatant in all spheres of cultural, social, and economic life to the point that it crossed over into literature and theatre. In 1978, UNESCO adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Forty years have since passed, but has it made any difference? Contemporary British playwright Debbie Tucker Green’s Eye for Ear (2018), staged at the Royal Court Theatre, reminds us that racism and inequality is still a key social-political issue. This three-act, avant-garde, colloquial play depicts how both African-Americans as well as Black British people still live with racism today. It also highlights racism’s linguistic and legal past. Tucker Green particularly focuses on the violent aspect of that racism through the lens of different characters: an academic, a black student, a black boy, and black parents. The play concludes with crushed hope, for it deduces that Caucasians both in the United States and in Great Britain still dominate practically every facet of society. This study will examine Green’s Ear for Eye, racial discrimination in the 21st century, and how Tucker Green projects her views upon her work through the theory of race and racism.

With special reference to the exclusion1,2 of young, Caribbean British (African Caribbean)3 males from English State schools,4 this chapter argues for greater involvement of the ministry of the British Black Church in the secular education of Black youth. By British Black church I mean Christian Black organizations such as, Black churches and Black faith-based organizations (fbos) on the one hand; and Black Christian leaders/ministers and laity, on the other. The paper thus examines the interplay of Black religion/spirituality, school exclusion, Black British masculinity, education, and Black youth.

Background/Context Though Black Americans have long suffered under racial tyranny, they have made valiant efforts to subvert policies and practices that encroach on their humanity. Nevertheless, systemic racism has been virtually unyielding—creating both racial hierarchies and disparities in access to resources and wellness. Programs designed to address the condition of Black people, particularly Black youth, often employ deficit or dysfunctional logic, thereby ignoring the sociohistorical context in which Black youth navigate. Furthermore, not enough attention is given to the ways that culturally centered approaches ignite critical consciousness among Black youth in ways that are aligned with the tradition of the Black American abolitionist mindset. Purpose We build on the discourse on community-based youth programs and critical consciousness development by using frameworks that elevate race and culture in analyzing how Black youth make sense of their racialized experiences. Additionally, our explication challenges the overriding deficit focus of Black youth experiences within and outside school contexts by providing a nuanced view of Black youth agency. Research Design With critical race theory as the epistemic foundation, this study sought to foreground counternarratives among youth participants of a culturally centered, community-based program. Thus, we used semistructured interviews as our primary data source. Using a three-stage analytical process, we sought to understand if and how critical consciousness manifests within this youth community. Conclusions/Recommendations The study demonstrates the value of foregrounding African American culture and history to fortify the values of collectivism, self-determination, purpose, responsibility, empowerment, creativity, and faith among Black youth. The authors propose that educators collaborate with community-based Black culture and youth development experts to support dialogical, student-centered spaces that impart culturally centered knowledge about Black Americans. Furthermore, the authors advocate for professional development in asset-based pedagogies as a means to enhance belongingness among Black students.

The New Zealand popular music scene has seen a series of high points in recent years. Published in 1989 were John Dix's labour of love, Stranded in Paradise, a comprehensive history of New Zealand rock'n'roll; an influential report by the Trade Development Board, supportive of the local industry; and the proceedings of a well-supported Music New Zealand Convention held in 1987 (Baysting 1989). In the late 1980s, local bands featured strongly on the charts, with Dave Dobbyn (‘Slice of Heaven’, 1986), Tex Pistol (‘The Game of Love’, 1987) and the Holiday Makers (‘Sweet Lovers’, 1988) all having number one singles. Internationally, Shona Laing (‘Glad I'm Not A Kennedy’, 1987) and Crowded House (‘Don't Dream It's Over’, 1986) broke into the American market, while in Australia many New Zealand performers gathered critical accolades and commercial success.

Sustainable agriculture should be able to meet various social goals and objectives so that it can be maintained for an indefinite period without significant negative impacts on environment and natural resources. A wide variety of agricultural activities are running in Malaysia. Maintaining high quality of agricultural products with lower environmental impacts through a sustainable economic viability and life satisfaction of farmers and community are important factors helping to meet sustainable agriculture. Human resources are playing key role in directing the community toward sustainable development. The trend of improving the human development index in Malaysia is highest in the East Asia and the Pacific, high human development countries and the world, since 2000. Precision agriculture is providing strong tools to achieve sustainable agriculture. Different types of sensors, positioning and navigation systems, GIS, software and variable rate technology are well known components of precision agriculture. Drones and robots are promising tools that enabling farmers and managers to collect information or perform particular actions in remote areas or tough conditions. According to a survey, forestry and timber, rubber production and oil palm estates are three main agricultural divisions that precision agriculture may improve the productivity in respect to area of cropland/worker. Main factors affecting the adoption of precision agriculture in Malaysia are: a) Political and legal supports, b) Decision support systems and user interfaces c) Experienced research team works d) National educational policy e) Success in commercialization of precision agriculture system.

In this theoretical article, we illuminate the ways in which the ethnic/racial identity literature to date is limited in its ability to fully capture the diverse experiences of Black youth in the U.S. and Canada. Specifically, despite representing a growing share of the Black population, the experiences of immigrant-origin Black youth (at least one parent born outside the U.S./Canada) are often overlooked and undertheorized in ethnic/racial identity research. We draw from the phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory, intersectional invisibility framework, and the theory of multiplicity to highlight conceptual and methodological gaps in the way ethnic/racial identity is studied among Black youth. Accounting for the detrimental impact of negative stereotypes, racial discrimination, and xenophobia, we unpack the unique process of ethnic/racial identity development for immigrant-origin Black youth. We then apply acculturation theory to address the limitations in ethnic/racial identity findings. We conclude with recommendations to clarify inclusion criteria when using the term African American and to report on Black youth’s ethnic diversity.

During the Blitz, on 8 March 1941, a bomb fell on the Cafe de Paris, an exclusive London nightclub, just as the Guianaian-born bandleader Ken “Snakehips” Johnson and his West Indian Dance Orchestra were in full swing. Johnson and saxophonist Dave ‘Baba’ Williams were killed in the blast, which also marked the demise of this successful group. The Orchestra was dedicated to reproducing emergent American big band jazz, but contemporary reports (if not extant recorded performances) also suggest the influence of calypso and rumba. Similarly, even prior to the arrival of the Empire Windrush, which is often characterised as heralding the start of mass immigration, a vivid mix of black music styles could be heard in London clubs. This diversity reflected cultural importations from the Empire and beyond, including jazz, which was being increasingly identified globally as black music. In Britain, black musicians were necessarily fluent in a variety of genres, irrespective of their particular cultural roots. Indeed, the members of the West Indian Dance Orchestra were not all from the Caribbean, or indeed America; the band included black musicians that had been resident in the UK for some time, more recent immigrants, and some members that were British-born. The pervasive hybridity of the London scene suggests a generalised perception of black music commensurate with blurring of the black identities of the musicians, which is perhaps characteristic of the black British experience. But also there is a sense in which jazz-based fusions, as demonstrated by the West Indian Dance Orchestra, were very particular responses to jazz reflecting the complexities of race and identity. Continued immigration and the corresponding representation of diverse national musics, as well as the emergence of indigenous popular styles, is indicative of the multicultural backdrop for the investigation of the complex and ever-changing meaning of jazz with respect to race and identity (particularly black British) in post-Second World War Britain. This chapter examines the subsequent careers of surviving members of the West Indian Dance Orchestra and proceeds to relate their experiences to those of contemporary jazz musicians in Britain, interrogating an apparent dichotomy of (imported, or closely derivative) jazz in Britain and (native, with original elements) British jazz. The chapter draws on interviews from the (UK) National Sound Archive’s ‘Oral History of Jazz in Britain’ collection and those conducted as part of the AHRC-funded project ‘What is Black British Jazz?’.

Prior to the twenty-first century, nonfiction picture books in Britain rarely focused on the Black British community. As twenty-first-century Britain struggles to define itself, the education system is one way of institutionalizing and standardizing what it means to be British. By aligning with the National Curriculum standards, publishers of children’s nonfiction have found ways to negotiate boundaries and re-envision meaning. Recent texts have used traditional models for British children’s nonfiction to focus on areas of citizenship, identity, and history, but by redefining the boundaries between nation/outsider, self/other, and insider/outsider, have created new spaces for British identity and citizenship.

Carbon emissions reduction and population ageing are two major challenges faced by human society in the 21st century. Based on data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), we investigated the impact of population ageing on carbon emissions at the household level along with the potential mechanisms of this impact. We found that households with a higher older adult population proportion and age of the household head emitted less, and these results were shown to be very robust and reliable across a series of endogeneity and robustness tests. Furthermore, population ageing contributed to carbon emission reductions for all groups; however, compared with urban households, rural households were more sensitive to population ageing. Mechanism analysis showed that population ageing can reduce household carbon emissions through more frugal life attitudes and lower future income expectations, whereas it increases carbon emissions due to weaker environmental awareness among older adults. However, overall, population ageing has a significant inhibitory effect on household carbon emissions. The findings of this study contribute to our understanding of the micro-scale mechanisms of residents’ carbon emission behaviour and provide new insights for designing targeted policies for carbon reduction from the perspective of population structure.

Drawing on Black media, cultural, and digital studies, this work considers the relationship between nostalgia and the media, cultural productions, and experiences of Black people in Britain. Engaging with Hesse's (2000) work on ‘Diasporicity: Black Britain's Post-Colonial Formations', I explore how media representations of Black Britain and connected production processes have changed since the 90s, in ways entwined with Black nostalgia and generational (be)longing. Since Hesse (2000, p. 97) observed that ‘Black Britishness is a discourse whose increasing currency has yet to be conceptualized seriously', research and writing on Black Britishness and Black life in Britain has significantly expanded. Informed by such work, I delve into some of the details of Black media experiences in Britain to consider how Black nostalgia manifests in and through these contexts. Inspired by Ahad-Legardy's (2021) work on ‘Afro-nostalgia' and how visual culture aids archives of Black ‘historical joy', I consider the digitally mediated, comforting, conflicting, and historical nature of Black media nostalgia in Britain, and Black nostalgia more generally. Such discussion distinguishes between Black people's nostalgic media experiences and Black media nostalgia which centers Black creative expression and the kaleidoscopic gazes of Black audiences. Nostalgia's enigmatic quality cannot be comprehended via empirical analysis, alone. Thus, sculpted by understandings of ‘sociopolitical strategies of presence' (Osei 2019, p. 733), this work conceptualizes Black nostalgia in ways based on key media examples, research interviews, researcher reflections and the possibilities and playfulness presented by influx ponderings. Overall, shaped by Hall's (1993; 1997) work on representation and popular culture, this manuscript yields insights regarding dynamics between nostalgia, media, and Black life in Britain. Such work highlights the need for specificity (e.g., whose gaze(s), geographies, generations) when articulating Black people’s experiences in Britain, and the power of nostalgia in Black media and culture, which spans decades and different devices.

Vinyl Revival

Reviewed by: Screen Adaptations and the Politics of Childhood: Transforming Children’s Literature into Film by Robyn McCallum Dr. Haifeng Hui (bio) Robyn McCallum. Screen Adaptations and the Politics of Childhood: Transforming Children’s Literature into Film. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. Robyn McCallum’s monograph Screen Adaptations and the Politics of Childhood: Transforming Children’s Literature into Film is an exciting contribution to the area of adaptation studies. Although, as McCallum notes in her introduction, “texts produced for children and teenagers are late to arrive to the ballroom of film and adaptation studies” (3), the twenty-first century nevertheless has witnessed an increasing number of excellent studies of film adaptations of children’s literature. To this end, McCallum’s book productively calls attention to how film adaptations variously remain faithful to, distort, or resist the themes and underpinnings of both classic and lesser-known works of children’s literature. The focus of her book, then, is how key elements of ideology, such as gender politics, culture wars, and notions of childhood, migrate to the new medium of film and undergo changes that are imposed by different social factors such as dominant “Hollywood aesthetic” and national identity. The book’s opening chapter recounts the historical development of adaptation studies by calling attention to the pioneering works of Linda Hutcheon, Brian McFarlane, Robert Stam, Thomas Leitch, James Naremore, and other scholars. It serves as an illuminating introduction for any reader who wants to explore adaptation studies in general and film adaptations in particular. Following the trend toward cultural and ideological contexts of adaptation away from fidelity debates, as proposed by the above scholars, McCallum’s interests encompass the way concepts of childhood are constructed and mediated in the new media and the “signifying practices through which viewers and readers [End Page 305] are positioned” (22). The following chapters are organized around key literary and film genres: classic texts, carnivalesque texts, radically intertextual and/or experimental texts, fantasy and magic realism, and cross-cultural adaptations. They explore the subtleties of film adaptation of children’s literature in its rich historical, social, and especially political contexts. McCallum’s second chapter examines film adaptations of three classic novels that span the first two golden ages of children’s literature: Treasure Island and Chronicles of Narnia. Citing Marah Gubar’s contention that Treasure Island can be read as an anti-adventure and anti-imperialist text, McCallum focuses on the ambivalences and ambiguities within Stevenson’s novel and how they are dealt with in various film adaptations, such as the 1972 Treasure Island (directed by John Hough and Andrew White), the 1999 Treasure Island (directed by Peter Rowe), and the 2011 television series Treasure Island (directed by Steve Barron). In Stevenson’s novel, there is a double-voice between the retrospective, older and wiser narrator Jim and the experiencing focalizer Jim (more naïve), which creates a central ambivalence. Besides, the “gentleman/pirate” hierarchy remains ambiguous and is finally inverted. Most of the film versions are rather conservative, choosing to oversimplify “the classist, imperialist and anti-imperialist metanarratives underpinning that story”(48), but some have kept and even highlighted the complexities and ambiguities of the novel, such as the 2011 Baron version and the 2011 BBC production. Also featuring children protagonists displaced into an “adult” world where they must take on adult roles, the Narnia series poses very different challenges to directors inasmuch the novels are often under-plotted and under-characterized, making it difficult to conform to film audience’s expectations of large-scale spectacular and epic aesthetic. Besides, the novels are metafictive in that the Narnia world and the frame fictional “real” world have different degrees of “reality,” which draws the readers’/audience’s attention to their status as fiction and artifice. The novels are also rich in their historical meanings, alluding to the Cold War context of a post–World War II Britain. However, the Disney film series adaptations directed by Andrew Adamson are aimed more at commercial success and are live-action-oriented and blockbuster in style. Adamson adds long action sequences and plots to “pad-out” the thin narrative, diluting what McCallum calls “Lewis’ pervasive and unquestioning sense of morality and allegorical emphasis...