SCOTLAND:

For those who live in Scotland:

- education
- legal system

Scottishness carries many features that could be understand among British people.

WALES:

* Public life similar to that of England.
* Not many symbols of Welshness
* symbol of Welsh identity: the language

English country is still dominating in number of people than Scotland, Welsh.

NORTH IRELAND:

* Ethnicity, family, politics, religion, inter-related
* minor role of social class
* polarized society
* people from lowland Scotland or England (Protestants)
* Northern Ireland as part of the UK
- native Irish (Catholics)
* Northern Ireland as part of the Irish Republic

ENGLISH IDENTITY:

* Little distinction between English and British

English vs. British

- Stonehenge (built by ancestors) - not very patriotic
- the Angle of the North - 2007 opinion poll: 50% would emigrate
- vehicles such as the Routemaster London - 75% ‘proud to be British’
- the SS Empire Windrush - not actively patriotic
- a cup of tea (from India) - do not personally represents the country
- the King James Bible
(He was not English but Scottish)

- Patriotic when British identity threatened from the outside

MULTICULTURALISM:

• Salad bowl

• Melting pot

• Dominant perception: the salad bowl model has gone too far.

Black Caribbeans:

• The longest established group

• Most members born in Britain

• Wave of immigration in 1948 (Empire Windrush)

Asians:

• Communities stuck closely together

• Marry among themselves

• Retained languages, religious, music, dress, food preferences

• Parents have more control over children

• Difficult for young Asians born and brought up in Britain

• Significant cultural differences

• Young British Muslim reactions against British culture

• Alienation from mainstream British values.

• Distinct hybrid identity as British Asians

• Uncommon sense of identity based on place of birth.

• A lot of local pride

• Identity with a larger geographical area

The north-south divide:

• Denotes a (suppose) big difference between the poor north and the rich south.

• Much truth in this generalization (historically)

The south:

• Lower rates of unemployment

• More expense houses

‘southerners’ ‘the northerners’
- soft -decline of heavy industry
- unfriendly - large scale migration to south
- live off the sweat of the labour of northerners
- proud
- honest
- warm-hearted

Sense of identification with a city:

Liverpool (Liverpudlians / Scousers)
- conscious of the district identity of the city
- international part (cultural and ethnical mix)

Newcastle (Geordies)
Manchester (Mancunians)
Glasgow (Glaswegians)
London (Londoners)

The class system has survived in Britain because of its flexibility

• Always pollable to buy, marry or work way up

• Class system never swept away by revolution

• Class awareness as a sense of identity

Different classes

• Sets of attitudes

• Daily habits

• Food at different times of day

• Discussion, topics

• Styles and accents of English

• Pastimes and sports

• Values

• Behaviours

Class indicator: language

Britain ‘land of tradition’

SKA, SOUL AND REGGAE:

• Late 1950s Jamaica

• Caribbean mento/ calypso + American jazz and R&B

• A walking bass line

• Rhythms on the upbeat

• Preceded reggae music (Bob Marley, Peter Tosh)

SKINHEADS

• fans of reggae music

• racist and violent

UNIFORM:

• bottom-collar shirt

• tight, short Levi jeans

• heavy boots (Dr Martens)

• shaven heads

1960s/1970s – Progressive Rock Music:

• no limitation of three-minute pop hits

• rejections of short songs

• longer pieces for LPs

• experiments with musical sounds

• demonstration of musical virtuosity

Early innovations: | Pink Floyd | Soft Machine |

Genesis | Yes | Emerson Lake and Palmer

• concept albums: series of songs based around a particular theme

• highly successful in Britain and America

• characteristic extended solo

• pompous lyrics

• grand orchestration

• extravagant costumes

• local middle-class following

HEAVY METAL:

Led Zeppelin
Deep Purple
Black Sabbath

• representative guitar riffs

• screaming vocals

• thunderous bass and drum

HIPPIES: (going back to the roots)

• rejection of conventional ideas and lifestyles

• experiments with alternative ways of living

Hippy dress style:

• exotic, Asian clothing

• mixed with items of clothing from the 9^th century

• long hair

• sandals

• faded jeans

• unisex look

GLAM ROCK

• musical ‘third way’

• elements of folk music and electronic pop

• dreamy poetic vocals

• electric sound

David Bowie | Marc Bolan/T.Rex | Mud | The Sweet | Bay City Rollers

• theatrical, sexually and outrageous look

• concerts like fashion shows

PUNK:

• major bands British

• large and spectacular performances

• financial interest eliminating subversive behaviours

• defiant, primitive musical language

• frustrations of bored, unemployed teenagers

New York Dolls – more interested in shocking their audience

Malcom McLaren – crate a band to shock and disgust

The Sex Pistols

• attention on/off stage

• leather jackets

• torn clothing

• safety pins

• studs

• chains

• brightly dyed hair

• unisex fashion for fan

‘Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols (1977)

(Including Anarchy in the UK)

• laud, primal, hostile music

• simple guitar solos

• distorted sounds

• abrupt endings

• cockney accent

• tone of bore sarcasm

The Sex Pistols

• notorious for their confrontational behaviour

• they only recorded one album (some twenty five songs)

CLUB AND STREET MIX:

La Discotheque (1964)

Bee Gees

Saturday Night Fever (John Badham, 1977)

• commercial success

• disco music

• symphony – orchestrated melodies

• haute culture style of clothing

• sexual promiscuous

• graceful choreography

TECHNOLOGY (1970s/1980s)

• the synthesisers

• new methods of recording / mixing / reproducing music

• clean, hard, repetitive drumbeats

NEW ROMANTICS:

Heaven 17
Gary Numen
Spandau Ballet
Human League
Visage
OMD
Depeche Mode

• synthesisers / tapes

• restrained, refined, futuristic pop

• affluence, club-going

• cool/ detached pausing

• link between the music and fashion of disco, pop and rock

RAP (to hit: quick speech)

• associated with hip-hop

• lyrics over music often taken from another record

• beat or no accompaniment

• grey area between speech, prose, poetry and singing

* Scratching – turning the disc to and fro to create amplified noises.

* Sampling

• use of the samper machine to record and mix record

• the beginning of the popular musical revolution

• marginalisation of musicians and songwriters

HOUSE MUSIC ‘warehouse club’ – Chicago gay club

• repetitive beats

• drum machines

• off-beat hi-hat cymbals

• synthesized baselines

• electronic

• minimalistic

• Mid-late 1980s

• 1970s disco funk + gospel-style vocals

• Heavy bass and drums

• Infused in mainstream pop and dance music

• Commercially successful

Janet Jackson | Madonna

ACID HOUSE:

• Ibiza (popular destination for British tourists)

• Summer of 1988

• ‘Summer of Love’

• Acid house movement

• House music + ecstasy

• Baggy clothes, dungarees, informal beach wear

TECHNO:

• The ‘punk rock’ of dance

• Hard repetitive, electronic sounds

• Electronic ‘bleeps’

• Industrial- strength bass

• Rhythm: 124-35 bpm.

TRIP HOP (1990s)

• Originated in Bristol

• Variant of breakbeat

• Electronic music genre/ distinct percussive rhythm

• Characterized by intensive use of syncopation and polyrhythms

• Elements of soul, funk, jazz

• Ambient music

• Hip hop

Massive Attack

BRITPOP (1990s)

• Originated in Bristol

• Renewed interest in white pop of the mid-1960s.

• Alternative to electronic dance music

Oasis | Blur | The Verve | Radiohead

For and against Brit Pop

• Greatest British rock music produced during the past forty years

• Nostalgic reworking of earlier bands

• Shameless imitations

• Conservative

• Insular

• Parochial

• Self-consciously proletarian