Following on from our meeting today (notes from which will hopefully be online soon), here's the link to the article I was talking about, with early morning pubs in London. Say what you will about Vice, it highlights an overlooked but interesting sub-culture that is present most days, but that many are unaware of. 

https://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/boozing-with-londons-twilight-drinkers-120 

Also, a more recent article from The Independent.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/smithfield-londons-centuries-old-meat-market-where-your-8am-fry-up-comes-with-a-pint-of-stout-10342318.html

I feel like we're quite settled on looking at the theme of politics of Pubs / drinking cultures. Next step, I think, is developing that in to a rationale and deciding on the next actions. 

And finally, I think Hannah suggested changing the name of the blog now we're a bit clearer. I've had a quick look and politicsofpubs is available, any other ideas or shall we just go with that? 

Stop and Search looks like it's taking root so...

Tom's idea about doing something about Stop and Search is a really interesting one and seems to be taking root so I thought I'd throw some food for thought into the conversation.

For further inspiration, you could have a look at a show called Postcode Criminals (2011–12) http://www.dreadscott.net/works/postcode-criminals/ It's a collaboration between a London based artist called Joanne Krushner and a US artist called Dread Scott.  The two of them worked with young people in Brooklyn and Liverpool and did Skype and Facebook sessions in which participants shared their thoughts with each other on being constantly under surveillance; subjected to interrogation by the police; or indeed, criminalised in advance by stop-and-search activities.
It's a good example of (a) how having friends and relatives abroad may well be useful - Skype is a great facilitator for project work (b) realising something in public doesn't have to be expensive or aesthetically difficult.
Scott went on to make a video called Stop, in which he showed life-size, projected images of six New York and Liverpool young people, who recited the number of times they were subjected to Stop and Frisk/ Stop and Search policing. The young men depicted were aged 19 to 29. Here it is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNseZpt4-sc&feature=youtu.be

Here's coverage of the Liverpool show by the Guardian  http://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/mar/13/young-artists-liverpool-stop-and-search 

And here's the story of Isaac Borquaye, a 24-year-old hip-hop and urban artist known as Guvna B, who was stopped and searched in Brockley after the May 'riots' in 2014. http://www.artslondonnews.com/2014/01/27/the-reality-of-stop-and-search/ The irony is that he'd been making a video called Free https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr4q92xb93Q

As you're probably aware, S+S powers have been restricted since then.  Police now need to have a specific reason for searching an individual, whereas under the previous system, they only needed 'reasonable suspicion' that a crime had taken place.  But it continues to be controversial and John Tully, the Head of the Met police has claimed that the new S+S laws have badly impacted the police's ability to fight crime. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/restriction-of-stop-and-search-is-a-victory-for-politically-correct-brigade-claims-police-leader-10500849.html 

There's also an organisation called Stop-watch which campaigns against the disproportionate use of stop and search - it's got an interesting feature which allows you to enter your postcode to find out how stop and search was used in 2013/14 and a film made by young people on how to handle S+S. http://www.stop-watch.org/

And finally, here's a Banksy piece that sold for quite a lot of money! http://www.prescriptionart.com/products/banksy-stop-and-search-signed

Hope some of this helps you get thinking!

And Another Thought

Had a few more thoughts, whilst bored at work today, about the project, just in case we want to throw a couple more ideas around before we settle on something.

Adam - I know you said in our group chat about doing it on the Marquis of Granby (I'm guessing not 100% seriously, seeing as it was 4am at the time) but it did get me thinking about your point earlier in the lecture about the politics of pubs, or something along those lines. Thinking locally, what makes people go to somewhere like the Marquis of Granby or New Cross Inn as opposed to places like The Talbot or New Cross House? Is there something potentially to be investigated there, perhaps about image / class / 'modern social tribes'? I feel like I always bump in to people studying Design in the House, and equally can't go to Marquis without meeting someone from Politics/Anthropology etc. Would these people still go to Marquis if you were getting a double G&T for the best part of £9, and equally would the New Cross House lot stay if there was questionable horse racing photos on the wall or a really awkward bar? Everyone has their favourite, or 'local', and think it could be interesting to look in to this and see if there's any way of altering things there.

Another completely unrelated thought was whether we could do something looking at Police stop and searches. This thought is even less developed than the others that I've had, but I feel like it's quite a hot topic at the moment that's both highly political and would be easy to base some sort of intervention on.

Not 100% sure where I'm going with either of these thoughts, but just wanted to put them out there with the potential of discussion. Completely unrelated to the music theme we'd been looking at so apologies for that!

Kanye's Brit Performance 2015

Kanye West's 2015 performance, debuting his new song "All Day", at the Brit Award's can arguably be seen as controversial. On one side we saw the performance being praised for the recognition of grime music in the UK, Kanye used his international platform as a worldwide artist to promote and embrace the culture of grime. Kanye's lyrics delve deeper into just rap, he recognises the struggles and history of what has happened in the past. "Don't really matter what I make, boy, you know I still go wild Like a light skinned slave, boy, we in the mothafuckin' house!" Kanye looks at how those of a lighter skin tone were given more privileges, in the slave era, than those with darker skins.

However, there was also a lot of negative backlash of his performance, gaining criticism from many. Instead of seeing Kanye and the other artists who were on stage with him, including Skepta, Krept & Konan and Stormzy. Some critics believed that his performance was promoting "gang" culture and violence and it was not appropriate for a show like the Brit Awards. One woman saw Kanye's performance as "a bunch of young men, all dressed in black, dancing extremely aggressively, on stage, it made me feel extremely intimidated". But why? Why should this image make someone feel intimidated? It can be argued it is because the media has perpetuated the image as "black culture as gang culture". This has been so in so many incidents, for example, Michael Brown who was shot by police in Ferguson. The media spread an image of him as a gangster, using pictures that could possibly see him in a bad light, blaming him, not making him a victim.

Grime, R&B and Hip Hop, may be associated with certain people, but it does not mean it appropriates certain ways of life. I see Kanye's performance as enlightening and I believe that the stereotype of "black" music needs to be re thought.

Cultural Appropriation v Cultural Appreciation

Just a few early thoughts from my walk home about looking at politics in music, specifically music videos.

I've just written an essay about the apparent cultural appropriation in this video by Coldplay and Beyoncé, and whilst I won't bore you with the all 1047 words just yet, there's a clear argument present. Beyoncé herself plays an Indian Queen in traditional dress despite being of Native American and Creole descent and the 'India' portrayed in the video is over-exoticised and inaccurate. There have been similar accusations for appropriation with other recent videos, including Bounce by Iggy Azalea and Lean On by Major Lazer and DJ Snake. Whilst the latter two proved very controversial, I found there to be just as strong an argument for the Coldplay video that it was cultural appreciation not appropriation, which made me wonder where the line between the two is drawn and whether there's something worth exploring here?

Diversity is a wonderful thing, and if we continue to label everything that draws inspiration from other cultures as 'appropriation', then I fear people will stop seeking inspiration from other cultures to the ultimate detriment of our society.  

Not sure how we could make public/visualise this, perhaps some sort of event to encourage cultural appreciation? But would need to be careful about how it was done so as not to offend. 

Only early thoughts, but it's something! Have a good weekend guys.