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‘My Manor’s Ill’: How Underground Music Told the Real Story of the UK Riots

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Youth Culture and Social Change

Abstract

This chapter offers a comparative analysis of the mainstream media reporting of the riots and the responses from young British musicians. The aim is to demonstrate that musicians’ reactions and commentary were much more nuanced and balanced than that of the mainstream media and Conservative Party politicians. After providing a biographical context for my interest in the riots, the chapter then outlines the media’s representation of the riots and rioters. In the final section, the chapter examines some of the academic analysis of the riots, before surveying the musicians’ responses.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    D. Pritchard and F. Pakes (eds.), Riot, Unrest and Protest on the Global Stage (Basingstoke, 2014) (Pritchard and pakes 2014).

  2. 2.

    Cameron’s statement can be accessed here: D. Cameron, ‘David Cameron on the riots: “This is criminality pure and simple”. The Guardian (2011):

    http://www.theguardian.com/politics/video/2011/aug/09/david-cameron-riots-criminality-video [accessed 21 October 2016].

  3. 3.

    Daily Express, 9 August 2011.

  4. 4.

    The local incidents were reported here: D. Sutton, ‘Waltham Forest: Police injured as unrest spreads to borough’. East London and West Essex Guardian (2011): http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/9182849.WALTHAM_FOREST__Police_injured_as_unrest_spreads_to_borough/# [accessed 21 October 2016].

  5. 5.

    R. Phillips, D. Frost and A. Singleton, ‘Researching the riots’, The Geographical Journal, 179(1) (2013), 3–10 (Frost et al. 2013).

  6. 6.

    Daily Telegraph, 9 August 2011; Daily Mail, 9 August 2011.

  7. 7.

    A. Cavanagh and A. Dennis, ‘Behind the news: Reframing the riots’, Capital and Class, 36(3) (2012), 375–81 (Cavanagh and Dennis 2012).

  8. 8.

    The Sun, 9 August 2011.

  9. 9.

    Cavanagh and Dennis, ‘Behind the news’, 378.

  10. 10.

    S. Winlow, S. Hall, D. Briggs and J. Treadwell, Riots and Political Protest (London, 2015); Frost et al., ‘Researching the riots’, 3–10 (Winlow et al. 2015).

  11. 11.

    K. Milburn, ‘Behind the news: The August riots, shock and the prohibition of thought’, Capital and Class, 36(3) (2012), 401–9 (Milburn 2012).

  12. 12.

    PA. ‘BBC Apologises over Darcus Howe interview’. Independent (2011): http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/bbc-apologises-over-darcus-howe-interview-2335357.html [accessed 21 October 2016].

  13. 13.

    Milburn, ‘Behind the news’, 402.

  14. 14.

    Milburn, ‘Behind the news’, 402.

  15. 15.

    J. Grant, ‘Riots in the UK: Morality, social imaginaries, and conditions of possibility’, New Political Science, 36(3) (2014), 311–29 (Grant 2014).

  16. 16.

    R. Huq, ‘Suburbia runs riot: The UK August 2011 riots, neo-moral panic and the end of the English suburban dream?’ Journal for Cultural Research, 17(2) (2013), 105–23 (Huq 2013).

  17. 17.

    I. Gallagher, ‘Did rock-throwing teenage girl’s “beating” by police spark London riots? Pictures that show how Tottenham turned into a war zone’. Daily Mail (2011):

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023254/Tottenham-riot-Mark-Duggan-shooting-sparked-police-beating-girl.html [accessed 21 October 2016].

  18. 18.

    The Guardian conducted a number of interviews with young people from affected areas, for example, A. Conroy, ‘Behind the Clapham riots: ‘the police are the enemy’. The Guardian (2011): https://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/sep/07/clapham-riots-police-enemy [accessed 21 October 2016].

  19. 19.

    L. Bridges, ‘Four days in August: The UK Riots’, Race & Class, 54(1) (2012), 1–12 (Bridges 2012).

  20. 20.

    G. Morrell, S. Scott, Sarah, D. McNeish and S. Webster, The August riots in England: Understanding the Involvement of Young People. National Centre for Social Research. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/60531/The_20August_20Riots_20in_20England_20_pdf__201mb_.pdf [accessed 21 October 2016].

  21. 21.

    D. Singh, S. Marcus, H. Rabbatts and M. Sherlock, After the Riots: The Final Report of the Riots Communities and Victims Panel (London, 2012), p. 6 (Singh et al. 2012).

  22. 22.

    HM Government, Government Response to the Riots, Communities and Victims Panel’s Final Report (London, 2013) (HM Government 2013).

  23. 23.

    P. Lewis, T. Newburn, M. Taylor, C. Mcgillivray, A. Greenhill, H. Frayman and R. Proctor, Reading the Riots: Investigating England’s Summer of Disorder (London, 2011) (Lewis et al. 2011).

  24. 24.

    Lewis et al., Reading the riots, p. 4.

  25. 25.

    C. Fuchs, ‘Behind the news: Social media, riots and revolutions’, Capital and Class, 36(3) (2012), 383–91 (Fuchs 2012).

  26. 26.

    F. Vis, ‘Twitter as a reporting tool for breaking news’, Digital Journalism, 1(1) (2013), 27–47 (Vis 2013).

  27. 27.

    Lewis et al., Reading the riots, p. 24.

  28. 28.

    Lewis et al., Reading the riots, pp. 5–10.

  29. 29.

    The original (peaceful) protest staged by Mark Duggan’s family and friends, was a demand for more information on his shooting.

  30. 30.

    F. Ashe, ‘“All about Eve”: Mothers, masculinities and the 2011 UK riots’, Political Studies, 62 (2014), 652–68 (Ashe 2014).

  31. 31.

    Ashe, ‘“All about Eve”’, 657.

  32. 32.

    Z. Bauman, ‘Interview: Zygmunt Bauman on the UK riots’, Social Europe (2011): http://www.socialeurope.eu/2011/08/interview-zygmunt-bauman-on-the-uk-riots/ [accessed 21 October 2016] (Baumann 2011); D. Moxon, ‘Consumer culture and the 2011 “riots”’, Sociological Research Online, 16(4) (2011), 30 November 2011. http://www.socresonline.org.uk/16/4/19.html [accessed 21 October 2016] (Moxon 2011); S. Miles, ‘Young people, “flawed protestors” and the commodification of resistance’, Critical Arts, 28(1) (2014), 76–87 (Miles 2014).

  33. 33.

    Bauman, ‘Interview: Zygmunt Bauman on the UK riots’; Miles, ‘Young People, “flawed protestors”’.

  34. 34.

    D. Blackwell, ‘Reading the riots – London 2011: Local revolt and global protest’, Psychotherapy and Politics International, 13(2) (2015), 102–14 (Blackwell 2015); J. Solomos, ‘Race, rumours and riots: Past, present and future’, Sociological Research Online, 16(4) (2011): http://www.socresonline.org.uk/16/4/20.html [accessed 21 October 2016] (Solomos 2011).

  35. 35.

    UK grime is a British genre of hip hop (rap music) originating in London, characterised by a fast beat and fast rapping in localised accents.

  36. 36.

    P. Taylor ‘Behind the news: The just do it riots, a critical interpretation of the media’s violence’, Capital and Class, 36(3) (2012), 393–9 (Taylor 2012).

  37. 37.

    P. Routledge, ‘London riots: Is rap music to blame for encouraging this culture of violence?’ Mirror (2011): http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/london-riots-is-rap-music-to-blame-146671 [accessed 1 March 2017] (Routledge 2011).

  38. 38.

    J. Street, Music and Politics (Cambridge, 2012), p. 9 (Street 2012).

  39. 39.

    D. Hancox, ‘Rap responds to the riots: “They have to take us seriously”’, The Guardian (2011): http://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/aug/12/rap-riots-professor-green-lethal-bizzle-wiley [accessed 1 March 2017] (Hancox 2011).

  40. 40.

    D. Hesmondhalgh, Why Music Matters (Chichester, 2013), p. 140 (Hesmondhalgh 2013).

  41. 41.

    R. Bramwell, UK Hip-Hop, Grime and the City: The Aesthetics and Ethics of London’s Rap Scenes (London, 2015), p. 4 (Bramwell 2015).

  42. 42.

    N. Morris, ‘Radio 1 DJs encouraging gun crime, says Cameron’, The Independent (2006): http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/radio-1-djs-encouraging-gun-crime-says-cameron-481491.html [accessed 21 October 2016] (Morris 2006).

  43. 43.

    Cameron made these comments in response to a question at a meeting of the British Society of Magazine Editors in June 2006. He also responded to Lethal Bizzle in a letter to the Daily Mail on 11 June 2006, in which he stated that ‘young and impressionable people are given the message, in song after song, that guns, knives and other weapons are glamorous’ (para 22).

  44. 44.

    S. Attfield, ‘“There’s a world outside of the ghetto”: UK grime and the empowering effects of creativity on working-class youth’, in Instruments of Change: Proceedings of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music Australia-New Zealand 2010 Conference, (Melbourne, 2011), pp. 3–7 (Attfield 2011).

  45. 45.

    Former Home Secretary David Blunkett and former Culture Minister Kim Howells had both attacked rap in separate radio interviews with the BBC in 2003.

  46. 46.

    L. Bizzle, ‘David Cameron is a donut’, The Guardian (2008): http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/jun/08/davidcameronisadonut [accessed 21 October 2016] (Bizzle 2008).

  47. 47.

    Street, Music and Politics, p. 42.

  48. 48.

    Bizzle, ‘David Cameron is a donut’; I. Peddie (ed.), The Resisting Muse: Popular Music and Social Protest (Aldershot, 2006).

  49. 49.

    D. Laing, ‘Resistance and protest’, in J. Shepherd, D. Horn, D. Laing, P. Oliver and P. Wicke (eds.), Continuum Encyclopaedia of Popular Music of the World (London, 2003), pp. 345–6 (Laing 2003).

  50. 50.

    R. Walcott, ‘Performing the (black) postmodern: Rap as incitement for cultural criticism’, in C. McCarthy, G. Hudak, S. Miklaucic and P. Saukko (eds.), Sound Identities: Popular Music and the Cultural Politics of Education (New York: 1999), p. 97 (Walcott 1999).

  51. 51.

    R. Huq, Beyond Subculture: Pop, Youth and Identity in a Postcolonial World (London, 2006), p. 110 (Huq 2006).

  52. 52.

    Hancox, ‘Rap Responds to the riots’. N.A. ‘The music world responds to the London riots on Twitter’. Dummy (2011): http://www.dummymag.com/news/grime-artists-respond-to-london-riots [accessed 1 March 2017].

  53. 53.

    Skepta (2011). Twitter. https://twitter.com/skepta/status/100360068662435840 [accessed 21 October 2016] (Skepta 2011).

  54. 54.

    Hancox, ‘Rap responds to the riots’.

  55. 55.

    It should be noted that there does not appear to be any musical responses from female artists. Grime and rap is very male dominated (as is rap in general).

  56. 56.

    Genesis Elijah, ‘Re: UK Riots’. YouTube (2011): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-rQpkvLuv0 [accessed 1 March 2017] (Elijah 2011).

  57. 57.

    R. Gallagher, ‘We were raised by a generation of hypocrites’, Open Democracy UK (2011): https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/ryan-gallagher/raised-by-a-generation-of-hypocrites-youth-riots-london [accessed 1 March 2017] (Gallagher 2011).

  58. 58.

    Bramwell, UK Hip-Hop, Grime and the City, p. 4.

  59. 59.

    R. Eyerman and A. Jamison, Music and Social Movements: Mobilizing Traditions in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge, 1998), p. 22 (Eyerman and Jamison 1998).

  60. 60.

    Eyerman and Jamison, Music and Social Movements, p. 23.

  61. 61.

    Eyerman and Jamison, Music and Social Movements, p. 24.

  62. 62.

    Eyerman and Jamison, Music and Social Movements, p. 161.

  63. 63.

    Plan B, ‘Two views of the riots that shame the UK’, The Sun (2011): https://www.thesun.co.uk/archives/news/708300/two-views-of-riots-that-shame-uk/ [accessed 21 October 2016] (Plan 2011).

  64. 64.

    MistaJam, ‘Plan B interview with MistaJam’. BBC Radio 1 Xtra (2012): http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00plvyr [accessed 21 October 2016] (MistaJam 2012).

  65. 65.

    MistaJam, ‘Plan B interview with MistaJam’.

  66. 66.

    A. Ibrahim, ‘Taking hip hop to a whole nother level: Metissage, affect and pedagogy in a global hip hop nation’, in H. Samy Alim, A. Pennycook and A. Ibrahim (eds.), Global Linguistic Flows: Hip Hop Cultures, Youth Identities and the Politics of Language (New York, 2009), pp. 231–48 (Ibrahim 2009; A. A. Akom, ‘Critical hip hop pedagogy as a form of liberatory praxis’, Equity & Excellence in Education, 42(1) (2009), 52–66 (Akom 2009); L. F. Rodriguez, ‘Dialoguing, cultural capital and student engagement: Toward a hip hop pedagogy in the high school and university classroom’, Equity & Excellence in Education, 42(1) (2009), 20–35 (Rodriguez 2009).

  67. 67.

    D. Lynskey, ‘Why Plan B’s Ill Manors is the greatest British protest song in years’, The Guardian (2012): http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2012/mar/15/plan-b-ill-manors [accessed 1 March 2017] (Lynskey 2012).

  68. 68.

    S. Price, ‘Album: Plan B Ill Manors’, The Independent (2012): http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/album-plan-b-ill-manors-atlantic674-7964105.html [accessed 1 March 2017] (Price 2012).

  69. 69.

    The lyrics quoted from here are available via Plan B’s website, http://www.time4planb.co.uk/lyrics/ill-manors [accessed 21 October 2016].

  70. 70.

    David Cameron’s plan to demolish so-called ‘sink estates’ has been widely reported in the media, C. Davies, ‘David Cameron vows to “blitz” poverty by demolishing UK’s worst sink estates’. The Guardian (2016: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jan/09/david-cameron-vows-to-blitz-poverty-by-demolishing-uks-worst-sink-estates [accessed 21 October 2016] (Davies 2016).

  71. 71.

    Hesmondhalgh, Why Music Matters, p. 140.

  72. 72.

    Attfield, ‘“There’s a world outside of the ghetto”’, pp. 3–7.

  73. 73.

    Bramwell, UK Hip-Hop, Grime and the City.

  74. 74.

    Eyerman and Jamison, Music and Social Movements, p. 22.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Sarah Attfield

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  1. Sarah Attfield
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Correspondence to Sarah Attfield .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Wolverhampton , Wolverhampton, United Kingdom

    Keith Gildart

  2. University of Roehampton, London, United Kingdom

    Anna Gough-Yates

  3. Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, United Kingdom

    Sian Lincoln

  4. London Metropolitan University , LONDON, United Kingdom

    Bill Osgerby

  5. University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom

    Lucy Robinson

  6. University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom

    John Street

  7. University of the West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom

    Peter Webb

  8. University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom

    Matthew Worley

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Attfield, S. (2017). ‘My Manor’s Ill’: How Underground Music Told the Real Story of the UK Riots. In: Gildart, K., et al. Youth Culture and Social Change. Palgrave Studies in the History of Subcultures and Popular Music. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52911-4_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52911-4_4

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  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-52911-4

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