Thread: Politics of Music

Decent thread this David!

Here's another article worthy of a read..

This chapter explores racial identities and how they were understood and reconstructed through the northern soul scene. The multiracial and anti-racist aspects of northern soul are critically assessed in order to challenge existing assumptions. Critically, the chapter notes the transatlantic aspect of northern soul and the dynamics connected with the reception and interpretation of what was perceived as an essentially black American musical genre consumed by a largely white British working-class audience. The chapter also unpicks tensions within the scene around notions of gender and sexuality. Northern soul seemingly constructed a space where young men and women shared a commitment to music and dance. In contrast to other leisure activities, women were said to have played an equal role. Moreover, many felt that the scene provided a safer environment than conventional nightclubs and discos where women were seen as sexual objects seeking heterosexual relationships. Yet this view has been somewhat romanticised and it is clear that northern soul was heavily gendered, with males often policing aspects of the scene and defining what was and what was not northern soul. The chapter concludes with some discussion of the sexuality of the scene in the period when commercial disco presented a challenge – both real and perceived – to the music policy of some of the most prominent northern soul clubs.

Race, gender, sexuality and the politics of northern soul | Keeping the Faith: A History of Northern Soul | Manchester Scholarship Online | Oxford Academic

Originally Posted by Joe 90

Here's another article worthy of a read

Cheers from a Torch bearer with restless feet


The Golden Torch, more commonly known as The Torch, was a nightclub in Tunstall,. A mod venue, it later became important to fans of Northern soul with their all-nighters. Peter Stringfellow was amongst the many DJs who at some time had a residency there while the main soul all-nighter DJs included Keith Minshull, Colin Curtis, Alan Day and Maretyn Ellis

I defer to Chitty for all things N Soul , but a lovely cultural icon,I was too busy at the nearby Unity reggae club or chasing the girls at the art college and uni, while ruunnning a bookstore in the day.A reggae revolutionary song was our morning mix when I relocated to Haarlem

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2W3aG8uizA

Most of the rasta rev was smokin weed and avoiding a colonial society that treated black people differently.

Buffalo Springfield did it, Tom Paxton did it, there’s a whole genre of anti war songs form the 60s and 70s.

Arlo Guthrie used the unlikely tale of Alice’s Restaurant to produce an album in 1967, telling the story how his visit there endangered his suitability for the draft sending him to Vietnam.