‘Let us know you’re locked’
Pirate radio broadcasts as historical and musical artefact
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/pomh.39638Keywords:
grime music, pirate radio, musical artefacts, ephemerality, London, youth studiesAbstract
Pirate radio is one of the pillars of grime music. This arena acts as both a communal and artistic space for musicians to coalesce and create on a regular basis. Its recordings, however, are rarely utilized as part of musical and historical enquiry. Prior investigation has principally focused on studio recordings, specifically the album. This article makes the case for listening again to pirate radio broadcasts, demonstrating how these artefacts act as a historical and musical referent. This is achieved through the analysis of recordings from 2001–2005 alongside ethnographic interviews with practitioners, examining the intense locational claustrophobia, communal conviviality, and entrepreneurial spirit possessed by these artists and their listenership. Pirate radio captures music as process and—unlike static recordings—is a medium that allows for long form extemporization and extra-musical assertions, consequently offering an unparalleled insight into the sociohistorical state of play in London at the turn of the millennium.
References
Adegoke, Y. 2018. ‘RIP Channel U: The Urban Music Champion that Gave Power to the People’. The Guardian, 4 June. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jun/04/rip-channel-u-urban-music-grime-dizzee-rascal-skepta.
Appadurai, A. 1986. ‘Introduction: Commodities and the Politics of Value’. In The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Perspective, ed. A. Appadurai, 3–63. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511819582.003
Beynon, H., and L. Kushnick. 2003. ‘Cool Britannia or Cruel Britannia? Racism and New Labour’. Socialist Register 39: 229–44.
Bramwell, R. 2015. UK Hip-Hop, Grime and the City: The Aesthetics and Ethics of London’s Rap Scenes. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203069271
Campion, C. 2004. ‘Inside Grime’. The Guardian, 23 May. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2004/may/23/urban1
de Lacey, A. 2020. ‘Level Up: Live Performance and Collective Creativity in Grime Music’. PhD dissertation, Goldsmiths, University of London.
‘Ethnicity Facts and Figures’. 2018. Gov.uk, 21 September. ‘Unemployment’. https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/work-pay-and-benefits/unemployment-and-economic-inactivity/unemployment/latest
Fikentscher, K. 2000. ‘You Better Work!’ Underground Dance Music in New York City. Hanover: Wesleyan University Press.
Foord, J., and N. Ginsburg. 2004. ‘Whose Hidden Assets? Inner-city Potential for Social Cohesion and Economic Competitiveness’. In City Matters: Competitiveness, Cohesion and Urban Governance, ed. M. Boddy and M. Parkinson, 287–306. Bristol: Policy Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1t89c01.22
Forman, M. 2012. ‘“Represent”: Race, Space and Place in Rap Music’. In That’s the Joint! The Hip-Hop Studies Reader, ed. M. Forman and M. A. Neal, 247–69. London: Routledge.
Frith, S. 2007. Taking Popular Music Seriously: Selected Essays. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Fuller, M. 2005. Media Ecologies: Materialist Energies in Art and Technoculture. London: The MIT Press.
Gates, H. L., Jr. 1988. The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gilroy, P. 2002. There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack. Oxford: Routledge.
Goldman, V. 2018. ‘Mighty Sparrow: The King of Calypso on Freedom, Windrush and Oral Sex’. The Guardian, 16 November. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/nov/16/mighty-sparrow-the-king-of-calypso-on-freedom-windrush-and-oral-sex.
Hancox, D. 2017. ‘Key Brixton Tracks: Roadside G’s “Can’t Come 2 Da Roadside”’. Red Bull Music Academy, 12 April.
—2018. Inner City Pressure: The Story of Grime. London: HarperCollins.
Harrison, A. K. 2006. ‘“Cheaper than a CD, Plus We Really Mean It”: Bay Area Underground Hip Hop Tapes as Subcultural Artefacts’. Popular Music 25/2: 283–301. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261143006000833
Heer, G. 2007. ‘Reviews: Youth Crime and Justice: Barry Goldson and John Muncie (Eds)’. Probation Journal 54/3: 290–91. https://doi.org/10.1177/02645505070540030902
Henriques, J. 2011. Sonic Bodies: Reggae Sound Systems, Performance Techniques and Ways of Knowing. London: Continuum Press.
Henry, W. L. 2018. ‘Drama Pon Plastic—Mek We Hear Di Two Side!’. Paper presented at Writing the Noise: The Second International Conference of the Subcultures Network. University of Reading, Reading, 6-8 September.
Home Office. 2004. Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System. London: Home Office.
hooks, b. 1995. ‘Performance Practice as a Site of Opposition’. In Let’s Get It On: The Politics of Black Performance, ed. C. Ugwu, 210–22. Seattle: Seattle Bay Press.
Jackson, R. (dir.). 2018. Tape Crackers: An Oral History of Jungle Pirate Radio. [Film]. UK: Boiler Room.
Kalunta-Crumpton, A. 2006. ‘The Importance of Qualitative Research in Understanding the Disproportionate Black Presence in Crime Figures in the United Kingdom (UK)’. African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies 2/2: 1–32.
Khal. 2014. ‘Watch this Beautiful Rendition of Goldie’s “Timeless” by the Heritage Orchestra’. Complex, 26 August. https://www.complex.com/music/2014/08/goldie-the-heritage-orchestra-timeless-sine-tempore.
Logan Sama. 2019. ‘009—Sharky Major’. Keepin It Grimy Podcast, 20 May. https://open.spotify.com/episode/7xPSj8MnIlZm0zER8r0vgK?si=xsItH9ARRCeCkZB8gZm9Tg
Middleton, R. 2000. ‘Work-in(g)-Practice: Configurations of the Popular Music Intertext’. In The Musical Work: Reality or Invention?, ed. M. Talbot, 59–87. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. https://doi.org/10.5949/liverpool/9780853238256.003.0004
Moyo, D. 2011. ‘Participation, Citizenship, and Pirate Radio as Empowerment: The Case for Radio Dialogue in Zimbabwe’. International Journal of Communication 5: 1–20.
Nutt, K. 2018. ‘Poorer Children Stigmatised by “No Uniform Days” in Scots Schools’. The National, 7 April. https://www.thenational.scot/news/16143216.poorer-children-stigmatised-by-no-uniform-days-in-scots-schools/
OFCOM. 2007. The Communications Market: Broadband Digital Progress Report, 2 April.
Oliver, P. 2004. ‘History Begins Yesterday’. Popular Music History 1/1: 15–17. https://doi.org/10.1558/pomh.1.1.15.56024
Petridis, A. 2016. ‘Skepta: Konnichiwa Review—Dextrous, Sharp and Very British’. The Guardian, 12 May. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/12/skepta-konnichiwa-review-boy-better-know-album-of-the-week
Reynolds, T. 2013 ‘“Them and Us”: “Black Neighbourhoods” as a Social Capital Resource among Black Youths Living in Inner-City London’. Urban Studies 50/3: 484–98. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098012468892
Riley, M. 2017a. ‘State of Play: Grime’. Ticketmaster, October. http://blog.ticketmaster.co.uk/stateofplay/grime.pdf
—2017b. ‘Grime is the New Punk—Here’s Why’. The Conversation, 12 October. http://theconversation.com/grime-is-the-new-punk-heres-why-85544
Rymajdo, K. 2015. ‘Hashtag 0161: Did Bugzy Malone Put Manny on the Map?’ Popular Music History 10/1: 82–98. https://doi.org/10.1558/pomh.32559
Sanchez, M. 2005. ‘Asbo Bars Pirate DJ from the Rooftops’. Evening Standard, 15 April. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/asbo-bars-pirate-dj-from-the-rooftops-7173468.html
Savage, M. 2019. ‘“Banning Drill Makes Things Worse”’. BBC News, 14 June. https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-48627409
Top of the Pops. 2005. Directed by John L. Spencer. [TV programme]. UK: BBC. 11 July.
Treitler, L. 1993. ‘History and the Ontology of the Musical Work’. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 51/3: 483–97. https://doi.org/10.2307/431520
Von Appen, R., and A. Doehring. 2006. ‘Nevermind the Beatles, Here’s Exile 61 and Nico: “The Top 100 Records of All Time”: A Canon of Pop and Rock Albums from a Sociological and an Aesthetic Perspective’. Popular Music 25/1: 21–39. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261143005000693
White, J. 2017. Urban Music and Entrepreneurship: Beats, Rhymes and Young People’s Enterprise. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315638393
—2018. ‘We Need to Talk about Newham: The East London Grime Scene as a Site of Emancipatory Disruption’. In Regeneration Songs: Sounds of Investment and Loss from East London, ed. A. Duman, D. Hancox, M. James and A. Minton, 223–38. London: Repeater Books.
Williams, J. 2013. Rhymin’ and Stealin’: Musical Borrowing in Hip-Hop. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.3480627
