Andy R. Brown - Böcker

First published in 1999, Political Languages of Race and the Politics of Exclusion examines the post-race signification logic of languages used to promote and achieve the exclusion and stigmatisation of migrant groups within post-war Britain. Re-examining the time of Smethwick and Powellism, as well as extensive Parliamentary debates, this book develops an original thesis to show how Backbench racism became legitimated as Frontbench commons’ sense. The book argues that the achievement of the success of post-war Parliamentary racism has been made possible by the development of a ubiquitously anecdotal narrative of the travails of the ‘Forgotten Englishman’ awoken to a multi-cultural nightmare in Britain’s decaying inner cities. While the concept of ‘race’ has remained under erasure, the logic of post-race signification discourse has allowed the re-making of racism in public Britain.

First published in 1999, Political Languages of Race and the Politics of Exclusion examines the post-race signification logic of languages used to promote and achieve the exclusion and stigmatisation of migrant groups within post-war Britain. Re-examining the time of Smethwick and Powellism, as well as extensive Parliamentary debates, this book develops an original thesis to show how Backbench racism became legitimated as Frontbench commons’ sense. The book argues that the achievement of the success of post-war Parliamentary racism has been made possible by the development of a ubiquitously anecdotal narrative of the travails of the ‘Forgotten Englishman’ awoken to a multi-cultural nightmare in Britain’s decaying inner cities. While the concept of ‘race’ has remained under erasure, the logic of post-race signification discourse has allowed the re-making of racism in public Britain.

This book explores the enigma of class in heavy metal, challenging existing accounts that have dismissed the genre for its classed cultural limitations. It engages with the key ways in which heavy metal is often seen as a profane expression of a-political and anti-religious feelings. While others have argued that heavy metal’s embrace of chaos, biblical doom, and the triumph of evil, this book is the first that examines the genre’s musical and lyrical expressions, arguing that the genre can be translated to express a language of class that is coded for the voice of the historically oppressed and marginalized.

Who Do We Think We Are (1973) was the fourth and final studio album of the Mk2 Deep Purple line-up of Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord and Ian Paice. At the time of release, Purple were the most successful, top-grossing, stadium-touring heavy rock band on the planet; a position confirmed by the virtuoso performances captured on the double live album, Made in Japan (1972), and the Billboard chart success of the double A-side Live/Studio single "Smoke on the Water." The idea for the title of the album came from drummer Paice, who told Melody Maker that the band received "piles of passionate letters either violently against or pro-the group", with the angry one's typically beginning: "Who do Deep Purple think they are?" This quote appears as part of the album artwork, a collage of press-clippings that dramatically contrast the success of the band with the controversy that surrounded it, particularly negative reviews of the band smashing up their equipment as the finale to their live performances.Like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, Purple were derided as proponents of "heavy metal" rock. But, as this volume's innovative and internationally recognised Metal Music scholars argue, it was their success in communicating - over the course of a series of ground-breaking studio albums and especially in live performance - with a new, younger rock audience that helped to define the genre template we now recognise as "classic" heavy metal. Without this success, heavy metal would not have developed in the way that it did nor forged a lasting bond with its audience amidst the controversy which surrounded its rise; a controversy which centred on the way it choose to communicate with this audience, through extremes of volume and dramatic musicianship, particularly live.