Manchester University Press
11 Convivial cultures and the commodification of otherness in London nightlife in the 1970s and 1980s
Abstract
This chapter shows that the young white people who spent their nights sharing music and organising around musical activism in postcolonial London built a shared culture that struck an often-tenuous balance between culturally appropriating Black spaces and music and building friendships and solidarities within them. These spaces had the power to make such interactions banal but, particularly in the case of the Brixton Academy, they also foregrounded the possibility of inter-racial encounters.
Abstract
This chapter shows that the young white people who spent their nights sharing music and organising around musical activism in postcolonial London built a shared culture that struck an often-tenuous balance between culturally appropriating Black spaces and music and building friendships and solidarities within them. These spaces had the power to make such interactions banal but, particularly in the case of the Brixton Academy, they also foregrounded the possibility of inter-racial encounters.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vii
- Contributors viii
- Foreword xi
- Acknowledgements xvii
- Introduction 1
- I Institutions of empire 27
- 1 ‘Bloomsbury bazaar’ 29
- 2 Anthropology at the end of empire 46
- 3 ‘He is not a “racist” but should not be appointed director of LSE’ 65
- II Writing identity, conflict and class 85
- 4 Beyond experience 87
- 5 Empire, war and class in Graham Swift’s Last Orders (1996) 106
- III Racial others, national memory 125
- 6 White against empire 127
- 7 Racism, redistribution, redress 147
- 8 Exemplar empires 166
- IV At home in postcolonial Britain 187
- 9 Empire, security and citizenship in Arab British fiction 189
- 10 Black, beautiful and essentially British 207
- 11 Convivial cultures and the commodification of otherness in London nightlife in the 1970s and 1980s 230
- 12 Tribe Arts, Tribe Talks 248
- Afterword 259
- Index 267
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vii
- Contributors viii
- Foreword xi
- Acknowledgements xvii
- Introduction 1
- I Institutions of empire 27
- 1 ‘Bloomsbury bazaar’ 29
- 2 Anthropology at the end of empire 46
- 3 ‘He is not a “racist” but should not be appointed director of LSE’ 65
- II Writing identity, conflict and class 85
- 4 Beyond experience 87
- 5 Empire, war and class in Graham Swift’s Last Orders (1996) 106
- III Racial others, national memory 125
- 6 White against empire 127
- 7 Racism, redistribution, redress 147
- 8 Exemplar empires 166
- IV At home in postcolonial Britain 187
- 9 Empire, security and citizenship in Arab British fiction 189
- 10 Black, beautiful and essentially British 207
- 11 Convivial cultures and the commodification of otherness in London nightlife in the 1970s and 1980s 230
- 12 Tribe Arts, Tribe Talks 248
- Afterword 259
- Index 267
