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The Clash and Mass Media Messages from The Only Band That Matters

by Sean Xavier Ahern

Institution:	Bowling Green State University
Department:	Popular Culture
Degree:
Year:	2012
Keywords:	Communication; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Music; The Clash; Joe Strummer; Sean Xavier Ahern; BGSU; Popular Culture; Popular Music; Punk Studies; Communication Studies; Media Studies; Jeremy Wallach; Thesis; Masters in Popular Culture
Posted:
Record ID:	1976668
Full text PDF:	http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1340661045

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the music of the British punk rock band The Clash through the use of media imagery in popular music in an effort to inform listeners of contemporary news items. I propose to look at the punk rock band The Clash not solely as a first wave English punk rock band but rather as a “news-giving” group as presented during their interview on the Tom Snyder show in 1981. I argue that the band’s use of communication metaphors and imagery in their songs and album art helped to communicate with their audience in a way that their contemporaries were unable to. Broken down into four chapters, I look at each of the major releases by the band in chronological order as they progressed from a London punk band to a globally known popular rock act. Viewing The Clash as a “news giving” punk rock band that inundated their lyrics, music videos and live performances with communication images, The Clash used their position as a popular act to inform their audience, asking them to question their surroundings and “know your rights.”