ABSTRACT
At the end of the summer of 2011, when London and other major English cities had rioted, when TV screens had transmitted images of urban England on fire, shops looted, cars burnt out, a conference called ‘Subcultures, Popular Music and Social Change’ took place at London Metropolitan University. 1 Dick Hebdige, author of the seminal Subculture: The Meaning of Style (1979) gave the keynote and, in it, argued that both punk and rave had been moments of ‘critical contestation’. This idea of contest, about what might be at stake politically and culturally, was integral to both the impact and subsequent mythologizing of punk and rave. It was about shaking things up. Drawing on context and the notion of contest, it is a valuable route into considering how Harvey’s 2011 album, Let England Shake, might be positioned as part of a critical contestation of Englishness. This album about war and nation, memory and loss won her the Mercury Prize for the second time. Harvey did not work with Mochnacz on the music videos for it, but with war photographer Seamus Murphy, and 12 short films were released. These films, like the album, offer up a reading of Englishness as defined by place and memory. In the introduction to the DVD, Seamus Murphy explains that Harvey had approached him after she had seen his work. He writes of how:
I never wanted to interpret the album, but to capture something of its mood and force. I wanted to look at the enigma of England, its island mentality and complicated relationship with its past. Contemporary England springs from a history of colonial adventures, military ambitions, industrial prowess and a rigid hierarchy. Now it is also defined by is waning power and role in modern geopolitics. And it can be a gratifyingly odd place. ( Let England Shake, 2011).
