'Chav': The emergence of a new Identity by James K. Walker
Continued...
If we are to believe chamscum then there are three 'types' of musical
influences which inform chav culture. These are 'R and B' (Rhythm
and Blues), Rap, and 'cheesy trance.' The fact that these genres of
music are so conceptually different suggests that this identity can
be unpacked further into sub categories, but this is an approach for
future investigation. Instead I would like to suggest that what links
these 'types' of music conforms to previously rehearsed debates about
legitimate and illegitimate culture.
'Cheesy Trance', 'scouse house' and especially compilation rather
than artist led music is deemed to appeal to the lowest common denominator
as it offers instant gratification ('Ministry of Sound: The best of…')
rather than restraint, discrimination and refinery which are ascribed
as the moral repository's of high culture. (Adorno, 1991) Pleasure
in western societies has at various points been transformed by capitalism
into the protestant work ethic where it became ordered, earned and
used responsibly. Historically then pleasure has been classed as an
indulgence, the expression of selfishness, and therefore something
negative. (Fiske, 1999:227) Similar issues have been associated with
'R and B' and rap. It is beyond the scope of this essay to offer a
concise historical analysis of these genres but again we can unpack
a few general themes which evoke similar sentiments.
'R and B' is renowned for its sexual content which although less gendered
than rap, objectifies bodies. Rap, which predominantly celebrates
the male gaze, is far more explicit. Often there is a violent undercurrent
to the lyrics which is used to signify male power. Both, in varying
degrees of intensity, worship all pleasures associated with the polymorphous
body. In Bakhtin's terms identity is constructed through the carnivalesque
body which privileges the orifices of the anatomical agenda:
The grotesque image ignores the closed, smooth, and impenetrable
surface of the body and retains only its excrescences (sprouts,
buds) and orifices, only that which leads beyond the body's limited
space or into the body's depths (Bakhtin, 1984: 318)
Bakhtin's notion of the 'carnivalesque' revels in the reversal
of established hierarchies of power. From his perspective self intoxication
subverts and humiliates authority whilst empowering the subordinate
in sensory pleasures. I don't want to disprove or advocate this
view but merely to point out that what all three 'types' of music
have in common, whether through the lyrics or musical style, is
the sense of self indulgence, perhaps even selfishness. For this
reason they have often received hysterical reactions and the accusation
that this kind of 'culture' is divisive, demeaning; a world of moral
darkness rather than 'sweetness and light.' I would like to suggest
that the chav as a purveyor of these low cultural tastes acts as
a vehicle through which these fears may be played out, in particular
that of a racism 'which dare not speak its name.'
In Britain the multicultural movement 'could' be seen as emerging
in the 1950s when Afro-Caribbean and Asian immigrants began to arrive.
Culturally their own languages and history were not
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