‘Hate the world, it’s so romantic’The function of song in recent British football hooligan film (1995-2009)
- 1 Universidad de Valencia, España
ISSN: 0210-6124
Year of publication: 2012
Volume: 34
Issue: 2
Pages: 85-103
Type: Article
More publications in: Atlantis: Revista de la Asociación Española de Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos
Abstract
This article argues that popular music in contemporary British hooligan cinema fosters a romanticised and nostalgic portrait of football violence that neutralises the media’s earlier stigmatisation of the phenomenon. The epic flavour provided by the films’ soundtracks and their warfare connotations contribute to the exorcising of the social fears awakened by hooliganism. I conclude by stating that the films’ musical scores aim not only at establishing an accurate, legitimate correlation with British cultural history in the 1980s, but also at revisiting the general desolation that sociologists and historians associate with it.
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