An exploration of the much-derided English suburbs through rap
music.
There are many different Englands. From the much-romanticized rolling
countryside, to the cosmopolitanism of the inner cities (embraced by
some as progressive, multicultural enlightenment and derided by others
as the playground of a self-righteous metropolitan elite), or the
disparagingly named "left behind" communities which, post-Brexit, have
so interested political parties and pundits, demographers and
statisticians.
But there is also an England no one cares about. The England of
semi-detached houses and clean driveways for multiple cars devotedly
washed on Sundays, of "twitching curtains" and Laura Ashley sofas; of
cul-de-sacs to nowhere and exaggerated accents; of late night drives to
petrol stations on A roads, fake IDs tested in Harvesters, and faded
tracksuits and over-gelled hair in Toby Carverys; of questionable hash
from a "mate of a mate" and two-litre bottles of White Lightning from
Budgens consumed in a kids playground. Much derided. Unglamorous,
ordinary; cultural vacuity and small "c" conservatism. A hodgepodge.
An--apparently--middling, middle-of-the-road middle-England of
middle-class middle-mindedness.
Part poetry anthology, part academic study into placemaking, and part
autoethnography, The England No One Cares About innovatively brings
together academic discussions of the ethnographic potential of lyrics,
scholastic representations of suburbia, and thematic analysis to explore
how rap music can illuminate the experiences of young men growing up in
suburbia. This takes place by exploring the author's own annotated
lyrics from his career as a musician known as Context where he was
referred to by the BBC as "Middle England's Poet Laureate."
