Black music and young people in Birmingham

This paper provides an account of the relationship between black and white youth in Britain in the 1980s from the author’s personal experience of living and working in Birmingham, England. It summarises the findings of a larger study which looks at the impact of Jamaican popular culture and music on post-war Britain. It draws together some of the conclusions from the ethnographic portion of this study, in order to shed light on questions to do with cultural production and “everyday life”, and on issues around arts and cultural provision for young people.