In a book chapter I recently had published (Beattie 2025) I discuss how seminal British sitcom Desmond’s (1989-1994, Channel 4) illustrates how barbershops function as both community anchors and as sites of cultural education for Black communities.  In particular, I focused upon how the series engages with both issues relating to migrant communities and the wider Black community.  That said, due to the constraints of the word count I was unable to discuss in enough depth in that chapter is how it uses music, particularly in the context of the representation of identities.  This blog shall hopefully begin to redress that.

For those unfamiliar with the series, Desmond’s follows Guyanese migrants Desmond Ambrose (Norman Beaton), his wife Shirley (Dame Carmen Munroe) and their friend (and Desmond’s former bandmate) Porkpie (Ram John Holder) as they raise a family and run a barbershop in Peckham.  The series theme song, which I have quoted as part of this blog’s title, is both a short saga cell to introduce the characters as Guyanese migrants but also is an appeal not to scratch Desmond’s ‘soca.’  The scratching in question refers to scratching a record as was commonly done in hip-hop and rap; these linked genres are performed by and associated with Desmond’s children and their peers across the series (Beattie 2025).  But ‘soca’ is, itself, a fusion of African-American soul, calypso and East Indian rhythms (Nidel 2005).  Thus, from the introduction, the culturally competent audience is primed to recognise the complexities of Caribbean cultures and their representation(s) which is a key element of the series (Beattie 2025).

For those viewers who are less culturally competent, such complexities are also a feature of the wider diegesis.  As noted above, Desmond and Porkpie were both in Desmond’s band, the Georgetown Dreamers and music of many genres is omnipresent throughout the six series of the sitcom.  Though Desmond seemingly started with jazz, the band– and, by extension, the characters– were most associated with calypso.  Guyana has a particular history of political control and protest regarding music (Cambridge, 2015) while calypso and its descendant reggae were initially a means of protesting British colonialism and Western capitalism in Jamaica and elsewhere in the Caribbean (Nidel, 2005; Beattie, 2022).  While the series does not explicitly connect music to either of these forms of protest, because Desmond and Shirley also have three children who were raised in Peckham they do often express concerns over whether or not the children are becoming unmoored from their heritage (Anderson 2010 on discursive national identity notwithstanding).[i]  This is particularly the case for their eldest son, Michael (Geff Francis), who works as a manager at a local bank.  As a partner in the barbershop, he is routinely concerned with making and increasing their profits.  While Desmond is also interested in turning a profit, the concern over capitalism specifically as a corrupting force is often focused around Michael’s character and his interactions with his parents-turned-business-partners.  This is particularly in evidence in episode 1.3 in which, to increase the number of (satisfied) customers,[ii] Michael hires Tony (Dominic Keating) a young part-time stylist with a reputation for being good at fashionable hair. Though the episode primarily characterises Desmond’s resistance to a new hire as mostly relating to being forcibly replaced by someone younger, as he and Porkpie talk alone in the closed shop, Porkpie refers to Tony as ‘the white boy’, acknowledging the other potential concern that the characters have. White characters are visible in the series from the outset– Desmond’s daughter Gloria (Kim Walker) has a white best friend, Louise (Lisa Geoghan) who is clearly viewed as part of the extended family and the opening credits sequence features people from a variety of backgrounds in any number of jobs who are working together and/or are friends.  Thus the series is clearly pro-multiculturalism but also addresses discrimination against the Black community (Beattie 2025).  As Black hair is often a site of political and cultural expression (Mercer 1987; Beattie 2025) bringing in a white stylist, no matter how well-regarded, is an understandable point of concern.

The way in which the concerns are resolved, as they so often are in this series, is through music as a medium of communication.  On Tony’s first day he brings in a record for the regular game of ‘Name that Tune’ the other characters play.  Through this, the other characters and the audience learn that he has ‘a jazz and blues [record] collection.’  In addition to this being a way to directly connect him to Desmond (a former jazz performer) who states ‘we might get along after all’, it also helps address the characters’ and audience’s concerns over the introduction of a new character from a different background. Yet jazz and blues are not the only genres represented; much like music itself, complexities of music are not limited to the aural but can have visual signifiers as well.  Tony’s initial costuming in series one– a leather jacket, tight t-shirt and tight jeans, plus a black comb– also evokes ‘the Fonz’ (Happy Days, 1974-1984, ABC) and Danny Zuko (John Travolta) from Grease (1978, dir. Kleiser).  In so doing, he is visually linked to 50’s era rock, complicating his musical associations much as the fusion genre soca in the theme and the use of hip-hop and rap by younger characters do.[iii]  Gridley (1983) argues that rock and jazz have similar origins but have since diverged, with jazz having taken on ‘…a status resembling that of classical chamber music in that it was followed only by a small and specialized audience’ (27).  This fits the association between Desmond, jazz and the generational gap that underlies his concern over needing to be replaced.[iv]  Yet blues and rock have a complex relationship; while rock is very much inspired by the blues (Milward 2013) because of the preponderance of white artists early rock is also sometimes read as having appropriated blues from Black musical culture (see Daley 2003 for discussion).  Though this is not explicitly addressed with Tony, by having him as a fan of blues music but not a performer of the music it sidesteps any possible appropriation while still connecting him with the perceived ‘cool’ of Americanness and of rock music.  As part of his character becoming more at home in the constructed community surrounding the barbershop, he is shown to be learning about Caribbean genres of music as well, though, again, unlike the other characters, he does not perform them.  This underscores that, at least at Desmond’s, someone from outside the Black community who appreciates the culture rather than appropriating it is welcome.

Music, like hair itself, is a discursive political and cultural space. For a series like Desmond’s, which actively engages with complexity, it is unsurprising to see both intertwined as part of what creator Trix Worrell calls ‘a migrant story.’  As a barbershop, Desmond insists that his workspace is an ‘open forum for discussion’ in which the community as a whole is allowed to speak (Beattie 2025).  Though Desmond himself is often shown to be (somewhat) out of step with the wider, younger community, that he maintains his space in this way is a hallmark of Desmond’s: migration, diversity and multiculturalism are not always easy.  But, as Desmond finds in this episode and as we are shown in many others, it is ultimately beneficial to everyone involved.

Dr Melissa Beattie is a recovering Classicist who was awarded a PhD in Theatre, Film and TV Studies from Aberystwyth University where she studied Torchwood and national identity through fan/audience research as well as textual analysis. She has published and presented several papers relating to transnational television, audience research and/or national identity. She is currently an independent scholar.  She is under contract with Lexington/Bloomsbury for an academic book on fictitious countries and Palgrave for a book on Canadian crime dramas.  She has previously worked at universities in the US, Korea, Pakistan, Armenia, Ethiopia, Cambodia and Morocco.  She can be contacted at tritogeneia@aol.com .

 

Footnotes

[i]     This is not uncommon as a concern expressed in reggae (King et al 2002, Daynes 2010).

[ii]    Desmond is a fine singer and trumpeter.  He is not, however, shown to be a skilled barber.

[iii]   As the series progresses into the 1990s, his costuming becomes more varied and colourful.

[iv]   At the end of the episode, however, Desmond is secretly overjoyed to have made so much money as it means he is closer to returning to Guyana and retiring.

 

References

Anderson, B. (2010) Imagined Communities. 3rd Ed. Verso.

Beattie M (2025) ‘An open forum for discussion’: Desmond’s and the representation of the beauty industry. In Zeman M G et al (eds), Beauty Industry: Gender, Media and Everyday Life. Leeds: Emerald Publishing, pp. 123-141.

Beattie M (2022) ‘You can get it if you really want:’ The use of Caribbean music genres in Death in Paradise. Journal of Popular Television 10(3): 231-246.

Cambridge V C (2015) Musical Life in Guyana: History and Politics of Controlling Creativity. Jackson: University of Mississippi.

Daley M (2003) ‘Why do whites sing Black?’: The blues, whiteness, and early histories of rock. Popular Music and Society 26(2): 161-167.

Daynes S (2010) Time and Memory in Reggae Music: The Politics of Hope. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Gridley M C (1983) Clarifying labels: Jazz, rock, funk and jazz‐rock. Popular Music and Society 9(2): 27-34

King S A Bays III T B and Foster P R (2002) Reggae, Rastafari and the Rhetoric of Social Control. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.

Mercer K (2000) [1987] Black hair/style politics. In Owusu K (ed.), Black British Culture and Society: A Text Reader.London: Routledge, pp. 117-128.

Milward J (2013) Crossroads: How the Blues Shaped Rock ‘N’ Roll (and Rock Saved the Blues). Boston: Northeastern University Press.

Nidel R (2005) World Music: the Basics. London: Routledge.