Unfixed Forms: Rethinking Music Video Specificity – Comparing Fahim Alam and Lowkey's ‘Ghosts of Grenfell’ Music Videos

This panel of papers explores what makes music video distinctive, and how that distinctiveness changes across time, culture and platform. Firstly, examine Ghosts of Grenfell I and II, interrogating how the fusion of sound and image becomes a powerful way to confront institutional neglect across two connected - yet subtly distinguishable - music videos. The strange, hybrid aesthetics of contemporary folk videos are then explored, especially where dissonance and “weirding” push against linear genre narratives. Finally, music video’s digital afterlives are reimagined through the concept of the “meta-mercurial,” capturing how clips circulate and transform across platforms.