The clash-Rock The Casbah (1982)

The clash are an English Punk-rock band, Rock the Casbah was released as the second song in their fifth album, Combat Rock. the message of the song was inspired by the ban on western music in Iran after the 1979 islamic revolution. the military jet fighters were ordered to bomb anyone violating the ban, instead they ignored the ban and played the music from their cockpit radios.

The cover for this single features a muslim hitchhiker and a Hasidic jewish limo driver skanking (dancing) together to the Clash’s song Rock the Casbah. The idea for this was to break stereotypical conventions and the imagery was about ‘breaking taboos’. This was achieved by the two characters friendship displayed in the cover and their unlikely actions displayed.
The music video for the song gives the storyline behind how these two unlikely characters meet and their journey together, finally ending up at a Clash concert after their wild adventure- even at one point stopping for a Burger King.

The type used on the cover for ‘The Clash’ is military-like in that the title is shouting out to the viewer in capital letters in a vintage military font. Using this helps the cover portray a protest-like connotation to rebel against the ban on western music following the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The words repeated in the song ‘Rock the Casbah’ stems from the definition of a native Arab section of town, so to ‘rock’ the casbah The Clash are protesting against the ban in these towns and are referring to their punk rock music which should be used to protest against the western music ban.