Keeping it real: the true voices of a generation

Capturing the voice of the youth is a goal of many brands, creators and media outlets. The film Mixtape ’22, created by Karmarama and directed by Ricky Gibb for NCS, provided UK teens with a chance to hear and see themselves truly reflected in music made by rising UK artists.

NCS offers a platform for young people’s voices to be heard through a wide range of activities and personal development experiences. 

The film features Saidhu, winner of Rap Game 2021; BBC Radio 1 presenter and neo soul singer Victoria Jane; and garage singer Emma Cannon. They each wrote and performed music using lyrics inspired by feelings and opinions crowdsourced from young people around the country. 

shots chatted to Jamie Mancini and Muhsin Mahmud about the project.

How did you set about gathering the thoughts and feelings of young people from around the country? What topics did you ask them to speak about?

JM: This was fundamental to the whole idea but also quite the task. We tried to set out a plan with a few different ways to get a broad range of opinions.

We didn’t want to streamline the topics early on, it was about seeing what issues naturally rose to the surface for them.

So, we set out three themes from their POV:
Ourselves – an individual’s perspective 
Our Community – the notion of the people that mean the most to them 
Our World – the bigger global conversations

We posted call outs across NCS’ own channels and held workshops to better understand what mattered.

From this point we had smaller groups of contributors come down to the studio on recording days and chat at length about the themes. This is what you hear / see in the final mixtape.

When we got into the edit we always kept checking in on ourselves during the process, asking, "Is this authentic and relevant to what the young people were saying?"

Quickly and organically, they began focusing in on certain topics, namely – mental health, gender, discrimination, and the importance of unity.

All of this then acted as the catalyst for the artist’s lyrics and away we went.

Do you think that your project offers an authentic representation of the concerns of young people and a chance to be heard in a new way?

JM: I don’t think the campaign offers the chance for young people to be heard in a new way…and that’s kind of the point. 

Music has always been an outlet for opinion, frustration, and celebration - a way to find and express yourself as an individual and come together as a group. 

From rock to rap, disco to drill - whatever the decade, genre or artist, music always encapsulates youth culture and that’s exactly what we wanted to tap into and put at the heart of the campaign.

And in doing that (hopefully) Mixtape ’22 is an honest reflection of young people today.

When the artists and teens went into the studio with Star.One we were clear our role was to facilitate the production of the mixtape, not control it. 

The soundbites you hear from young people and the lyrics written by the artists are all from them and the conversations they had – their thoughts, feelings and hopes.  

When we got into the edit we always kept checking in on ourselves during the process, asking – “Is this authentic and relevant to what the young people were saying?”

Do you think brands sometimes attempt to market to or represent a perceived voice of youth when in fact the ‘voices’ are those of older creatives/marketers who might be missing the truth of the youth?

JM: My simple and frank answer is: Yes.

As no matter how much good intent and effort it is impossible for us to truly reflect the youth voice because (and this hurts) we’re not young anymore. 
 
Personally, I think one of the biggest weapons in our creative arsenal is having the conviction to step aside and facilitate young people to lead the work – by doing that it’s already going to be more authentic and relevant to younger audiences. Then it’s our job to guide, support and find the sweet spot between their creative output and the brand brief.

I think one of the biggest weapons in our creative arsenal is having the conviction to step aside and facilitate young people to lead the work

When making the mixtape a young contributor, Paige, said, “I identify as non-binary, and that’s me”. I remember them saying that on set and it really stuck with me - because this is a young person being so open and honest in the moment. You can’t write or fake that, it’s their truth and that’s the point of this project.
 
For me it comes down to lived experience – as adults we’re not living what young people are right now. We of course can pull similarities but we’re not experiencing the same cultural shifts in the same ways, it’s impossible to, so it makes sense to hand over the controls to people that are.
 
A template which can be applied to most briefs in fact.

Is there an optimism about the future or is the state of the world that young people will inherit a source of anxiety?

MM: Gen Z have been at the forefront of championing a more sustainable and environmentally friendly world. Yet, ultimately it’s often the generations before us that act as gatekeepers of the change we wish to see. The anxiety my friends and I face is a feeling of having to sweep up a mess we didn’t create. I’m proud of how we the young people of today are conscious and more aware than ever. 

However, the sentiment is almost as though it is our children that will finally see the world we’ve hoped for. But that’s okay, we can still be optimistic about the future because we are a generation that acts, re-imagines and adapts. The anxiety is more so about what lies ahead - what we will have to tackle together. The optimism however is knowing what we’re able to achieve. 

Social media can perpetuate feelings of loneliness – but I think it’s a bit like a construction site. A place where things are built – for stories, memories and experiences. 

Are there issues that unite young people and issues that divide them?

MM:  The pressure of education, exams and a sense of belonging within friendship groups/communities are perhaps issues which we young people collectively endure and often struggle with.

I think more often, it is also the issues that risk our freedom that we connect with - especially because most of us seek independence. We care deeply about being our unapologetic selves, talking freely without judgement, walking freely without the fear of being stabbed.

Our generation connects most with mental health and knife crime, and whilst it says a lot about our positive attitudes towards open conversations and addressing racism, it also highlights how disproportionately affected we are by it – hence why we care so much.

As a young person, depending on who you are, you feel more affected by some issues than others, and that’s what divides us. 

For me as a British Bangladeshi, stereotypical assumptions about me are experiences that set me apart from other young counterparts. However, it should be our attitude towards issues like this that we should be united on, regardless of if we have different lived experiences.

Do you feel that there is a self-esteem crisis raging at the moment?

MM: Absolutely. 

I don’t think there’s ever been a greater experiment on a generation than the digital world. It’s new territory and as a human race, our inexperience with it is partly to blame for the self-esteem crisis. How you present yourself to the world is more so about your Instagram profile rather than the way you talk to others. When people don’t like your online presence, you sometimes don’t like your physical one either.

But it’s not just social media. There are deep underlying issues that make us question our self-worth. For example, most of us in society are measured by the grades we achieve in school as a child. When letters and numbers say so much about our intelligence and how much we can contribute to society, we inevitably question ourselves. I think we should raise children with confidence, and that starts by not blowing it to begin with.

It’s cool and popular to be ‘grown up’, to have everything together, to have your career figured out at 15 and to know who you want to be in the next 10 years. 

Do you think social media simultaneously offers a sense of community, but also can be a source of comparison anxiety – and even cyber-bullying – that can make individuals feel even more isolated and unheard?

MM: 

It’s weird how social media can be both a place of unity, yet also isolation. We can be heard yet have our voices lost too. So much noise - but sometimes too much. 

Social media can perpetuate feelings of loneliness – but I think it’s a bit like a construction site. A place where things are built – for stories, memories and experiences. Whether it's Tiktok, Snapchat or Instagram – ultimately we are there to find, create, or enjoy a sense of community. But like a construction site, there are dangers and safety measures that need to be considered. If you don’t have the right equipment, helmet, shoes - you’re at risk. 

Social media is like that too, more needs to be done around the experience of it to ensure when we do choose to enter these sites, we’re safe. It includes things like forming a support bubble and knowing when to step back. I think we need to all learn how to be safe online, and whilst much of that relies on tech-companies, it also relies on ourselves. 

But I believe the positives outweigh the negatives. Once we build a better and healthier relationship with social media - it truly can serve our lives better.