Netflix is striving for ethnicity and gender equality in 2021
Netflix has revealed its first ‘inclusion report’, a handy roadmap outlining how the company will be improving ethnicity and gender diversity for 2021 and beyond. 2020 was a challenging year for film and theatre. Hollywood productions were being upended and cinemas closed across the board, yet TV subscription services reaped...
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New study indicates more women directing top Hollywood films
More women were directing in 2020 than ever before, but still only accounted for a measly 16% of the top 100 highest grossing films. How can the industry change? Last year was a particularly challenging time for films and theatre. The pandemic forced nearly everyone indoors and caused worldwide cinema...
Juice WRLD sells 1 million units for two albums in 2020
The late rapper and singer is the only artist of 2020 to sell over 1 million units for two albums, cementing emo-rap and trap as the defining Gen Z musical genre. It’s been over a year since Juice WRLD’s untimely passing, but he’s continued to dominate the mainstream charts...
Netflix’s ‘Guide to Meditation’ aims to alleviate the stress of 2020
After a turbulent year, Netflix is helping subscribers to breath, unwind, and reset for 2021 with an original series dubbed ‘Headspace: Guide to Meditation.’ When it comes to evoking a sense of FOMO, 2020 has been the ultimate adversary chiefly because, thanks to the pandemic, everyone has been missing out...
Mental health metaphors ‘doubled’ in hip-hop over last 20 years
New research shows popular hip-hop and rap songs of this century reference mental health and suicide twice as much as older tracks. It’s the result of a long and steady cultural shift. Anxiety, mental health, and suicide have become more prominent themes in the most popular rap songs of...
Bon Iver’s campaign to end domestic violence
As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to threaten gender equality across the globe, Bon Iver is taking a stand against sexual and domestic violence by donating royalties to supporting charities. The pandemic may have forced indie folk sensation Bon Iver to scrap a world tour in 2020, but it’s been...
Spotify reportedly paying less than £200 annually to most musicians
A new survey has found that Spotify gives eighty percent of all musicians less than £200 a year, as artists call for fairer financial pay-outs. The popular streaming service Spotify is facing renewed scrutiny for not paying artists enough in royalties. Despite being the world’s biggest music platform that has earned record labels over £3.3 billion in revenue so far this year and boasts over 144 million paying subscribers, the actual...
How music festivals plan to make a comeback in 2021
Live music companies are having to make big changes to survive unpredictable lockdown measures, mixing virtual options with physical ones for a staggered return next year. If you’re a festival lover or music fan, you’ve probably been missing the thrill of live concerts and gigs this year. The pandemic has obliterated the live entertainment industry, so much so that the UK is now at risk of losing its status as...
Exclusive – New app WaterBear is the Netflix of social change
What happens when NGOs, storytellers, and tech experts unite to take control of our ecological narrative? One of the biggest hurdles that storytellers face today is the disconnect many of us have between problems ‘here’ and problems ‘far away’. We often feel untouched by global issues like climate change when their effects are, for many of us, geographically removed. Even if we do manage to transcend the numbing effect created...
Kiss the Ground offers hope with regenerative agriculture
Woody Harrelson narrates this unusually optimistic film about the climate crisis, arguing that regenerative agriculture could be the key to turning things around. Netflix has released its latest documentary on the climate crisis called Kiss the Ground, which takes an extensive look at the use of soil and regenerative farming to reverse the effects of climate change. The film, which is narrated by Woody Harrelson, explains the emergence of industrial...
