Exclusive – Inside the mind of Gen Z director Jason Joyride
Jason Joyride, up-and-coming director and creative talent for Rico Nasty, talks Gen Z’s responsibility for social change, and reinventing musicals for the hip-hop age. When you first watch Rico Nasty’s music video for ‘Popstar’, a trap and punk-infused banger that dropped in early April, it’s hard not to be...
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RockCorps is giving Gen Z new apprenticeship opportunities
Partnering with big musicians including Pharrell Williams, Diddy, and Lady Gaga, RockCorps is offering teens apprenticeship and volunteering placements to help them boost their CVs. If you’re a young person looking to get a foot on the career ladder, it can be hard to know where to start to...
The ‘Karen’ meme set to become a horror movie
From phone screens to the big screen. Is there a more terrifying villain in modern times than Karen? One of 2020’s real life boogeymen, ‘Karen’ has become a pseudonym for the privileged, pedantic (and often bob donning) busybody that preaches anti progressive views online and generally just litters comment sections...
Matrix director confirms the film is a transgender allegory
Lilly Wachowski, co-director of the Matrix films, says the film originally intended to reflect transgender experiences more explicitly - but the ‘world wasn’t ready for it’. The Matrix was considered a sci-fi classic almost instantaneously when it was released in 1999. Neo’s journey from average office worker to all-seeing oracle...
Billie Eilish celebrates Gen Z and digital activism in new campaign
Fronted by Billie Eilish, the uplifting #WhatWeDoNext ad campaign refutes preconceptions that Gen Z are out of touch thanks to modern devices and social media. Renowned as digital natives, Gen Z are no strangers to getting flak from their elders for being glued to their phone screens and ‘wasting time’....
Disney, LiveNation, and others are making huge losses in 2020
The live entertainment industry has been hit extremely hard by coronavirus, so much so that it’ll likely take years to fully recover - though streaming is on the rise. Disney has reported that it made a net loss of $4.72 billion in the last financial quarter, a rare dip in...
Spotify’s latest revenue figures prove it’s not fairly paying artists
Over 90% of streams on Spotify are only generated by a pool of 43,000 artists, making it impossible for millions of others to ever receive fair compensation. Is it time for a change? Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek has been hit with criticism in the last week for telling artists that they can no longer afford to record an album ‘once every three to four years’ if they want to stay...
‘Queer Eye’ shows that empowerment can come from looking fierce
As the rigid structures formed by the 20th century gender wars melt away, the Fab 5 are embodying something Gen Z has long suspected: putting effort into your appearance is woke. The fifth season of Netflix’s Queer Eye started streaming last week, coinciding in the UK with the beginning of the BBC’s You Are What You Wear. The premise of the latter show sees a cohort of diverse stylists...
EA announces new Sims reality tv show
Players will compete with one another in a series of challenges that test their creativity within The Sims 4. It’s a mashup of e-sports and traditional television that we’ll likely see more of in the future. EA has announced a new reality show called The Sims Spark’d. The venture will pitch twelve gamers against one another in challenges designed to assess their creative talents. It will be premiering this...
Jenna Marbles and Shane Dawson apologise for past racism
Older YouTubers are distancing themselves from videos that made them big names ten years ago - it’s a vital step toward genuine progress for racial representation. YouTube will turn fifteen years old this year. Back in 2005 the site was full of snappy videos of cats, quirky millennials making cringy loud-mouth content, and funny dance crazes that are horrendously dated now. It was not the Gen Z content powerhouse that...
