As part of their 'Inspiration Season' SB:TV recently
collaborated with Channel 4’s Battlefront to present ‘The Battlefront #DB8’ – a
political debate mixing the rules of competitive debating and MC sound clashes
to create a vibrant atmosphere for young people, UK artists and youth leaders
and campaigners to attend and voice their opinions. The debate looked at three arguments often
thrown at young people growing up in the UK
1.
‘Young people don’t respect authority’
2.
‘Urban culture empowers rather than imprisons’
3.
‘Young people can’t create change’
One that seemed to stand out was whether or not urban culture
empowers or imprisons people. Now, to define urban culture would surely have us
here forever; it is a culture that encompasses everything from music, fashion,
art and everything in between. It offers
a platform for imagination to grow, for creativity and individualism; a place
to find inspiration. Chantelle Fiddey, a youth culture expert, comments: ‘one
thing the urban community is good at is building something out of nothing’.
This can be evident in certain aspects. For example, graffiti – a form of art
by the likes of Bansky that has derived from what most people have seen as
‘pure vandalism’. Graffiti is now used
by major businesses to engage youth and is even incorporated into the official
2012 Olympic symbol, one person states in the debate.
Empowerment opens up people minds and broadens their
horizons, something that is crucial for young people when growing up, in any
country, let alone the UK. It forces you to think beyond what you can see and,
in this sense, urban culture can provide a great aid in this process. In terms of music, the reason why artists
such as Mc Righteous, Lowkey and Logic seem to be blowing up right now is
because people can relate to them, to their struggles, goals, ambitions in
life. It is one thing to hear artists forever producing traditional ‘love songs’
and being able to relate, but when artists sing about key issues, it seems like
people’s feelings are being engaged and portrayed in musical form.
One thing to note, however, is the fine line between
‘empowerment’ and ‘imprisonment’. Brian
Paddock, Liberal Democrat Mayor Candidate mentions how ‘people take that [urban
culture] and see it as an example, rather than a commentary’, pulling on the
stereotype and idea that urban society is such that forces young people into a
single mind set. While you may argue that certain people have no say-so or
knowledge to be commenting on such a complex and multi-layered scene in the UK,
it would seem ludicrous to disregard such an opinion all together. Things often
look different to those standing on the outside, but this does not necessarily
mean that they are wrong (or even right). An argument put forward by another is
the way in which artists such as Wiz Khalifa glamorise the weed or the
superficial chase of money part. The mindset that people are ‘from the streets’
as one guy puts it, or that to go on and ‘forget’ this would be a form of
‘selling out’ as I have often heard people accuse others of doing. Surely the idea of urban culture is much more
than this. Yet, we are confronted with examples of people everyday simply
limiting themselves to this mindset, to the idea that ‘the streets’ is all there
is; ‘it’s almost like a fashion to come from a bad background and live that
gangster life’ one comments in the debate.
But of course, when you think of Urban Culture, is this what
springs to mind? Or is it the positive expression and source of inspiration
that many youth draw from?
