I'm Jamz Supernova and I'm a DJ and broadcaster.
And I'm gonna be speaking to you about the DIY generation.
My generation and the generation after
are the ones that are doing it for ourselves.
We're taking control of our own careers and futures.
So the financial crash happened 10 years ago
when I was actually in college,
and I remember there was such an uncertainty in the air
and even the teachers they were scared for our futures.
A few years after that, university tuition fees went up
and more recently, zero-hour contracts have been introduced.
And for some people, living on a zero-hours contract
just isn't good enough for them to survive.
So I've felt that our generation have had to be the hustler generation.
We've had to make things our own
and build our own careers and decide how much money we want to earn.
And I think that's where that hustler mentality comes
and I think we're definitely the hustler generation.
Social media has also played a massive part in the DIY generation.
Literally if you have a phone
anyone can have a business if they have a social media account,
you can do it from your bedroom.
It's given anyone a voice now.
It's cut out the middle man or woman.
And it's changed the job market,
I really think the internet has driven a massive change.
So I've definitely benefitted from the internet.
I started my journey on Soundcloud
and I would upload radio shows every single week
to my Soundcloud account.
And Soundcloud, for those that don't know,
is a music platform which lets you upload content,
so music content whether it's productions, remixes or mixes itself.
You can make money through streaming
by putting your music or distributing your music onto Spotify
or Apple Music or Beatport.
So artists are doing that now,
they're also making money from live shows.
And by building their following on Soundcloud
they were able to get live shows and bookings.
The whole game has changed, I feel like now the artist is in control.
And they're the ones that have got the power and can say,
"No, I don’t think I want a contract like that "
or, "Actually, you might have to give me that, I'm independent"
There's been an incredible rise of young people
running businesses just using their social media accounts
or using the social media accounts to propel their businesses.
For example, you have someone like Vicky Grout,
so she's a photographer
and she came up shooting up-and-coming grime acts
and her portfolio was her Instagram
and that's what was used to build a following
but then also to get other work.
So now she does incredible campaigns,
people like Nike or front cover shoots of artists.
It's amazing to see how she's grown.
And then you've also got people like poets, like Charly Cox
She decided to write a poem a day for a month,
showcase it on Instagram
and by the end of the month she had an agent and a book deal.
So this kind of online culture is really challenging nepotism,
you can get headhunted just from your online portfolio alone,
whether it's Instagram, whether it's Twitter, whether it's YouTube.
And I think this definitely challenges some of the old ways
in which we thought we had to get jobs.
And this kind of change is making us more creative.
Take, for example, gal-dem so they run an online magazine,
for women of colour by women of colour.
And they created it because they weren't seeing themselves reflected
in mainstream media.
There's also the noticeable generation gap,
so the things that my generation
and the younger generation place value on
is very different to what our older generation did or does.
They place value on nine to five,
getting a secure job, getting a pension.
I definitely think that we are definitely more risk-takers
and we go against the status quo.
I think the things that we place value on comes down to happiness,
a creative outlet and expression.
So, we spoke a lot about the great things about DIY generation
but, of course, with everything there are gonna be downsides as well.
Not everyone has the financial backing
to get them through dry spells,
not everyone has the luxury
to be able to focus on their dream full-time.
I think they're the downsides that we don’t often talk about.
And there are lonely times as well,
imagine you miss birthdays, christenings.
And that can sometimes result in the breakdown of relationships
because you are so one-track minded on your dreams, on your goals
and what you need to do.
But that's also a positive and I think it's a common trait.
We're persistent as well so I was told for five years,
"No, you're not good enough for radio show, not yet, not yet, not yet."
And I just carried on knocking and eventually got my own radio show.
The DIY generation fever is spreading,
even the older generation are starting to think more like us,
with people working multiple jobs, having side hustles,
creating their own businesses as well.
And I think it's going to be really exciting to see what happens
with the younger generation,
and with the faster internet, the better apps, the better phones,
to see what they can create, and what they can do.
I think that the world will definitely be their oyster.