Ill Manors: TEDx Lecture

1) Ben Drew mainly emphasis that young people in England are not being heard and no one is paying attention to them which ends up making them feel like they're not part of any society but underground grime. He says that he's experienced this firsthand before as he was kicked out of school and was sent to a facility where they house all troubled kids like him and he says there are kids there that were far worse than him and that they faced a lot of trouble in their past. However he claims that there were real gems and hidden talents in those schools and in between those young people because he hired some to act in his film and some helped in building his music career. Ben Drew also known as Plan B says that one time himself and his film crew were filming a scene for Ill Manors and these young kids came up to him and told him to leave as this was their street however these other kids chased them up and cleared the scene for Drew so he can continue filming. The important bit is when he tells this story to a newspaper but they don't include the part where the other young kids do the good deed and clear the scene for Ben and he was very angry at that because they just emphasised on the original kids who were trying to be territorial and wanted Ben and his crew to leave. Ben Drew also says that when they were casting a role for Ill Manors, one of the kids who failed to get the role in his film went on to get a role in the renowned TV show Top Boy which he claims that pleased him a lot because he got the role as a result of him just auditioning for Ill Manors. Ben finally says that he wants to help young people out who may not be understood in this society and even put out his email for people to contact him who are settings up organisations who aim to help out kids who are much less fortunate.

2) Ben clearly doesn't respect authority and he says that in the first two minutes of the lecture, himself and others like him do not like to be told what to do. He slams the Conservative-Liberal democrats coalition in his music video where he sets them out to be like puppets and cartoon characters. This proves that he doesn't like them and he's probably more of a socialist or even an anarchist because he doesn't believe in a hierarchal system. He is definitely a philanthropist because he dug deep into his own pockets to make the film Ill Manors and he often does to help other people, in particular. He has very strong values and ideologies which he sticks by very religiously which is what I admire about him but not his ideologies. Firstly, he believes that more money and effort should be put in to young people because they are the future of society and some are very talented and the lack of money and effort will forever make that talent undiscoverable in this world, which is sad, but true, money is everything these days. Secondly, he kind of justifies the riots which happened in London in 2011 by claiming these rebellious young people had nothing to do in the summer, the community centres were closed, summer school were closed and a holiday abroad was simply too expensive and the riots were for a right cause because they were over an unjustified murder of a young man in Tottenham. Last but not least, he emphasis that money isn't everything and doesn't guarantee happiness which I disagree with because money is everything in this world and it most certainly buys happiness as you can do what you like with it and you can do whatever you want with it. 

3) The target audience for Ben Drew's music is most certainly 13-25 even though he may target audience; the young audience is whom he's receiving because they are the ones interested in his music instead. However an older audience might want to listen to his music to understand what the young audience are into and why is Ben so popular amongst them. The demographic is definitely CD because that’s the lower middle class and the lower class, they can most relate to his music and the film Ill Manors as those are the areas where they live in so they’ll understand the storyline and the words in his music a lot more than for example a business man who works in Canary Wharf. Ben’s music audience will most likely go and watch the film Ill Manors because firstly it’s got the same name as one of his best soundtracks in his album which is also called Ill Manors and the film is about underground, drugs, grime therefore they’ll watch it with pleasure. The audience is more or less similar for both his music and film as they’re both about the same things.

4) Ben says that the media is obviously against the media in huge numbers and there is great evidence for that. The issue of moral panic is that the mass audience in society would freak out at everything that the media throws at them, they would use trigger words such as ‘terrorist’ or ‘chav’ on the front cover to make it stand out and to sell papers. This would sell papers and create a moral panic within people, as it would distribute further with social media and word of mouth. Ben also says that the media is against young people because they are the most rebellious group in society and hold a lot of power which they can use to change things in their societies and environments, however the media use their own power to influence the mass audience and the people with huge financial power to stop these young people from increasing and cause a complete shut down of them by closing down community centres, sports places and summer schools.