StreetVibeS Youth

StreetVibes Youth offered young people from South London a chance to look outside the familiar sounds of Garage, Grime and HipHop, to hear the connections and relationships with Caribbean music, such as Soca, Reggae, Calypso, and Latin Reggaeton, and explore the creative fusion between the different musics. As well as exploring new genres they might not have encountered, the project aimed to give young people the chance to get to grips with basic music theory, Caribbean composition and music technology. In keeping with StreetVibes’ ethos, participants also learned about performance traditions and techniques

from professional musicians and producers, leading to a live performance at

The Albany in Deptford, with an audience

of around 40 people.

Launched during Black History Month in 2007, StreetVibes Youth had no problem recruiting an initial group, using radio coverage, promotional materials and attending youth careers and education fairs. Most of their sessions for other courses are well attended, but this course was not able to recruit participants so easily. Numbers fluctuated from week to week, so staff members Sonia and Orlando consulted with the participants they had, and other young people taking up other activities and sessions. As a result, they re-shaped the sessions, dropping the idea of bringing in a series of different musicians, and focusing on the building blocks of the two musical styles, exploring and experimenting with the cross-over and differences.

One of the changes as a taster session in the studios, where Orlando prepared a standard beat for the group, then showed them how to build a new musical production around the vocals, step by step, using rhythms and sounds inspired by Caribbean music. This was the turning point: not only could the young people see how the musical styles related to one another, but they started to tell their friends, and attendance soon picked up. “At first, they thought that the sounds on the street today are unique, but once they saw how the beats built up, they could see where the Caribbean music fitted in.” Sonia believes this wouldn’t have been possible without Orlando’s own skills and experience of growing up in the Caribbean, living and working in the UK, with family in New York.

At the end of each session, participants went home with the track they had produced, and this encouraged them

the deliVerY organiSationStreetVibes Youth is a not-for-profit organisation that aims to inspire, motivate, encourage and support young people to be creative, enterprising and productive.

the peopleParticipants: young people aged 13-19 across South London boroughs.

Staff: Co-founders Sonia Ramanah, Project Director and Orlando Clement (Head of Learning and Skills) as Music Leader for the sessions.

the project‘Caribbean Meets Urban Music’ was a music making course that took place over eight sessions in October 2007 as part of Youth Music Week for our Youth Music Action Zone. It provided opportunities for young people from south London to explore genres of music they wouldn’t normally encounter and develop their music theory and Caribbean composition.

Caribbean Meets Urban MusicStreetVibes aims to encourage young people to look at music in different ways, showing that it can be a career and that there is a whole industry requiring all sorts of talent. Most of its courses cover this aspect in great detail, and it has an excellent network of professionals to call upon, offering real-life music industry skills with key learning and basic skills. StreetVibes is a BTEC accreditation centre, which means StreetVibes has designed its own music and media-based BTEC course (accredited at Entry Level, Level 1 and 2). Students study with StreetVibes with accreditation and assessment undertaken in-house.

“ As well as exploring new genres they might not have encountered, the project aimed to give young people the chance to get to grips with basic music theory, Caribbean composition and music technology.”

caSe StudieS

to experiment with their vocal range and styles and fusing it with music of African and Caribbean heritage. This new approach excited and enthused the young people and, by the end of the project, there were 28 regular participants. Sonia tracked their progress during this time: “they went through a real change, through listening and hearing how the music changes, flowing from Soca, African, UK Grime, Garage, Reggaeton, and we could see how their lyrics changed by the end of the project”. StreetVibes Youth realised that although the project had been designed for their usual audiences, in fact they had attracted young people who would normally be hard to reach.

The performance not only added to their sense of achievement, but gave StreetVibes Youth the opportunity to build a relationship with the venue. As well as challenging the team creatively, the concept was successful in terms of individual outcomes. One of the participants, who had taken part in many of StreetVibe’s previous projects and was an excluded ex-offender, has now won a full scholarship (covering both tuition fees and accommodation) to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Another participant is now in full-time employment as a trainee Music Leader at StreetVibes Youth, which has allowed the company to take on more work and thus grow.

The futureStreetVibes Youth saw ‘Caribbean Meets Urban Music’ as a great opportunity: they enjoyed the creative challenge, brought an ethnically diverse group together and created some very unique pieces of music that were professionally showcased. It has encouraged StreetVibes to approach other funders and think more broadly about how their approach can be adapted and tailored.

There has been a follow-on project: an Expressive Arts Day at a school with 80 students taking part. StreetVibes used the same concept: fusing different musics/genres with participants and music leaders from different backgrounds. Rock and urban music were combined, explored, developed and performed in three days of intense workshops and sessions.

StreetVibes Youth is hoping to create a celebration of the diversity of London’s population for the Cultural Olympiad, which would be the fulfilment of a long-standing desire to incorporate celebration within the core activity. Caribbean Meets Urban Music has also informed their work for Activ81 ; in turn this has generated new funding opportunities. Sonia feels that they would otherwise “have stuck to what we thought we knew best”, whereas the opportunity to think outside the box is enabling them to grow at a sustainable rate.

References 1. Activ8 is a European Social Fund and Learning and

Skills Council funded initiative that aims to increase participation and reduce the number of young people who are long-term NEET (not in education, employment or training) in the identified LEA (Local Education

Authority)‘NEET hotspot areas’

Funded through:Written by Sarah Bedell and Catherine Rose. Research and delivery by Catherine Rose’s Office Ltd. www.catherinerosesoffice.co.uk

Published by Sound Connections © February 2012.

“ StreetVibes Youth saw ‘Caribbean Meets Urban Music’ as a great opportunity: they enjoyed the creative challenge, brought an ethnically diverse group together and created some very unique pieces of music that were professionally showcased.”

“ At the end of each session, participants went home with the track they had produced, and this encouraged them to experiment with their vocal range and styles and fusing it with music of African and Caribbean heritage.”

What we would keep or build on Promotion is best done through word of mouth, so make sure you have enough time and sessions to allow that to develop or have other channels.

The Music Leader has to be right for each project: mixture of technical and creative skills, experience and role model for the participants as successful professional.

Don’t be too fixed in your ideas about who might want to take part.

Celebrate the work at the end in a public space so that everyone can hear the music produced.

Creating links with cultural heritage provides opportunities to link to wider activities such as Black History Month.

What we would change Running the project for longer, over more sessions, to build up awareness.

Using word of mouth and taster sessions to recruit participants and not produce print.

What relationships need to be built Develop relationships with local venues that can support showcasing or performances.

Lessons Learned

“ Keep hold of the idea and develop it, but be flexible about how you deliver it.”