[MUSIC] So this week, we're looking into the fascinating stories, and how people can rediscover the past. So, I've got Jamie from youth culture here. >> Yeah. >> Nice to see you. Actually tell us a little bit about your project please. >> Yeah, so, we're basically an archive of youth culture history. Record youth club archive, we've been working towards opening a museum of youth culture. And by youth culture we mean, kind of memories. So that might be, the kind of the sounds, the styles, the scenes of young people from the post war world. So kind of 1940s onwards to present day. Although increasingly, we're going further back. And we've now got images that they brought back to 1920s at the moment. >> Amazing. So, what kind of stories have been most prominent in this? >> Well, we started out as a photo library back in the 90s. And, that ended up being a kind of a mini professional photography archive. Recently, we've started a public submission campaign called Grown Up in Britain. And, that's been all about gathering personal stories of people growing up. So, we've just put a message out saying, show what your youth looks like. I mean it could be, it doesn't have to be a subculture. It could just be you before you go out to a gig. It could be a photograph of your mum in the 80s going out. It's all about building up a picture of what youth culture looks like. And, I think that's been the most special thing so far. Because, we're kind of creating a crowd sourced collection of photographs, that really show people's youths. And it's a really important time of self expression, fashion, and music for people. >> So, what do you think are some of the more important things that come out of your project? >> Definitely, when you're looking at the kind of, we look at subcultures in societies being really significant moments. And we look at the mods, the punks, kind of the rave scene. But I think the thing that's been really fascinating, is we're seeing those in between people. Not necessarily focusing on the kind of subcultures, but looking at more mainstream people that were just listening to pop music at the time. Because, as time goes on, 20 years they say, after a photograph has been taken, you tend to better look at it differently. And we're definitely seeing that those in between stories, like someone watching the Michael Jackson video for example in the 80s, is just as interesting as a photograph of a skinhead back in London at the time. So, I think it's those kind of in between moments that we're finding most interesting. >> And, have you found that people have been quite open to sharing their past, and image, and like? >> Yeah. I think one of the kind of challenges with any archive is, building trust with the people that submit their images to you. Because we've got a record of working as a photo library for a long time in a professional context, I think people can see the work we've done. And that might be with other institutions. That might be like Museum of London, or it might be with kind of clothing brands. We've done a lot of work in that way, on a commercial level. But now as a nonprofit, I think people could see that we're all about sharing their stories, and that's the most important part. It always feels quite personal when someone gives you a bunch of images of their youth. And a lady recently just sent us or gave us a lot of photographs of a teddy boy outfit that she made for her son, because you couldn't buy them for children at the time. And, it's really kind of key important moments in their lives. So I think, hopefully we're kind of building up that. That trust that we are that place. Where if you have got an amazing picture of yourself growing up, we'd love to be able to represent it. >> That's brilliant. And as a consequence of this work, they've been some themes that have started to emerge from the records and things you've acquired. >> One of the things that we weren't sure about was, which subcultures again are going to kind of step up, or which kind of areas, or what kind of decades are going to step up the most. But we found that the goth scene in particular, the kind of 1980s goth scene has really stepped up. And, we've had hundreds of photographs of people showing themselves. We even had a lady who sent us a photograph of herself from kind of when she was about five years old, as a witch for Halloween, kind of dressed up. And then herself as a teenager, as a goth. And then herself today, still dressed in the same kind of style. So it shows that, there's a really important kind of thread that runs through people's lives. That thing that goes back to, I guess the childhood, and runs through into adult life. We've also had a lot of really early kind of youth culture movements. We've had a bunch of kids that have made these kind of DIY bikes, and they've been riding around bomb sites after World War II. And, that's definitely a style, and a kind of fashion that's coming through in that as well. So, I think it's been more those early movements, and the goth scene, basically. >> That's really cool. Is there a way that you link up those themes and those stories, between different people? >> That's been the biggest challenge, because we've got an archive of 150,000 objects, photographs mainly. And, tying that together is, it needs a narrative. So, we work with academics to help us do that. And at the moment, we've got 30 different texts that have been written by a bunch of academics, that are part of University of Reading's subculture network. Which is a network of people that are studying and reading about youth culture, and it's a worldwide program. So, we had to work out what youth culture moves we need to cover. It doesn't cover everything, but there's things like, it might be the skinhead scene for example. Or it might be the birth of pop when the Beatles came out, and the kind of fangirl culture that came out of that. There's all these smaller elements of youth culture that we need to talk about, that fill up that gap. There's a lot more than you think. So, we've definitely got a lot more development to go. But that's all kind of accessible in an online museum of youth culture. Which is essential a website you can go on and browser a history, without needing to necessarily know what you're looking for. >> In terms of your audiences, do you find people of certain generations stick to information from that generation? Or do you find it's more diverse? >> I think there are people that love to look at their youth, and then celebrate what they went through. And that's obvious a super valid part of what we do. To better say to people, look, what you did was really exciting and really important, and it left this legacy on the UK. But, we're getting young people are fascinated with the 90s at the moment. So, especially the protest and activism of the 90s. And the kind of environmental protest is very much slow, reminiscent of what's going on with extinction of rebellion today. And young people are looking back at that as inspiration. And a lot of the people that are part of those scenes, are now their parents, or members of their family. So it kind of gives people, I think they can kind of almost respect their family a lot more, because they're seeing that they went through a similar time. There's a lot of political turbulence going on as well, and rave was a real kind of, I guess, a kind of approach towards that. So, we often find that young people come to us for the kind of most on trend, youth culture movements. So, definitely rave. But we've been recently seeing those early 2000 scenes come bubble up for the archive. And, we get lots of interest on our Instagram. And that tends to be things like new metal, and increasingly towards things like emo. And when we're looking at that kind of guitar music from that kind of mid 2000s. So, It always takes a while for it to come through, and for people to realize that, that was something that they were part of. >> So in terms of that legacy then, what would you like your project Slick C to be? >> I think at the moment, youth culture isn't a designated piece of heritage. So, that means that it's at risk of loss. And if you've got your photograph itself that shows your youth, you should be able to put that somewhere where we could preserve it. And show what young people have done, incredible things over the last 100 years really. So, I think we need to have youth culture actually designated as a piece of heritage, that other organizations can also help with. So, museums to be able to have their own collections as well, that could maybe will tie in with what we do. But, I think it's about time we had a place where you could actually celebrate youth culture as a topic of its own. Cause it deserves its own kind of independent thinking around it. >> So finally then, what advice would you give to others that wanting to collect community stories? >> I think it's about reaching out through those communities, I think potentially through the internet. That's something that we've found, that's been really useful. Because you can get physical events, and you might get five or six people, maybe more. But I think that, if you can find that person that has the access to those subcultures, or those movements, or whatever you're trying to document, that's what you need. You can't do it alone. And I think collaboration with other blogs, Instagram accounts, or even venues in places in the physical world that you can connect with. I think it's about collaborating, because we're in a time now where we all need to work together, to kind of get these histories recorded. >> Thank you so much, Jamie. I think the work of Youth Club Archive is absolutely fantastic. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much for talking to us. >> Cheers. What's up. [MUSIC]
