Magazine Article

Here is my article: 

            Channel 4’s eye-opening documentary, produced by AW Films, follows the lives of five teenagers with a common interest of music. Inspired by Music Nation, a series of documentaries celebrating the glory days of the UK’s underground music scene over the last 25 years, Road to Acceptance highlights the hardships for British Teenagers when identifying with certain music sub-cultures.

            With the growing widespread popularity of Social-Media sites such as Twitter and Tumblr and Media influence,  comes the increase of cyberbullying and negative stereotyping, particularly targeting fans of small sub-genres of music such as “Emo” and “Punk”, whilst also being targeted are fans of award-winning boyband One Direction. 

            Not only does the documentary introduce us to the five teenagers, Billie, Mikey, Hannah, James, and Sonja, but to their lifestyles revolving around their musical preferences. Whilst Sonja follows the lifestyle of a 1970’s Punk, Billie faces the hardships of dealing with the cyberbullying from identifying as an Emo. In contrast, Hannah the “Directioner” struggles with getting people to take her seriously as a 17 year old One Direction fan.

            Meeting the friends and family members of the teenagers gives an insight into how music has had the ability to change someone’s personality  and what affect it can have on close relationships.  

            As an audience, the documentary makes you question how and why we judge people based on the way they look, creating awareness of the  damage that the media can have on people that belong to a certain social group.

            One of the leading issues discussed in the documentary is how the Media has influenced  the opinions of the public through  fabricated and exaggerated news stories. One instanct that Emo girl Billie discussed is how the Emo communities reputation was harmed after The Daily Mail blamed the band “My Chemical Romance”- among the most popular in the Emo sub-genre for a teenage girl’s suicide.

Billie discusses how the articles written about the band tarred the reputation of the sub-genre, and is one of the reasons why the term “Emo” is so stigmatized. Mother of Billie, Dot, also discussed how reading those articles worried her.

“Obviously I was f***ing worried, as a Mam”

Watch Road to Acceptance on Thursday 14th May, Channel 4   to  learn more about the five teenagers’ stories  and hear what those closest to them really think about their love for music.

It’s a show that will open your eyes!