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MTV comes to town - but Shoreditch is no sure thing
They’re casting for trendy young things in east London but have they found them?
EAST London's hipsters are about to have their dreams fulfilled, it seems. MTV is casting for an international documentary series that will "create a collective and a brand", and is searching for "young creative people" from the cooler-than-cool areas of Hoxton, Shoredith and Dalston to join in.
An email was sent out last week and picked up by alternative culture magazine Vice, who mockingly reprinted the thing in full. "This is about celebrating youth culture, through self-expression," the letter explains. "It's about subverting people's expectations of the scene" and creating "a factory of creativity to harness talent". Right.
Recently, MTV has been on a drive to engage the social group it calls the 'Millenials'. No longer in the thrall of uber-extravagant wealth, as exemplified by programmes such as The Hills and My Super Sweet 16, this generation of post-1980 babies want 'real' television that reflects what their lives are really like.
MTV’s Newcastle reality show Geordie Shore was successful enough to have a second series commissioned. Now the American network is turning its cameras to east London in an attempt to compete with E4's equally popular west London-based Made in Chelsea.
But are the hipsters of Hackney truly blessed with the "raw talent" and "innovative flair" promised by MTV’s email?
Vice went down to the auditions, appropriately held in super-trendy bar Jaguar Shoes, and interviewed some of the candidates. One girl explained that she was not a hipster because she was "really into the 90s style". Another said she had no idea why she should be picked for the show, unless, "Maybe I’ll be the only Asian?" One guy believed that what made him unique was the fact that he changes his look every day according to his mood.
Last word goes to student and unemployed writer Chris, who told Vice that he thought the show would give an insight into his group's little world. When asked what that little world was about, he replied, "We're just regular people that try really hard". ·
