The technology is in place, the potential audience is ready, equipped and waiting for something to happen, something to break into the mainstream.

Smash It Up!

We need a transmedia equivalent of the Sex Pistols to smash through the media Gatekeepers and to blow away out of touch and complacent media makers.

So will it come from ‘youth culture’? Peer groups telling stories to young, switched on and connected communities? Have they got the get on and do it anyhow you can punk attitude, the Do It Yourself because no-one else will do it like you want determination. No compromise, no regrets, no remorse. I hope so.

When they succeed they will overthrow the established Gatekeepers and decision-makers who truly believe they know what is best for us when in fact all they know is what is best for their corporation and their shareholders. The Establishment is out of touch with what technology can deliver, how it can change and form new story experiences. It feels like we’re waiting for something to happen.

Sounds like the years just prior to the punk explosion.

Angry

In a previous post called Star Factor, I said that a breakthrough native transmedia project will need a mainstream star attached. Thinking again, maybe it is all about CONTENT. The content is where the breakthrough will come from just as it drove the punk phenomenon. Punk’s content was ANGRY. There was youth unemployment, recession, dole queues, Maggie Thatcher and NO FUTURE. Today it’s pretty much the same – youth unemployment, the worst global recession since the Great Depression and austerity. So where is the anger?

I Wanna Riot

Last year’s summer riots were partially organised on Blackberry mobile phones using Blackberry Messaging and spread like wildfire. An unlawful but ingenious use of technology also seen in the use of social media networks and mobile phone video footage during the Arab Spring uprisings.

Maybe there are people out there expressing anger through creative output and maybe it is being cast aside by the Gatekeepers who only want NOSTALGIA and FEELGOOD content to help us through the dark times – don’t forget THEY know what WE want! Now the technology and the internet can bypass them.

Never Mind The Bollocks

No one is going to commission an original, native transmedia project until they see a demand for it, a demand they can exploit commercially. Until then it will continue to exist as a marketing tool, a franchise development method and a cutting edge toy for creative geeks.

Someone, somewhere may very well be in the process of making a transmedia project with angry story content that will blow the world away. And then the rush will begin. I can’t wait.