Being a Creative in 2025 Birmingham
Birmingham is one of the top places to live for people looking for work opportunities and world-class amenities. However, as corporations monopolise the creative industry, young creatives are forced to deal with another lousy hand in the recent Brum bin crisis.
Pay Cuts and Uncertainty
The 2023 bankruptcy of Birmingham City Council has brought with it pay cuts and unrest amongst the public. Bin workers have been striking due to pay cuts, and the roads have been developing more potholes by the day.
The recent bin crisis has been the main concern for the council at this time, as measures are in place to resolve this issue. The videos of rodents roaming amongst the debris and mountains of black carrier bags are circulating, and the topic is a hot one amongst the public. All while the city skyline reaches rapidly towards the clouds.
People seem to be divided on whether the workers are justified to strike. With reports of up to £8,000 in pay cuts for some workers denied by Birmingham Council, it seems the answers are unknown at this time. It is sad to see this historic city fall to new depths in public hygiene and uncertainty, as residents are greeted with rapidly growing mounds of rubbish piling up on their doorsteps.
The Rent Generation
Those old tales your grandmother would tell of the old dustbin men hurling metal bin containers around on their shoulders is enough to convince many, especially in the older generations, that the new generation must suck it up. The 2025 economy proves vastly different, however. As the gap between house prices and minimum wage increased over the time that the classic metal dustbins were replaced with the wheelie variety, the changes rendered many families unable to pay bills or to get on the property ladder, spanning multiple generations.
The situation right now for young musicians and artists is staggering. After the pandemic’s social implications launched many young creatives into bouts of depression, they now have to experience their homes and streets covered in waste.
As stated previously, with the music industry being monopolised so heavily in 2025 this has deeply affected the opportunities available to aspiring practitioners looking to build a career for themselves. Due to rising ticket prices and merchandise, this is unfortunately altering the perception of some creative young adults and children from working class families to view being a musician as unattainable, out of reach and simply too otherworldly. As the 1980s had its fair share of uncertainty and insincere corporations, so do the 2020s.
Forking Out the Dough
Whilst this perception is not shared amongst all young people, and the creative freedom for the independent artist is priceless these days with home studios being the norm, the difficulty comes with sharing the creation. Musical artists can spend anywhere from £500 to £20,000 and sometimes more to promote their next single, with the industry shifting towards almost entirely operating in the online medium. We have been told as creatives about the wonders of the internet and social media, but it seems we have lost sight of the original craft slightly.
It is important to address the elephant in the room, otherwise, we become desensitised and thus censored entirely by our own minds. It is very easy for a collective consciousness to be convinced. I just hope these modern issues creatives and the public as a whole face can be at least toned down, so everyone can enjoy the oppurtunity and luxury this city provides.
