Music & Art
The 80s and 90s brought a wave of creative outlets and New York City was seen as the prime destination to experience them.
Music in the East Village
The East Village was a very prominent music scene during this time.
Boomboxes lined the streets, businesses spun discs, and clubs raged on into the night. In the Village, being different was the norm. This philosophy also showed in the music representation.
The traditional sound of the East Village was rock and roll. Niche local bands frequently played in venues around the neighborhood. Punk rock also emerged around this time with the Ramones in 1977 and gained momentum over the next few decades. Aside from rock and its various sub-genres, folk, anti-folk, hip-hop, blues, house music, and more were prominent genres performed by local bands.
Throughout the 80s and 90s, music clubs opened and closed their doors frequently. They rotated through as new owners came into management. Other clubs saw their own picture of success as they relocated midtown to larger locations.
Photo of an unknown band playing at the Pyramid Club
Sharing music during this time required creativity and an eye for opportunity.
At CBGB, a popular New York music club, they held audition nights on Sundays and Mondays. Here, unknown bands played for the patrons, and the staff voted on whether or not to give them a regular show. In other cases, music clubs often had open mic nights for musicians looking to expand their audience.
Many music venues held a wide variety of music genres due to the artistic diversity of the neighborhood. Aside from playing live, independent musicians relied on word of mouth, music sales at live events, and fliers to share their music. Napster, a peer-to-peer file sharing service associated with music sharing, was introduced in 1999. This allowed people to share MP3 files on personal computers for free. This led to legal problems as questions of creative ownership were brought up.
Photo of Napster logo
Art Movements
The 1980s and 1990s brought an explosion of new art styles.
For one, street art was picking up steam. Although street art has technically been around since ancient times, the genre was brought back up with artist Cornbread in the 1960s. The genre expanded in the 1970s, but with the new wave of artistic views and mediums in the 1980s, street art evolved. At this point, people recognized tagging and graffiti as street art.
Another popular movement was neo-expressionism. This style used bright colors to portray emotions and expressions. It was a response to the minimalism style that focused on intellectualism and theoretical subjects, casting out emotion. Many artists associated with this movement mixed images and text to create their works. It was a popular style among street artists to portray the social issues they were calling out.
Postmodernism also saw its moment during this time. It was in response to the modernist movement, which explored a universal meaning and truth. Postmodernist artists favored exploring diversity and dystopia. Everything was meant to be subjective. Images from popular culture were often used and recontextualized in postmodern works, along with text.
Grafitti tag of Philadelphia street artist Cornbread
Julian Schnabel, "Fakries", 1993
Art in the 1980s and 1990s exploded with direct correlation to social issues.
Street artists shared their passion on topics such as the AIDS epidemic, poverty, inequality, and racism. The walls of buildings, tunnels, and parking structures acted as canvases for their messages. The goal was to reduce the gap between art and the public by making their messages accessible. By keeping works in museums, the audience was far smaller than when observing them on the street. This way, the public could also get a chance to be acquainted with the artist.
Guerilla Girls, "Do Women Have to be Naked to Get Into the Met. Museum?", 1989
Notable Street Artists
Keith Haring
Haring was an artist whose style can be recognized through the brightly colored figures and dark outlines, depicting people dancing and dogs barking.
For most of his career, he focused on public works. He initially gained notoriety for drawing images on the empty advertisement panels in the New York subway stations. He would ride a train all the way to the end and draw on the panels until he got arrested. There were times when he would even finish gallery openings and hop on a train to do more subway drawings.
He believed part of the act of creation was making the art accessible to the public. Many of his largest pieces were murals on the sides of buildings, such as schools and hospitals.
Through his works, he spoke on many taboo topics, including the AIDS epidemic, homosexuality, apartheid, and safe sex. He often made art for organizations and holidays, spreading the message to as many people as possible. The artist spent the majority of his career creating art all over the world.
Haring died of AIDS related complications on February 16th, 1990, at the age of 31.
Photo of Keith Haring
Keith Haring, "Ignorance = Fear", 1989
Photo of Jean-Michel Basquiat
Jean-Michel Basquiat, "Hollywood Africans", 1983
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Basquiat started in the street art scene, painting chaotic collisions of art and words. After an art show with a punk and graffiti group, Basquiat gained attention from the art world.
Basquiat used his platform to raise awareness about racial discrimination and other social challenges that minorities faced. His work also celebrated the everyday traditions of Black life and Black culture.
He was also aware of how the art world treated him. He integrated critiques of the art world within his pieces, calling out the very people who both celebrated and tokenized him.
Many people believe his paintings have multiple meanings. Part of his artistic vision was leaving things up to the viewer’s interpretation. Basquiat died of drug-related complications on August 12th, 1988, at the age of 27.