In the name of continuous learning, I spent the past few nights watching some classic films in the graffiti, hip-hop and b-boy scene. I started with Wild Style, then with Beat Street and finally Style Wars. Funny thing is that most of these films were released in between ‘82 to ‘84, I reckon the period looks like one of the key periods that catapulted the culture to the level it is currently. It is also the last few years of subway “bombing” as New York adopted more stricter security measures and harsher penalties to violators which lead to many graffiti artists hanging up their cans and pens.
Personally I feel that this change helped open up people to the artists themselves as they started to focus their work towards art galleries and shows, although some bombers might contest that the trains was the best medium for their work, I think art shows is something that was bound to happen when you start generating interest like they did in the 80’s. While some might coin this as selling out, I simply think that it is evolution, albeit somewhat forced. It’s funny how fast graffiti moved from being just vandalism and now it is considered to be part of modern and pop art. Artists like Keith Haring, Futura, Jean-Michel Basquiat, once the vandals of society and now their paintings probably cost more than the salary of the Mayor of New York.
It’s great to see how the vibe of New York at the time was, it was like in the infancy stages and now it’s fully grown. While I never really knew how it felt back then, watching these films at least gives me a glimpse of the culture’s past.
For me, the really interesting insight I got was how influential the 80’s were to the current generation. I can only wonder if our current generation can leave as great an impact as the past has done to us.
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