New York City Essay

Punk rock music has been used for decades to express dissatisfaction with society, government, or any idea common in mainstream media. Yet punk rock is not simply a tangent of the mainstream, it is a dynamic and fluid genre with many distinct songs. Don Letts, a mainstay in the London punk scene during the 70’s and 80’s, went as far to say that hip-hop was essentially “black” punk. While punk and hip-hop music are stylistically different, the fundamental tone of the two genres is the same. Even throughout the decades, hip-hop has sang the same issues as punk, including the plight of the lower class, police brutality, and gang violence.

Music is an art form and source of power. Many forms of music reflect culture and society, as well as, containing political content and social message. Music as social change has been highlighted throughout the 20th century. In the 1960s the United States saw political and socially oriented folk music discussing the Vietnam War and other social issues. In Jamaica during the 1970s and 1980s reggae developed out of the Ghetto’s of Trench town and expressed the social unrest of the poor and the need to over-through the oppressors. The 1980’s brought the newest development in social and political music, the emergence of hip-hop and rap. This urban musical art form that was developed in New

The birth of jazz music is often credited to African Americans, though it didn’t take long to expanded to America's white middle class. Jazz, therefore, was characterised by a meshing of African American traditions and ideals with white middle class societies. Big cities like New York and Chicago were

In order to understand why punk came about the preceding periods will be considered. The baby boom after the war had resulted in a large amount of people being born at the same time. A knock on effect later down the line resulted in mass unemployment for young people. The punk era showed angry,

Jazz music was a huge change in America. The music brought together many different people and opened up clubs mainly in the city. Jazz music allowed many new artists to emerge and become well known all throughout the country.

How has migration, and subsequent contact between diverse people in urban America, led to innovation in American music?

One of the most iconic happenings in this age was the creation of jazz. Jazz had always been popular in night clubs in the south but during the great migration, jazz was brought to the north. After just a few weeks, jazz was the new fad and everyone was playing it. “Jazz flouted many musical conventions with its syncopated rhythms and improvised instrumental solos…improvisation meant that no two performances would ever be the same…” (The Decade That Roared, page

At the dawn of the 1920’s America was entering a new era defined by a vast and complicated urban culture that would dominate the rest of the 20th century. New York was where the modern age was born. The very architecture spoke of America’s new ascendancy and aspirations. In New York, Broadway represented the latest in entertainment, Madison Avenue would come to stand for the bustling new business in advertising, and Wall Street represented the decade’s expanding economic activities. Harlem was where the unique American music of jazz began. Harlem was also contributing more than music to the American culture; it was a hot bed for political and cultural activity called the Harlem Renaissance. New York’s lower East side was for European Immigration;

In the city of New Orleans emerged one of the most influential music genres in the history of the United States of America. At the time, New Orleans was known for being a "blending pot" of people or rather, a location where people from all over the world came together in one place. This city served as a key seaport in the U.S. allowing for goods to be imported and exported. The purpose of this city was not only strategic to the growth of the country, but also allowed for the incredible mixing of cultures, customs, and traditions that led to the creation of one of our nations most cherished genres of music: jazz.

The attitude common in the subculture is the resistance to selling out, which means abandoning one’s values and changing in musical style toward pop to embrace anything that’s mainstream capitalist culture in the exchange for money, status, or power. Punk rocks’ common thinking wasn’t only anti-authoritarism, and not selling out but also non-conformity, direct action, and a DIY ethic. The DIY attitude was pointed towards stepping forward and speaking without any restraint. To fight with warrior qualities to achieve what you were striving for. The kind of thinking and motives for punk rock subjects was to not settle for what society made acceptable and standard but to think and work outside of the box that was holding them in.

The mid to late 1970s brought about a slow but steady change in punk rock. With the advent of heavy metal and punk rock bands an explosion of new rock genres emerged. The change was started by three bands from New York. The New York Dolls, the Dictators and the Ramones started a new trend that quickly spread throughout Europe and the rest of the world. It slowly caught on in the US and when it finally did the hardcore form of punk rock became a national expression for millions of teens and young adults for the next two decades.

Hip-Hop is a cultural movement that emerged from the dilapidated South Bronx, New York in the early 1970’s. The area’s mostly African American and Puerto Rican residents originated this uniquely American musical genre and culture that over the past four decades has developed into a global sensation impacting the formation of youth culture around the world. The South Bronx was a whirlpool of political, social, and economic upheaval in the years leading up to the inception of Hip-Hop. The early part of the 1970’s found many African American and Hispanic communities desperately seeking relief from the poverty, drug, and crime epidemics engulfing the gang dominated neighborhoods. Hip-Hop proved to be successful as both a creative outlet for

With the economic decline and availability of jobs with upward movement, a culture of youths formed in Britain that challenged the ideals and cultural norms of the generations that came before them. A consistent movement from traditional society through youth subcultures brings light through the eyes of the musicians that describe their generation’s feelings of homelessness in an era filled with unemployment, low wages, and violence. The insurgence of the counterculture movement, poor economic conditions, and the commercialization of previous Rock and Roll music in Britain directly led to the punk subculture because it allowed youths to speak up about their conditions and frustrations through an easily understood and accessible medium while maintaining a different stance than their predecessors.

As someone walks over the grates in the sidewalk, they can feel the wind rush up from the subway cars flying through the tunnels. While they continue walking down the street and looking at all the different people that they pass, they can smell the hotdogs being cooked in the food truck. In the distance, they hear a siren weaving through the congested narrow streets of this busy city. New York City is a one of a kind type of place. It is the only place in the world where so many different cultures and backgrounds are all in one place. Along with the multitudes of different types of people and cultures, New York City truly is the city that never sleeps. The city that never sleeps, New York City, is full sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and feels.

Throughout Hanif Kureishi’s novel, The Buddha of Suburbia, there is a focus on the emergence of the punk scene in London during the 1970s. The first obvious encounter we have with punk in the novel appears on page 129, when Karim and Charlie go to the Nashville and see their first punk band. The Nashville is a popular venue where many punk bands got their start, and a lot of famous bands, such as the Sex Pistols, performed. Karim describes the scene that they come upon with a great detailed description of the outlandish appearances of both the audience and the band members. He also describes the unusual way they are acting, the aggressive way they are dancing and the abuse between the band and audience. Though his attention is mainly on the emergence of the