The
Subcultures of Urban Decay
Photograph
by Robert McFarland.
The efforts of
activists and tenants to save buildings or replace
lots with gardens occasionally interrupted a
streetscape that was otherwise littered with
discarded and rusted household appliances; hulls of
cars that were stripped of tires, engines, and seats;
and mounds of bricks where buildings once stood. The
heroin and cocaine drug economy earned Loisaida the
reputation as "the drug capital of America."
For an emerging subculture of disaffected middle-class
youth, however, the social-cultural landscape of
cynicism, chaos and social decline inspired a
belligerent cultural critique of mainstream and
increasingly commodified society. When the
subcultures of punk and related underground scenes
developed in New York in the 1970s they flourished in
the landscape of the East Village amidst the
abundance of signs and symbols of urban decay.
In the U.S., the urban
underground consisted of several loosely connected
subcultures, including "glam" or "glitter"
rock and, later, various hybrids such as "New
Wave," that evolved from or in reaction to the
British punk movement. Underground subcultures,
especially punk, were characterized by symbolic
violence and aggression articulated in rituals played
out in a suitable environment of decay and despair
that reinforced a stylized notion of alienation.
Cynicism, then, was a progressive creative force and
punk and other underground subcultures extolled and
celebrated social disorder, chaos and decay through
music, fashion, and related components of style
rooted in the urban experience.
Punk and underground
style and music extolled themes of despair and
destruction that were emblematic of their mainstream
critique and, at the same time, derivative of
contemporary social conditions in cities. New York
City in the 1970s proved inspirational and the East
Village in particular provided a compatible
environment for a subculture constructed symbolically
around images of disheartenment and violence.
By the close of the
1970s growing awareness of underground music, art and
other cultural practices gave way to the formation of
a "downtown scene." The downtown scene was
defined by the production and consumption of
the various forms of style concentrated below 14th
Street. Downtown became associated with multitude
forms of cultural experimentation, most of which were
played out in the important and confined space of the
nightclubs, where subcultural styles were imitated
and eventually commercialized. Club regulars
fabricated attitudes and creative dress around
stereotypes of pimps, hustlers, and rock stars, such
as the New York Dolls. In director Slava Tsukerman’s
1982 sci-fi/fantasy film about downtown "new
wave" subculture, Liquid Sky, the night
club is featured as the central space where men and
women adorn makeup and costume to pose and be seen,
to network, find drugs, meet sexual partners and
dance. The Bowery’s CBGB’s, The Mudd Club
and Danceteria (the later two located downtown but
not in the East Village) and Club 57 on St. Mark’s
Place were the night clubs most influential in
defining the underground scene.
Club spaces with their
flair for the exotic and shocking were representative
of a larger cultural transformation that transpired
in tandem with the physical and social decline of the
East Village and Loisaida in particular. As the
aesthetic of urban decay was adopted by the
established and mainstream culture industries the
hard edges of the East Village identity were softened.
Links (click to follow)
Here is a site about the emergence of punk
in America.
World Wide Punk, an internet punk directory.
The Quintessential Punk, a short aricle.
Click here for links related to the New York Dolls.
Click here for links related to (the band)
Television.
Click here for links related to the Ramones.
Click here for links related to Blondie.
Here is a chronological history of every
Blondie show.
Click here for links related to (the band) Talking
Heads.
The Velvet Underground's live performances and
rehearsals.
Click here to visit CBGB.com.
Do you want to know about the
history of women in punk music?
Click here for more about the motion picture Liquid
Sky.
Click here for more information about Slava
Tsukerman.
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____________________________________
The book upon which this
web site is based,
Selling
the Lower East Side,
is available
directly through 
or order through 
Site design © 2000:
Kurt
Reymers and Dan
Webb.
(University at Buffalo, Department of
Sociology)
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