New York, New Music 1980–1986 @ Museum of the City of New York

The music and imagery coming out of NYC in the late 1970s and into the early to mid 1980s has traveled and influenced global street culture probably a million times over. No hyperbole. The combination of music, photography, fashion, dance, hip-hop, break-dancing, graffiti, art... it became a melting pot of what was possible when the gatekeepers of culture were pushed aside and youth culture took over. It was a glorious era.

Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of MTV, when the channel transformed the way we listened to saw music, the Museum of the City of New York is set to open New York, New Music 1980-1986 on June 11, 2021. The exhibition will "highlight diverse musical artists—from Run DMC to the Talking Heads, from Madonna to John Zorn—as a lens to explore the broader music and cultural scene, including the innovative media outlets, venues, record labels, fashion and visual arts centered in New York City in these years." And that is the melting pot right there, a diverse group of young creative and innovative artists all working in the same place at the same time and creating a legacy we think of today as pivotal and important. 


(Janette Beckman. LL Cool J NYC. 1985. Courtesy of the photographer.)