Disco, Punk, Hip-Hop, New Wave and noise: The music scene of New York in the 1970s and 1980s was a source of inspiration for Jean-Michel Basquiat – and he himself was part of it.
While the stars danced to disco music with glitz and glamor at Studio 54, the underground scene in Lower Manhattan partied in the Mudd Club to the sounds of Punk, Post-Punk and New Wave – among them Jean-Michel Basquiat. He regularly appeared at the Mudd Club either as a DJ or as a clarinetist with his band Gray.
The SCHIRN Soundtrack captures the mood of the time. It embraces Disco, Hip Hop, Punk, Post-Punk and Pop as well as Jazz and New Wave – all music genres that were integral to 1980s New York and was produced there.
Songs by Grandmaster Flash, Billie Holiday and Sonic Youth
Musicians like Grandmaster Flash or Esther Phillips evoke the atmosphere of the underground scene of Lower Manhattan in the early 1980s. Songs by Public Image Ltd. and David Bowie inspired Jean-Michel Basquiat’s music, as did the Jazz sounds of Billie Holiday or Duke Ellington. And in “Nevermind” by Sonic Youth, Basquiat’s name even features right at the beginning. The band from New York knew him personally. The songs of Lou Reed and John Cale, for their part, laud the work ethic of their discoverer and champion Andy Warhol, who was a close friend of Basquiat and with whom he collaborated for a long time.
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