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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Exploring the iceberg
In her works, the artist Grada Kilomba deals with the post-colonial condition, trauma and memory. Schirn Mag spoke to her about aspects of the...
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Copy, overwrite, copy again
Anyone who rented a movie after 1976 would have done so on VHS. However, the video tape’s history goes back much further, and is closely connected to...
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Downtown 81
Message in a bottle from the 1980s, wandering the streets of New York with Jean-Michel Basquiat. The film Downtown 81 was shot before Basquiat’s big...
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Jazz, Bebop and Basquiat
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s record collection is said to have contained some 3,000 LPs. In particular Jazz and Bebop had a huge influence on the artist.
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The political force of films
The SCHIRN MAG presents five outstanding films, which do not only deal with racism in the USA, but do also grab its history by the scruff of the neck...
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Basquiat's Legacy Today
Accompanying the exhibition “Basquiat. Boom for Real,” a panel discussion will be held at the SCHIRN’s CROWN CLUB on April 12. Taking as their...
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Freeform spontaneous
Gonjasufi is on the road a lot: As a singer, DJ, actor and also as a yoga teacher. He will perform at SCHIRN AT NIGHT on April 7. The SCHIRN MAG...
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Basquiat in fashion
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s outfits were a permanent composition of opposites. How the young artist became the muse of fashion designers and a role model...
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Basquiat and the Beats
Words, signs and symbols. Jean-Michel Basquiat's pieces are truly suffused with fragments of text. One of his most important sources of inspiration...