1. The Graffiti Subculture

2. Style Hebdige (1979) Subcultures=noise Recuperation:
1) commodity form: freezes style
2) ideological form: exotic...through media
Intentional communication through commodities
Bricolage
Homology

3. Some Characteristics
Not originally hip hop, and also a punk/metal thing
Cornbread in Philly, 1967
Anonymous city, we are here, this is who we are
“Bombers”; media called “writers”
Criminalization; “Broken Windows”; Vandal Squad
Art/Commerce vs. Bombing the system
Underground v. Fame...
Public v. Private Space...advertising and marketing?
Space as a commodity...

5. Terms
Tags: signature
Quantity vs. quality
Throwups: 1-2 minute, name w/ color fill-in and outline
Piece: short for masterpiece (quality); your name
Burner: a good piece, full car or big wall
Bombing: getting your name everywhere, going out to paint
Wild Style: for writers to read, own language/communication
All City or “up”:
King or queen
Toy
Writer's Bench (a battle, a burn w/ pieces)
Racking paint

7. Macdonald (2001) Ethnographic study of UK and NYC graff writers
Looks at “structure” of graff subculture using the “career” concept
Financial reward is translated into symbolic capital: FAME, recognition, status, respect
Subcultural capital?
Graff as work and lifestyle
Driven by competition to get up
Graff name and style as brand or logo

8. Macdonald Cont'd Style is central (don't bite!)
Trains as moving screens
Reclaiming corporate spaces
The more dangerous, the more respect
CAREER:
1. Make a name
2. Be recognized
3. Retire (most subcultural capital; paid dues)
4. Go legal and “halls of fame”

9. Style Wars (1983)
PBS documentary, dir. Tony Silver with Henry Chalfant
An “opera” on graff writing, but also dance and rapping
NO mention of DJing (shame on you!)
Graff as inter-racial, inter-class, inter-turf, etc.
Subcultural capital v. Economic capital
Art v. Crime; CAP; Writers v. System
Dialectical in this sense

10. Style Wars, Who's In It? Rock Steady Crew Dez (aka DJ Kay Slay)
Kase2 (“king of style”)
Dondi
Zephyr
Skeem
Seen (“godfather of graffiti”)
Futura

11. Castleman (2004) Media's role in shaping public's view of graffiti
Media's role in shaping politics
Lindsay Theory: Graff related to mental health problems
“Graffiti War” of 1972
1973, New York Magazine article, “Graffiti 'Hit' Parade”
Vandals v. Artists
Is the problem graffiti? Is it the system?

12. Upski “Style is the process to an appealing end”
Reinvent your own style
Content: name, originality
Location: maximize public visibility, bomb suburbs/rich, tags/throwups never over pieces
Process: cleverness, risk, use of space... “Who is my audience and how can I possibly move them?”

13. Marc Eckō's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure (2006)
About the game
Australia ban

14. Bomb the System (2002) Dir. Adam Bhala Lough
Mainly done by NYU film students
First fictional graff film since Wild Style
Fame
Commercialism and Galleries
Authenticity
(re)claiming public space

15. From the Comics Establishing of Grandmaster Flash & Furious 5
Battle, leads to the Funky Four + 1
Bobby Robinson and Enjoy Records
Spoonie Gee and Treacherous Three
Mr. Magic, WHBI, first hip hop radio
Big Bank Hank manages Casanova Fly
Race to record rap records...