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NEW YORK, NEW MUSIC: 1980-1986 ON VIEW AT MUSEUM OF CITY OF NEW YORK
June 14, 2021, 5:58.54 pm ET

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Credit: Charlie Ahearn, "Debbie Harry, Fab 5 Freddy, Grandmaster Flash,and Chris Stein,"
1981, Courtesy of the photographer

The Museum of the City of New York is presenting “New York, New Music: 1980-1986,” a new exhibition that revisits the music scene of early 1980s New York City. The exhibition examines this transformative era through the lens of emerging pivotal music genres and the influence they played on New York’s broader cultural landscape.

The exhibition is organized around a series of key “moments” and features more than 350 objects, including video footage, photography, artifacts, and ephemera. such as: photographs by Janette Beckman, Martha Cooper, Joe Conzo, William Coupon, Bob Gruen, Laura Levine, Ebet Roberts, Chris Stein and others; flyers for Beastie Boys; Bad Brains; Sonic Youth; Teenage Jesus; The Feelies; and Gray and DNA at CBGB; an MTV Music Awards Moon Person Award Statul; vinyl records from Madonna, Funky 4+1, Liquid Liquid, and Konk; a Zoot Suit and hat worn by Kid Creole; a t-shirt and other ephemera from Keith Haring and DJ Larry Levan’s “Party of Life” event at Paradise Garage; guitars from Tim Wright, Arto Lindsay and Richard McGuire; and music videos and rare concert footage including Grand Master Flash; Fort Apache Band; Lounge Lizards and Cyndi Lauper.

Visitors will also have the opportunity enjoy some of the quintessential moments in a retro-feeling suburban rec room- inspired space, developed in collaboration with video artists Pat Ivers and Emily Armstrong, the team behind the original lounge for Danceteria in the early 1980s.

The lounge installation features a mix of found footage, video art, and their own archival film of downtown musicians like the Dead Boys, Heartbreakers and Bush Tetras; along with rare early MTV interviews with New York-based artists such as David Johansen, Madonna and RUN DMC, and footage from “The Scott and Gary Show,” a Brooklyn-based public access program, including early performances by Beastie Boys, Butthole Surfers and R Stevie Moore.

In addition, the exhibition will accompanied by film screenings of “After Hours” and “Krush Groove” and a virtual conversation with singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega.

For more information, visit mcny.org

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