New York Youth
New York is a city of originals, and a city of excess. In the midst of the excess, there are also those who are extremely minimal in taste, and they carry this to an excess. It’s all about statements and gimmicks, but at the same time, New Yorkers are some of the most discerning citizens of the world. This means that with the flash that can capture anyone’s attention, there also has to be a solid core of talent and inspiration behind everything. This doesn’t mean that everything here is the best, only that there are enough people here with excellent taste who expect the best. This kind of expectation leads to some very high quality in music and art.
There is also excellence in hospitality and accommodation, and five star New York hotels have a tendency to make their guests think that these lodgings are the industry’s standard. There is always a sense of splendor and extravagance, and all done with impeccable taste. It should impress, because this is the city, after all, that gives birth to bands like Sonic Youth. Not that there are many bands like them, and even their imitators have a tendency to give up the initial inspiration for new artistic directions of their own.
Sonic Youth is definitive in both sound and ethos. The DIY, do-it-yourself, aesthetic that characterizes so many alternative music groups, reached a kind of peak in the band’s early days, and still defines much of what they do. Their music is as much guitar noise as it is formally innovative, drawing on influences like John Cage, to make this group an experiment that has done very well in 3 decades. They continue to play and make new work together, as well as venturing off into some remarkable side projects. This is a New York original, with a terrific combination of excess and restraint, coupled with a constant sense and talent for innovation.