I Hear Music in the Streets maps New York City's most electrically charged two decades through the lenses of over sixty photographers, constructing a collective portrait of the subcultures, communities, and sounds that defined the city from 1969 to 1989.
About This Book
New York between 1969 and 1989 was a city of radical transformation — economically precarious, culturally explosive. I Hear Music in the Streets moves through that era not as a linear history but as eight thematic chapters, each trained on a distinct community: the Bronx's block-party origins, the Latin music scene, disco's rise, gay pride culture, subway life, and more. The photographers gathered here — among them Peter Hujar, Bruce Davidson, Susan Meiselas, Stephen Shames, and Arlene Gottfried — worked from inside these worlds, not above them. Music historian Tim Lawrence provides the connective tissue, grounding the imagery in the social and sonic history of New York's streets, clubs, and neighbourhoods.
Key Features
- 192 pages of documentary photography spanning eight thematic chapters on New York music subcultures
- Photography by Arlene Gottfried, Peter Hujar, Stephen Shames, Bruce Davidson, Susan Meiselas, Joseph Rodriguez, and over 60 other photographers
- Text by music historian Tim Lawrence, author of Love Saves the Day, Hold On to Your Dreams, and Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor
- Chapters include "The Bronx Boys," "The Oddballs," "Black Power," "The Pride," "The Subways," "Our Latin Thing," "The Beach," and "Days of Disco"
- Published by La Fabrica, 2016
What You'll Discover
- How New York's music subcultures from hip-hop to disco were inseparable from specific urban spaces — the Bronx, the subway, the beach — and how photographers documented that spatial identity
- The role of community and identity politics in shaping the city's music scenes, examined through chapters on Black Power, Latin culture, and LGBTQ+ pride
- The breadth of documentary photography practice across this era, from intimate portraiture to street reportage, as seen across more than sixty contributors
- A model for how photographic archives can be curated thematically rather than chronologically to reveal cultural meaning rather than mere sequence
About the Author
Guillermo M. Ferrando is credited as author of this volume. The book's historical and critical text is contributed by Tim Lawrence, a music historian and author of the bestselling titles Love Saves the Day (2004), Hold On to Your Dreams (2009), and Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor (2016).
Specifications
- Format: Hardcover
- Pages: 192
- Dimensions: 24 x 31 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9788410024687
- Publisher: La Fabrica
- Publication Date: 2016
Perfect For: Photography collectors and historians interested in documentary practice, students of urban culture and music history, and readers drawn to New York's subcultural legacy of the 1970s and 1980s.