The “failed” band Chris Stein said defined New York: “That was a good thing”
From the moment you’re old enough to form your own artistic ideas, you’re fed an idea that New York, is the ultimate land of opportunity.
Just think of all the song lyrics that tell you so. Frank Sinatra said, “You better believe it, folks / You always make it there, you make it anywhere”, Alicia Keys proudly exclaimed New York as a “Concrete jungle where dreams are made of / There’s nothin’ you can’t do” while Talking Heads proudly described it as “the place”.
But, New York is in fact, like any other city in the world. It has grimy and at times corrupt underbelly, and despite artistic advertising, is in fact a place where people can go and fail. It isn’t a city ready made to make everyone’s dreams come true, but a place for those who have just missed the mark to be constantly reminded of opulent success as an idea.
This paradox is represented through the city’s bands who actually made a success. The icons of the Big Apple music scene are clean cut commercial cut outs, ready to be wheeled out of the bright lights of Broadway. Instead, they are squallors of the downtown area, living in the shadows of the city’s skyscrapers and inspiring those who share the space with them.
The Ramones, The Velvet Underground, Talking Heads, Blondie, The Strokes, all represented the obscurity, rather than the opulence of the city and garnered massive global success because of it. Somehow, they went on to represent the true version of New York City and cut through the glossy advertising.
Yes, so much about them was inspiring and alluring, but in an attainable way. They rose to fame by creating innovative, yet somewhat accessible art that did away with the idea that everything about New York City was superior to those who existed in its exterior. The success of this idea ran closely alongside failure, knowing that innovation doesn’t always land with the right audience, having seen many bands come and go, falling victim to that idea.
In fact, Chris Stein labelled a band as the definitive group in this respect. A band who existed in Blondie and Talking Heads’ community, but experienced failure in a way New York stories like to neglect.
Stein explained, “The [New York] Dolls were really important to the whole New York scene,” adding, “but in a kind of negative way too, because they went out and they failed. Because nobody was ready for them. So that kind of insulated the New York scene a little bit. Everybody was like, “Oh, well, you know, why bother? Nothing’s going to happen with this ever. And maybe that was a good thing.”
The stories of grand New York success often leave out the underlying pressure that comes with that. What The New York Dolls highlighted is the creative liberation that comes with failure. Once you remove the limitations of expectation, you can be free to create music that doesn’t adhere to any pre-assigned conventions and instead, innovates the arts in an immeasurable way. Something, all the great New York bands, achieved.
