Isaac – your preamble and question raise very interesting questions. What we’re getting is an inversion of the demographic situation that contributed very strongly to creating Hiphop and the underground arts that you’re alluding to. Considering the fact that they have become the predominant modes of art used by youth, who knows what the erosion of that demography will bring about?

Young people already look beyond their localities for artists to model after in the broad sense, but without local influence it’s very difficult to move from, say, emulating in your basement to performing on stage. I certainly know that I depended on my personal network to show me how to make money and a living as a DJ. No matter how much I may have practiced my technique by myself, I could not have entered “the market” without those local examples. In places like NYC where the real estate prices in the core are high, look to the peripheries for those creatives. It’s an interesting situation where they might service the city, but live outside of it – not unlike corporate commuters. The physical urban infrastructure and the implications/effects of those on artistic practice can’t be beat, but the prices certainly can.

Manu – I checked out your blog and did a bit of translating. We agree on more than one point, including the importance of place in art. In fact, many of the interrogative positions that you occupy in problematizing Rock and Music were the same ones that I launched my study into Hiphop and the City. If you’re interested, definitely check out last week’s blog. It got a bit heated, but there was good discussion that you might find useful!

I think it is a good way to star explaining how cities have a strong creative power.

How so? The answer is actually in direct relation to your very question at the end about “the potential fallout of less engaged youth.” There appears to be a correlation between such relationships, increased propensity to achieve positive outcomes and the opposite for negative outcomes, especially for young people aged 16-24 who are out-of-work and out-of-school.

I believe, the problem also lies in what you seem to be suggesting about the effects of a decreased ability for individuals to pursue work in the arts. Viewing contributions to the arts as “funding,” and instead as “investment” is something I also find problematic. However, I am also concerned with the level of significance “market forces” may have on certain creative types ability to pursue their craft when cities face high costs-of-living and demographic changes that follows.

In other words, if artists who wish to pursue their craft struggle to do so because it is not the easiest sell, nor involve the lowest-risk for businesses that could “invest,” what would that mean for the need of apprenticeship programs that have shown to help at-risk youth?

A good example I can give is DJing with its long roots to hip-hop and underground arts. In New York City, based on my own observations and informal interviews, it appears quite difficult for most to earn any kind of a living from their performances, unless they are already a household name or engaging in the most commercial form, but even they have a hard time getting a foot in the door. A recent study found that nearly all performing artists struggle to find performance spaces or afford the cost-of-living here.

How will we then be able to find professional musicians and artists to model for young people who wish to create music and art if the “market” does not even allow for such professionals to survive? New York City has seen significant demographic changes over the past 10-15 years where we have for the first time seen an increase in the white population, significantly increased costs-of-living, and neighborhoods that are changing at a lightning’s pace.

If New York City, at a grassroots level, is not able to support its own residents’ interest in pursuing arts because of “market forces” what are the potential consequences for young people who grow up under such conditions, and New York City’s as a center for new forms of art?