Golden Age of Graffiti

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The Golden Age of Graffiti took place in New York City from about 1974 – 1984. It was influenced by early writers who picked a "tag" and added a number such as their street. For example, Frank 204. During the time, New York City was the only place that was getting "hit" so much. Graffiti writers mainly expressed their talents on the subway system because the subway train could transport their name from one end of the city to the other. By mid 1972 all 6,000+ subway cars, according to The New York Times, had graffiti on them. The goal of many writers was to go "All City" or hit each subway line. However, in the 1980s, the MTA began to spend more money cleaning trains, encouraging store owners to lock up their spray paint to prevent shoplifting, protecting train yards, and with the beginning of the crack cocaine epidemic during around 1984, the movement began to fade away as violence became more common and places became more territorial to certain crews. Also, spray paint was required to be locked up in stores under a new law established in 1985. The original painted silver canvases on trains became red which was undesirable to write on and older cars were replaced with new stainless steel cars which could be cleaned easily to perfection. Cleaning or "buffing" was also becoming more common on the subways. By 1989 the subway system was clean. The streets still had a lot of graffiti, though but after the early '90s most of it was cleaned up. New York has never been "bombed" with as much graffiti as it used to since then and probably never ever will be. However, by the time the graffiti movement pretty much died out in New York City it had already spread to the rest of the world.

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