History

Some people think of all graffiti as immoral or crude, and sometimes they would be right. But to call all graffiti offensive and inappropriate can not be justified. Graffiti is a form of art, and like any form of art, it can be just as amazing as it can be trashy.  The streets and alleys of New York City and suburban Philadelphia - not the safest places to be today, or in the 1960's. Graffiti began as a simple thing. Gang members would spray-paint the name of their gang onto the sides of buildings to "mark their territory". Nobody called it art, nobody even called it cool. It was simply a way to let people know who was in charge of the area.  But gangs weren't the only ones using graffiti to get a message across. Political activists often thought it a good idea to paint on buildings for the world to know their opinion. They were simply making a statement, just like all artists want to do. By 1971, there were hundreds of thousands of different graffiti artists walking the streets of New York City and Philadelphia. The artists weren't trying to hurt anyone, they were only trying to add a little bit of culture to the everyday city environment. Finally, a long newspaper article was written about the effect of graffiti and different people's opinions. Needless to say, most people weren't too happy about people "expressing themselves" on public property, especially not the owners.  The years 1971 to 1974, graffiti's "boom era". Graffiti took a turn for the better. Artists now decided that the quality of their art was a lot more important than how much art they put up. However, style and creativity weren't enough. Artists had to figure out how to distinguish their graffiti from other artist's. Artists had to get creative with their signatures and ideas. And that's exactly what they did. Graffiti got more elaborate everyday, with new styles and designs being introduced by every artist on the streets. But it wasn't just the kind of pictures they painted, it was where they put them up. Artists started spray-painting on train cars and billboards.  Graffiti reached a peak of popularity in 1975. This is when artists would put up anything they could fit wherever they could fit it. But the city was going bankrupt, artists couldn't afford to maintain their work, and it began to fall apart. By 1980, graffiti was struggling to stay alive. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) was cleaning train cars and buildings as fast as they could. Graffiti became more violent in the late 1980's. Drug dealers ran the streets, which came to be a big problem when graffiti artists got in their way. Stealing paint cans also became a big problem. This is when the laws changed. The law now required all paint be stored in a locked cage, and under no circumstances be sold to any minors. A lot of artists quit the business because of the big boost in security.

In the 1990's, graffiti spread across the world, not to mention into most suburban neighborhoods. Teenagers, both black and white, were constantly getting arrested for graffiti. The problem had developed in most cities and small towns as well. New York City officials have gone so far as to hire high school students to act as undercover agents to catch graffiti artists in the act. But why? Why do officials try SO hard to stop something so inspirational? Graffiti should more be thought of as free decoration than vandalism. It adds taste and color to the everyday routine.

As hard as policemen and different officials try to stop graffiti, they can never get rid of it. Just as quickly as officials come up with ways to stop graffiti, artists find a way around it. After all, graffiti, in some form, has been around since the beginning of time. And there's no putting a stop to a history that deep.