In this sense Dickens' art and the city were entwined, the city gave his stories life. G.K. Chesterton (Quoted in Benjamin 1983: 60) implies that Dickens was a flaneur by suggesting he drifted through the city, eyes wide open.strong "Whenever he had done drudging, he had no other resource but drifting, and he drifted over half London… Dickens did not stamp these places on his mind; he stamped his mind on these places." Dickens expressed the phenomena of the industrial age city like no one before him. He used the city as both an inspiration for his novels and as a setting.
Both Baudelaire and Dickens expressed urban life in new ways. The appearance of larger cities in Europe in the nineteenth century demanded new ways of expression through art. The large, industrial, city was a new phenomenon and needed to be represented in a new way.strong Hence, ground-breaking art often came out of such cities as Paris and London. Gilloch (1996: 133) argues that, "the city creates and demands a new mode of representation, a new artistic sensibility and practice, corresponding to the transformed perception of the urban environment." The city became the place of modern life and a new way of living needed a new kind of expression. Baudelaire saw the poet as a hero in his battle to "articulate the modern" (Gilloch 1996: 150). In this sense avant-garde art often appears out of the city due to necessity, as pioneering styles and techniques are often the only way to express certain aspects of city life.
Kazin (1991: 130-31) explains that New York in the 1940s was the center of a new style of painting called abstract expressionism.
In New York, abstract expressionism made the city, “the capital of modern art”… The new painting was wonderful in the subversive colors and rhythms that breathed the variety and excitement of New York, a town where native sons notoriously gape in wonder and feel like recent arrivals.
The colorful abstract expressionist painting mirrors the hustle and bustle and excitement of the New York lifestyle. It is a form of painting or representation inspired by city living. Additionally, the city is a place where like minded artists can find each other, help each other and use each other to produce pioneering, avant-garde art.
Nick Cave is an Australian artistic icon. In his early days of making avant-garde punk music he lived in two cities and played in two separate bands. He resided in Melbourne in the seventies and played in a band called The Boys Next Door. The band redefined punk music in Australia: "They were trouble: private school yobbos who refused to grow up, but whose career would be a matter of shaping this juvenile refusal into sophisticated refusal. They transformed yob punk into urbane art" (Wark 1999: 91).
However, the Melbourne punk scene became all too familiar and as with many artists before him Cave needed something new: a new scene, a new landscape and ultimately new inspiration. In 1980 Cave moved to London and formed a new band called The Birthday Party. At that time London was in recession and cultural depression. Wark (1999: 91) writes that, "Cave lived in dismal squat... Gigs were few, but the band were not entirely without friends."
The fact that Cave and his music were not welcomed in London but he still managed to find a small number of fans and friends illustrates the way cities can provide an audience even for the most eccentric, out of favour, act. Cave's move to London shows the way in which cities act as a place of anonymity and in turn help in the process of recreation both artistically and personally.
His move to London, although difficult at first, ultimately gave him a new life, new music and a new crowd. Nick Cave is in many ways an avant garde artist: he writes songs, he writes books, is an actor and a poet. The city is a place where his art is heard and appreciated. Wark (1999: 93) eloquently suggests that, "His songs were not representations of violence, death, eros and chaos, they were expressions of a kind of inchoate experience at the threshold of subjectivity. They were not meant to be performed for an audience but with one." Cave is an artist who grew out of the city. He lived in cultural exile, and through sheer hard work implanted his music upon the people of London. He performed "with the audience" and represented themes in new ways. The city is a place where avant-garde ideas can be easier expressed and where artistic change and development is often more easily facilitated.
Nick Cave is just one example of a musician producing pioneering, "new" music in the city. In fact, there is a definite link between new genres of music and the city. Blues originated in New Orleans and it is where classic Blues Clubs still are; Nashville is the home of country music; Chicago and New York are the two key cities in jazz music; New York has also been the focal point for new styles of rock and roll; and lastly, Los Angeles and New York are the home cities of hip hop and hip hop culture. Artists and fans stick together in the city; they form clubs and open specialized bars.
