I finished watching the Andy Warhol Diaries the other day, and then started to notice a lot of interesting questions from younger people, or those who weren't there. So I am going to try to describe it here [to the best of my ability].
Back then, keep in mind there were a LOT of young people in lower Manhattan. And everyone pretty much knew of everyone else at the very least. Within the larger scene, there were smaller circles, that all crossed over with other ones. Think of high school, but without the bullying. And everyone did something. In fact, everyone did many things. Musicians were also painters, and painters were writers, and writers were DJs, and so on. You were always known more publicly for whatever was your major activity, but amongst friends, there were always a myriad of other things you did. And opportunities were plentiful, so just showing up at a party one night and running into a friend, might lead to writing an article, or DJing at a club for a special night, or being in a music video. You get the idea. If you were broke, all you had to do was show up, and chances are somebody needed you to do something that would pay the next month's rent.
OK, the famous. Andy is always the best example. Everyone met Andy Warhol. Some people were acquainted, some had friendships, but everyone had a story. This was the same for so many of the rich and famous who spent their time in the downtown clubs as that was the height of cool back then. You went for the energy, for the scene, to be seen there...to experience the unique, the new. [This was before being "unique" became a buzz term for simply being "trendy". We loathed the word "trendy", because downtown was about invention, not following the latest.] So the rich and famous came out to play, and we were all chuffed to show them who we were.
It was also a numbers game. There were so many of us, and everyone was connected to everyone else, who were ultimately connected to somebody who could give you a leg up in your chosen art. Therefore the number of our circles who became famous was a large amount of people. Many of whom know each other, and many of whom are still friends with many of us, who might have already had our 15 minutes years earlier.
So for those of you who are too young to know, or were not part of the scene, I hope this makes some sense. It made sense to us, a long time agol
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