Street Beat: The Inextricable Link Between Music and StreetArt

It is obvious that street art, in its many forms, has become inextricably linked with the world of music. Not that it is unusual for the worlds of art and music to come together, just take a look back to the involvement of Andy Warhol the Velvet Underground, both in a management role and the iconic banana album sleeve, to see that they both serve each other. But the scene around graffiti and street art seemed to give birth to a whole new generation of artists that were inspired by music, who then fed their imagery back into the world of music. Two of the most well-known names in modern street art have been associated with the rock and roll side of music, the first being Banksy. The legendary street artist has been known to paint punk characters with slogans, while his work has appeared on several record releases, most notably that of UK band Blur. 

Shepard Fairey, Punk Portraits

Shepard Fairey has often created images of punk icons, as can be seen in the SID: Superman is Dead exhibition he did with photographer Dennis Morris. Fairey also created his own Obey records label and has created many album sleeves for a variety of bands,such as Billy Idols reworking of the classic David Bowie/Alladin Sane portrait.

D*Face inspired by hip-hop and punk, along with skateboarding and the DIY culture of zines, who is now creating album sleeves for Christina Aguilera and making portraits of dead musicians such as Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Amy Winehouse for his 2014 exhibition Scars & Stripes- which goes to highlight the importance between likeminded individuals from the art and music worlds coming together for the right reasons, both to be inspired by the art forms. But likewise, as Banksy  pointed out, you have to pay the bills and if someone offers £75,000 for your images, which is what the Blur album image generated, one can fully understand an artist saying yes even if they don’t like the music!

Jean Michael Basquait- K-Rob & Ramzalee