Unit 12 - The 1970s and the Middle East

Understanding through Music

Think About It

Country Roads is a very famous song, and it can still be heard around the world.

Have you heard this song before?

What kind of landscape is he describing?

Would you like to live in a place like that?

The Middle East Geography Song is a rather strange song.

Did it help you remember the countries in the Middle East?

Understanding Through Art

Graffiti means writing or drawing on a wall or a public surface, usually without permission. In the late 1960s and 1970s, paint in spray cans became cheap. Around the same time, the New York City subway and police began to have money problems so graffiti became common in that city's subways and trains. Although most people thought that the graffiti looked ugly, some people began to consider it a style of public art. A few talented "graffiti artists" became famous using nicknames like Futura 2000, Lady Pink and Taki 183. Words could become written in different ways, such as "Wildstyle" or "Bubble graffiti.” People still disagree about whether graffiti is the destruction of public property or if it is a kind of art.

Watch a photo show at:

https://www.wnyc.org/story/photo-show-celebrates-graffiti-tagged-train-cars-1970s-new-york-city/

These are photographs of three New York subway trains from the 1970s shown in The Bronx Museum of the Arts. What do you think? Does graffiti ruin public property, or is it art? Would you feel the same way if this graffiti was written across a building that you owned?