The Warhol Economy: How Fashion, Art, and Music Drive New York City - New Edition

She is very knowledgable about her topic.But again, the fact that she completely takes out theater and dance out of artistic equation on New York really hurts the overall comprehension.

Wonder why New York City is such a great town? Read this book, and you'll understand. The author explores why corporations choose NYC for their employees. I get it, and so should you.

A good read to get a general overview of the creative class in NYC

Elizabeth Currid’s Warhol Economy thoroughly explains the intricate concept of culture, art and consumption in New York City. Through personal narratives, qualitative data, and historical events, Currid allows readers to get a critical looking into a new economic paradigm in many cities across the nation. She identifies creative capital as the new urban economy, where class is determined by one’s ability to produce commodities and have them widely accepted as valuable. Borrowing the findings of many noted scholars, such as Richard Florida, Currid describes how a new creative class came to dominating New York’s “Downtown Scene” and contributed to a new cultural economy that had not been seen before.Currid’s writing method was simple. She would introduce each chapter with an anecdote, some from her own experiences living in Lower Manhattan, and others from events in history, such as the rise and fall of Jean-Michel Basquiat. In chapter one, for example, she recalls the life of Basquiat, explaining how his creativity in a changing urban economy took him from a artsy vagabond to a rich painter famous painter of his generation. Furthermore, she explains that cultural consumption around the time of Basquiat’s ascension was a new wave of urban economy, where factory and manufacturing in the city was passé. So, Basquiat’s fame, she argues was symptomatic of a changing economy where cultural products like then arts became a lucrative tool in attaining economic success. Currid was also making the argument that the place in which these cultural products were being produced and sold were crucial hubs that would perpetuate the new economic system.Throughout the book, Currid argues that Lower Manhattan: the Village, East Village, Lower East Side, and SoHo, were the centers of the new urban economy. She argues that creative people, such as artists, would flock to these centers in order to seek inspiration, social acceptance, a fun time, and a place to comfortably be “creative”. In the second chapter Currid provides another anecdote about the photographer, Maripol and how this photographer would look for the next “hot” style in fashion, not on the runway but in the Lower Manhattan dance clubs. Again, Currid explicitly identifies cultural capital as a driving force of creativity in the urban center, while referencing historical instances that validates her findings. Currid emphasizes her Maripol narrative by giving readers a brief history lesson in the Lower Manhattan art scene. Explaining that political and socialists sentiments were primarily printed in New York’s downtown in the early 20th century, Currid posits that writings of expression became an important commodity to the Lower Manhattan art culture. By bringing up the history of Lower Manhattan, Currid drives home the concept of place being a contributing factor in the creative consumer centers of the city.Another interest facet of Warhol Economy is in how it describes the city of New York as an exemplar and outlier from other formerly industrial cities in the United States. Currid makes it plain: New York is not like Detroit or Pittsburgh, and it is quite remarkably different because of its ability to rebound from crisis. Currid claims that New York was able to reinvent itself because of its “human capital”, where individuals engaged in professional services and less standardized production. In a nice way, she explains that New York’s capacity to export cultural products, such as media and film, are in essence leaps and bounds ahead of other formerly industrial cities. Currid intelligently sneaks in graphs to prove her point as well, showing that NYC reigned supreme as having had professional services at the highest percent of their workforce by the year 2000. Further, another graph she rolled out was one that basically proved the Big Apple to have 4 times the concentration of art than any other American City. Graphs proved to be a useful tool in presenting empirical data, as well as breaking up Currid’s sometime repetitive message of how superior New York was in the art scene compared to other American cities.Another important aspect of Currid’s work is her vivid description of the “Tastemaker”. Currid describes this creative sect as individuals who serve two large roles: trendsetter and trend consumer. Further, she considers the Tastemaker to be faceless, an unnamed women on the dance floor wearing an outfit off the beaten path, or a person who frequent the nightlife scene, looking for an open gallery, looking for a new experience. These creative Tastemakers are the ones who decide what culture is “cool” and when, they set the trends, and set the styles. Currid ties Tastemakers into her larger argument of creative consumption by explaining their presence as an important tool in networking and economic success in the art world. So without Tastemakers, there would be no Warhol Economy.Lastly the notion and age-old saying, “it’s not what you know, but who you know” is used by Currid in order to explain how artists find success from networks and not necessarily merit. She begins chapter 4 by telling a story of how she came to knowing famed clothing designer Marc Jacobs. She begins the tale by talking about being lost in Downtown, New York. She kindly asked a man where Bleeker Street was, looking to find one of Jacobs clothing boutiques. To her surprise, the man happened to be a good friend of Marc’s, and had the capacity to call up Marc to coordinate an interview between her and him for her book. These connections, Currid asserts, are ones that create and continue careers for artists and creative marketers. Being able to find those who can propel your career and offer advice or valuable contacts is the difference between success and mediocrity. In sum, in Warhol’s economy the idea-driven person wins. In Warhol’s economy the creative thinker, weird dresser, underground art-dealer wins. However, the opportunity to take advantage of the creative market depends on where a person is located and the time they find themselves in. It is a unique marriage of paradigm and opportunity. New York City served as a stage with which creative minds converged and hustled amid a time of huge money flow. Currid cleverly uses each chapter as an easel, painting a narrative of New York culture and social mobility.

There's something deeply truthful about the way in which the author weaves her brilliant observations with disparate scientific and sociological findings into a concise, well-written book. Some of the content may come across as vapid or superficial, especially to those far removed from the hierarchical system that does in fact rule New York.It is something that I've personally struggled with, this genuine desire to have access to the "gatekeepers" of the city without sacrificing my dignity or spiritual "evolvement". It's somewhat counterintuitive to seek the approval and companionship of certain people simply for their power and access instead of cultivating yours on your own. But this city is ruled by only a handful of social networks. Manhattan demands an unparalleled level of social navigation and mutual reciprocity from its inhabitants, to engage in a sort of political game. At the end of the day, it is only a game -being opportunistic with grace, charisma, resilience, and integrity isn't a sin, it's a form of survival- ridiculous or not.

Huffingtonpost.com says it best! "Interviews with bold-faced names including designers Diane Von Furstenberg and Zac Posen, musicians The Talking Heads, and club owner of the legendary CBGB's, Hilly Kristal, make The Warhol Economy an engaging cross between the academic and the gossipy-like an intellectualized Page Six of The New York Post."

Good book but a tad bit tedious. She enlightened me as to how the creative community is a vital economic consideration and not merely a luxurious by-product of economic conditions.The general purpose of the book is to introduce the reader to a different view of the creative community's role in economics, its origins, catalysts and catalysts of decline. She de-emphasizes the importance of public policy in breeding the necessary conditions while doing so.This is also valuable as a NYC travel guide, a lesson in economics, history and urban planning as well as an index of some of the most interesting names in the NYC creative community.That said, unless you were born yesterday or have never spent any time in a city, going to bars, listening to music, reading books and meeting people, some of this information will seem obvious and redundant. People meet people in clubs and bars, we all know that. You're more likely to run into people in a walking city than a driving city, obvious.I appreciate her thoroughness, but I think this book could have made drove home its excellent message in a book probably 2/3rds the length of this. A good book, but get the cliff notes.

For those interested in reading about New York's cultural scene purely out of interest to those studying the arts, creativity and the cultural economy.