View Full Version : Has graffiti tagging lost its traditional meaning and relevance?
I know this may seem like a bit of an oddball random musing by many others in here, but yesterday evening I was viewing a couple of videos on YouTube from one of my favourite channels 'mrmattandmrchay', which is mainly centred around lifts (of which Mr. Matt seems to be quite an expert on), and those videos were centred around a multi-storey car park in his home town of Bracknell, Berkshire, which had been lying idle for many years and inadvertantly degenerated into a state of chronic disrepair and neglect since it was closed in the late 90s, but has recently been refurbished and reopened once again, plus he re-videoed the stairwells, which are now totally devoid of graffiti, and the lift cars had been renewed and finally in full working order again after 20-odd years in the wilderness.
The videos showed cringeworthy scenes of the stairwells (in their previous state prior to the refurb) plastered in an endless salad of graffiti. The older tags (dated 06-07) looked like just ordinary English text, but there were (presumably) later tags that look very similar to most of today's common styles that look like some kind of foreign language and largely difficult to comprehend what they actually read, whose style has seemingly become more commonplace over the past 20-odd years or so, while the older 'plain English' style tags (e.g, that read stuff like 'Person X and person Y woz 'ere', 'Person X 4 person Y', etc) seem to have become much rarer over the past 15 years or so.
In fact, we rarely seem to see as many 'protest' slogans (written in 'plain English') now like I remember seeing when I was a kid, but most graffiti tags around today seem to look very samey in terms of style and intelligibility, and I often wonder if they have now largely lost the meaning and relevance they once had, especially in terms of people voicing their dissatisfaction at the state of the world, etc?
Lenco, what's troubling you right now?
It's been sounding as though you've been looking for a scrap for a few days now.
Lenco, what's troubling you right now?
It's been sounding as though you've been looking for a scrap for a few days now.
Me looking for a scrap? No way José!
Graffiti is one of those 'elephants in the room' that I've been concerned about for donkeys years now, and a longstanding issue that I don't think has ever really been taken seriously enough; not even during the more favourable economic period of the mid 90s through the mid 2000s.
I remember some graffiti in the late 70s on a hoarding sign advertising Polyfilla, which was simply a smug DIY-er looking at an expanse of smooth green wall with the slogan “You can’t see the join!”, but into which some helpful wit had gouged a large jagged groove, then drawn a big arrow pointing to the damage and written: “You need to get your eyes tested, mate!”
Ah yes, these days they just don’t put that sort of thought and effort into vandalism.
You're right; apart from the Banksys of this world, it's mostly very samey-looking, unoriginal, unintelligible and meaningless tripe nowadays.
While even the older-style tags were still unsightly and used to do my nut in almost just the same, at least they were original and (mostly) coherent in what they read and meant.
Okay, if you're just being reactionary, I'm out. I actively fear the world you seem to want, though.
Okay, if you're just being reactionary, I'm out. I actively fear the world you seem to want, though.
So you basically don't give a flying fig about people committing acts of mindless vandalism and believe in an 'anything goes' society then?
Anyway, I'm off for a break from this forum for the next few days.
Okay, if you're just being reactionary, I'm out. I actively fear the world you seem to want, though.
I got you,Blue x
Going back to mrmattandmrchay's videos on YouTube, which centre mostly around lifts and occasionally Urbexing (often linked with old lifts), I find that said channel addresses things in an honest and non-patronising manner, especially in view of the fact that many of Britain's postwar 'new towns' are often much-maligned and the subject of much derision, but in the case of Mr. Matt's (alleged) home town of Bracknell, he has put together some beautifully crafted footage (again, mostly centred around its lifts) documenting his childhood memories of said town and also highlighting (in a lower-key fashion) its extensive regeneration programme over the past decade or so, all of which I've found very interesting and fascinating all along, especially for some random town that I've never actually set foot in.
As for the aforementioned dilapidated, vandal-plagued, graffiti-ridden multi-storey car park that had been lying idle and neglected since the late 90s that has recently been renovated and fully reopened to the general public once again after years of neglect and abandonment, I realise it's (or was) only a minute element of the town of Bracknell and hardly representative of the area as a whole.
That guy (Mr. Matt) is a genius, and his motto is 'quality, not quantity'.:yesyes:
I don't mind graffiti if it's done tastefully. (Banksy) You could say that the street art in Manchester is graffiti, but some of it looks stunning!
You can keep your 'Bradz luvz Chelz 4 ever' type of shite. :lac:
I don't mind graffiti if it's done tastefully. (Banksy) You could say that the street art in Manchester is graffiti, but some of it looks stunning!
You can keep your 'Bradz luvz Chelz 4 ever' type of shite. :lac:
I agree with you Nora.
Though the latter type seems to be getting rarer nowadays, thank God, which I remember being ubiquitous in the 90s and even well into the 2000s, especially on my manor.
No doubt largely eroded by changing habits of youngsters over the past 10-15 years or so, especially the advent of smartphones and social media, which no doubt makes carrying Sharpie pens around with them to randomly tag on the fly much less cool and exciting by comparison.
Ditto for youngsters gathering outside local Spars, Londis's, Co-ops, etc, almost every evening, which also seems to be a rarer sight nowadays (at least in my area).
When I was a cleaner in a factory, I was cleaning the gents' loos one day and found, 'I'd shag the cleaner' scrawled on the cubicle wall. (I think it was a compliment) :roflmao:
Then again, the cleaner before me was male and about 103 years old...:shrug:
You can keep your 'Bradz luvz Chelz 4 ever' type of shite. :lac:
What about "Billy Bob loves Charlene"? In letters three foot high, perhaps in a nice shade of green?
Sorry, that was the first thing that came to my mind :roflmao:
What about "Billy Bob loves Charlene"? In letters three foot high, perhaps in a nice shade of green?
Sorry, that was the first thing that came to my mind :roflmao:
Somebody wrote, 'Kylie (can't actually remember the name, but it might have been Kylie) will you marry me' in massive white letters on one of the motorway bridges..
Some dude defaces an entire bridge in my name and it's a definite, no. :shrug:
Did Kylie say yes though?
What about "Billy Bob loves Charlene"? In letters three foot high, perhaps in a nice shade of green?
Sorry, that was the first thing that came to my mind :roflmao:
I could just imagine such tags back in the late 80s heyday of the (now-fallen) Aussie soap 'Neighbours', when Kylie Minogue played the character Charlene Mitchell/Ramsay, even though I don't actually recall seeing such tags back then. Nor was I fanatical about said show myself, but my younger brother used to watch it religiously back then, as it used to come on BBC 1 straight after CBBC.
Plus it was inadvertently accompanied by the Kylie vs Jason mania in the pop charts in 1988-90, and (love it or hate it), the pinnacle of the SAW (Stock/Aitken/Waterman) era.
God, I'm feeling old now already!
Plus it was inadvertently accompanied by the Kylie vs Jason mania in the pop charts in 1988-90, and (love it or hate it), the pinnacle of the SAW (Stock/Aitken/Waterman) era.
I preferred Kylie's more raunchy stuff...
MyNameIsTerry
06-10-22, 15:49
When I was a cleaner in a factory, I was cleaning the gents' loos one day and found, 'I'd shag the cleaner' scrawled on the cubicle wall. (I think it was a compliment) :roflmao:
Then again, the cleaner before me was male and about 103 years old...:shrug:
:roflmao: On the job feedback. :yesyes:
Did you you leave it on? :whistles:
MyNameIsTerry
06-10-22, 15:50
I preferred Kylie's more raunchy stuff...
Like "I just can't get those hot pants outta my head" :whistles:
:roflmao: On the job feedback. :yesyes:
Did you you leave it on? :whistles:
No graffiti on my watch, Terry. :yesyes:
I could just imagine such tags back in the late 80s heyday of the (now-fallen) Aussie soap 'Neighbours', when Kylie Minogue played the character Charlene Mitchell/Ramsay, even though I don't actually recall seeing such tags back then. Nor was I fanatical about said show myself, but my younger brother used to watch it religiously back then, as it used to come on BBC 1 straight after CBBC.
I'm definitely letting my rural US-ness show, it was a reference to a country song called "John Deere Green" by Joe Diffie. I swear, 90s country music was peak country, it's really just not the same anymore. That statement makes me feel old, haha.
Nora, I love that story - bathroom graffiti is really it's own genre.
Like "I just can't get those hot pants outta my head" :whistles:
Woman's a fox.
And I bet she could still get into those hot pants! :lac:
MyNameIsTerry
06-10-22, 16:09
Woman's a fox.
And I bet she could still get into those hot pants! :lac:
I'm up for confirming that if she is :yesyes:
I'm up for confirming that if she is :yesyes:
I think Mr Batty would quite like too as well..
Mind you, Altered Images have a new album out and Clare Grogan is one of his teenage crushes, so that would take his mind of Kylie's hotpants ha ha
I think Mr Batty would quite like too as well..
Mind you, Altered Images have a new album out and Clare Grogan is one of his teenage crushes, so that would take his mind of Kylie's hotpants ha haOh yes Clare Grogan!!! :blush: If only...
I think Mr Batty would quite like too as well..
Mind you, Altered Images have a new album out and Clare Grogan is one of his teenage crushes, so that would take his mind of Kylie's hotpants ha ha
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday!!
5651This was the only one that was appropriate :D
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday!!
I had that one on 12". (Also, See Those Eyes)
Couldn't understand what Clare was singing most of the time, but I made my own lyrics up lol
5651This was the only one that was appropriate :D
:roflmao:
I had that one on 12". (Also, See Those Eyes)
Couldn't understand what Clare was singing most of the time, but I made my own lyrics up lol
Yes those 12'' singles (that resembled LPs in size) were all the rage back then in the early 80s (the very first ones appearing around 1976 or so), and by the mid 80s they were pretty much de rigueur sitting alongside the standard 7'' edition in the shops. Happy (Birth)days!
Then by the 90s it was those 'cassingle' things and of course CD singles (though 7'' and 12'' vinyl singles still continued to coexist alongside them in some stores during much of the first half of the decade), and neither were just never quite the same for me, let alone today's 'streaming' and 'digital downloading', all of which of course seems so 'fake' and contrived IMO. But that's a whole 'nother story generally.
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