In the early 1980’s, Melbourne and Australia alike experienced a Graffiti explosion. Graffiti deriving from the New York based hip-hop culture, made it’s way onto the trains, walls and sketch books of Melbourne. Initially it was a very American based venture with the establishing of break dance crews, selected neighbor hoods for these crews and a sort of rival that almost gave them an excuse to come together and dance competitively. However soon the popularity of graffiti itself became to much for break dancing. All the competitive energy was to become channeled forward this new form of outsider art.

Although many people in Australia kept breaking it would be more than safe to say that graffiti had become the dominant form of expression in hip hop culture. Graffiti crews cropped up everywhere and there were graffiti artists on all train lines. Initially the Melbourne graffiti standards were being set by one crew called ‘U.S.A’, or United Subway Artists.

This changed quickly with the growth of crews all over Melbourne. Some of these crews were ‘D.M.A.’-Da Mad Artists, ‘M.S.A’-Melbourne Suicide Assasins, ‘A.C.’-All City,’K.S.A.’-Kickin Some Ass,’A.K.A.’-Also Known As,’C.W.’-Crime Wave,’S.T.R.’-Stands To Reason,’D.S.A.’-Da Stoned Artists,’W.C.A.’-Wild Child Artists,just to name a few.

With the identity of their crews, many graffiti artists or ‘writers’, set out to paint the most walls and trains that they could get their hands on. Unfortunately with the rapid growth of this need for writers to put there names up or as they say ‘to get up’, the ‘Public Transport Commision had to work fast to try and put an end to the damage. In the mid 80s a legislation was put through parliament making the actual act ‘willful damage’, thus a punishable crime. Up until this time it was not a categorized crime so the punishment of such caught offenders was minimal.

As bad as this was for the then prolific crews, it was also a positive time for the future of graffiti. Graffiti had become a jailable crime so every artist had a decision to make. “Am I in, or out?” It could no longer to be a hobby unless you were either apathetic or stupid. Fortunately for Melbourne, most writers were in for the long haul. Crews and writers started to band together against the forces of the P.T.C.

With the introduction of the silver train, or as writers know them ‘Hitachis’, the P.T.C. had to introduce higher security. This was done by building thick wire fences with imitation razor wire on top to try and keep the rail yard visitors out. This reinforced this notion of the graffiti artist making a greater commitment to graffiti as just getting into a train yard was hard enough. This security crack-down was also experienced by people painting illegal walls,train bridges, stations and other P.T.C. property as they were all being surveyed, raided and maintained by the authorities.

Similarly to the actions of the techno culture, most graffiti is created during the nocturnal hours of the after dark. Today in the late 1990s things have changed in the formerly underground world of graffiti. There is a new breed of graffiti artist. Today’s graffiti artist, if they paint trains are constantly looking over their shoulders, fearful of the law. “This has created a new mentality for most of the new school writers. The only problem was that the new school writers being new, don’t really know where us long termers are coming from”.

The onset of time and progress has made a huge impact on the modern graffiti artist. Today’s young writer usually enters his or her career by doing legal pieces, legally as in painting walls that they have permission to paint, and pieces being the actual pieces of art. For the uninitiated, the writer usually invents a name for themselves or another identity which is known as a ‘tag’. A well known example of this is “Puzle”, a Hurstbridge line artist. In the old days, most new writers were introduced to graffiti through ‘tagging’ of trains, (better known as ‘bombing’). Once hooked on bombing trains, the writer would tag any surface they could in a bid to ‘get up’. Today the stakes are high. No one really gets up on trains as the introduction of unstainable interior panels, internal cameras and beeper alarmed train doors led to the decline in the writers false sense of security. In the fight for turf, the P.T.C. too had some tricks up their sleeves.

Another trait of the new school graffiti artist which in my opinion is a good one, is the lack of theft. The new breed do not shoplift paint as much. As you probably know the graffiti artists main tool is the spray can. There was a time when next to no-one paid for paint. Today most people pay for at least some of their paint. There are a couple of reasons why. Firstly shop security is drastically improving and secondly there are places selling paint especially for writers, run by writers, and thankfully very few writers like to steal from there own kind.

This has also attributed to the development of graffiti. If you pay ten dollars for a can of paint you don’t want to waste it. The emphasis of the paint helped the writers focus on their images rather than the images of themselves. The focus of the modern writer isn’t to wear the right clothes say the right things and be seen in the right places. Today it’s about your art consistency and how much you put into it.

I hope this brief development of graffiti to it’s modern state has not alienated those that have been involved since the beginning. There are many old schoolers pulling off pieces that set the standard for the youngens of tomorrow. Artist’s such as “Tame, Puzle, Reach, Paris, Nasa”, just to name a few, rock just as hard as they used to. In fact many of these guys with their interstate equivalent’s are internationally renowned. “Dmote” from Sydney and “KASINO “ from Queensland have gone on recent round the world trips to paint walls and trains where few people from Australia have painted before.

In fact many of these older writers are still movers and shakers in the train aspect. As strange as it sounds, with all the modern security on trains and train yards, their is still a very strong wave of writers that paint trains. Melbourne alone gets more than it’s fair share of painted trains. Unfortunately we don’t get to see them for long because they either don’t run or are getting buffed quickly. This quick removal of “panels” is what has created the “photo culture”. Many pieces that get done don’t last and acquire fame for the writer simply from the photo. In bedrooms, offices, bus stops and school yards all over Melbourne there are thousands of people sitting down looking at photo’s that define a culture which most never see, let alone experience. These assets of the photo can also be the downfall of a sloppy writer as some not so serious writers take incriminating photo’s with people in them. If taken into custody these photo’s could end up on the front cover of the Herald - Sun newspaper as happened in 1995.

Through out the whole development of Graffiti in Melbourne from the 80’s till now there has been a large connection between the graffiti World and the techno industry. Promoters, DJ’s, Decor artist you name it they’re doing it. Graffiti has also made it’s way onto flyers e.g. “Where The Wild Things Are” and “Reggae Rave”. The music and the artist’s have also crossed over. Hip - hop, trip - hop, electro, drum n’ bass, Jungle are the obvious connects yet the similar mentalities in dance music. The notion of keeping “it” real, intelligent and progressive is shared by us all. It is undeniable that hip - hop culture has crossed over and intertwined with techno culture.

Graffiti, as opposed to the techno scene, has one major difference. Graffiti crimes are committed by both sides of the law. Sure when a graffiti artist paints a train it is seen as a crime by those who are employed by the law to enforce it. However some people believe that these very same transit police or drug - graffiti squad go and deface a mural on a wall. Isn’t that a crime? Pseudo crews like Mdc and C.T.S.A. which people in graffiti culture believe to stand for ‘COPS THAT SLASH ART’. The hypothetical artists such as “Wobie” and “Sniper” plastered the walls of our train lines for quite a while. These Pseudo crews defaced beautiful murals that had been created in extremely adverse conditions by unpaid dedicated writers. The paid by the tax payer, law fighting transit policemen get away without a word of reprimand. Of course none of this can be proven. That however doesn’t mean it isn’t happening! Even through these conditions, the graffiti writers still remain true as do the punters of the techno world. Graffiti like techno is an example of the persistent beats of resistance. It is the reason that I ask you when you next see graffiti art murals that you stop for a minute and appreciate what you see. After all one day a graffiti artist might be standing at one of your parties appreciating what you do. ???????