New York City blackout of 1977  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Related e

Wikipedia
Wiktionary
Shop

Featured:

The New York City blackout of 1977 was an electricity blackout that affected most of New York City from July 13, 1977 to July 14, 1977. The only neighborhoods in New York City that were not affected were in southern Queens, and neighborhoods of the Rockaways, which are part of the Long Island Lighting Company System.

Unlike other blackouts that affected the region, namely the Northeast blackout of 1965 and the Northeast blackout of 2003, the 1977 blackout was localized to New York City and the immediate surroundings. Also in contrast to the 1965 and 2003 blackouts, the 1977 blackout resulted in city-wide looting and other disorder, including arson.

[edit]

Cultural references

Image:Shawn G. Chittle (left) and DJ Grand Wizzard Theodore.JPG
Looting of electronics stores during the blackout allowed a number of looters to steal DJ equipment. As a result of these thefts, the hip hop genre, barely known outside of The Bronx, grew at an astounding rate from 1977 onwards. Here, South Bronx DJ Grand Wizzard Theodore (right) who is sometimes credited with having invented the art of record scratching, poses with a fan wearing a 1977 t-shirt that was sold on the streets of New York shortly after the blackout.
  • In 1977, The Trammps released the song "The Night the Lights Went Out" to commemorate the electrical blackout.
  • In a what-if alternate history issue of Conan the Barbarian by Marvel Comics, the blackout is connected to a brief time travel visit of Conan to our times. Peter Parker also makes a cameo.
  • According to Men in Black (1997), the blackout was caused by a super bouncing energy ball, and the blackout was a practical joke by "The Great Attractor".
  • Raymond Stantz knocks out New York City's power while investigating a river of slime in Ghostbusters II (1989).
  • The beginning of the two-part All in the Family episode "Archie and the KKK" is set during a citywide blackout; the episode aired in the fall of 1977, roughly five months after the actual blackout. References to the looting that took place during the actual blackout include Archie complaining about blacks and other minorities committing crimes during the blackout, and Mike writing a letter to the editor denouncing free enterprise — as practiced by unethical governments and business executives — as the same thing. Both responses (by Archie and Mike) help advance a key component of the episode's plot: KKK members planning to burn a cross on the Stivics' lawn.
  • An episode of The Jeffersons, entitled "The Blackout", refers to this blackout with the same lootings (including to Jefferson Cleaners).
  • Coupled with Son of Sam hysteria, the effects of the blackout on New York City are a key theme of the 1999 Spike Lee film Summer of Sam.
  • Rapper Pharoahe Monch's 2006 music video "Push" is set in the night of the blackout.
  • The Buffy the Vampire Slayer novel Blackout by Keith R.A. DeCandido takes place during the '77 blackout.
  • In an episode of Phenomenon: The Lost Archives (documenting the works of Nikola Tesla), it was suggested that a Soviet radio tower, broadcasting "noise" which had been labeled the "Russian Woodpecker" by the CIA, coincidentally ceased after a year of continual transmission prior to the blackout.
  • The riot features in the video game The Warriors as a level. The gang must loot shops, graffiti and then escape before the riot police arrest them, but instead the year being 1977 it is set in 1979.
  • Jonathan Mahler's 2005 book Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx Is Burning featured accounts of the riots and looting in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Likewise, news coverage and videos of riots were featured on an episode of The Bronx Is Burning TV series.
  • The Rosewood Fall, a Californian powerpop band wrote a song about the blackout titled "New York City Blackout".
  • T.E.D. Klein's award-winning horror novella, Children of the Kingdom (1985), was set in part during the blackout.
  • Part of Jackie Collins's 1981 novel Chances was set during the blackout and its aftermath.
  • The episode Heatwave of the series Swingtown used a similar blackout, based on the New York incident, in its fictional Chicago of 1976 as a plot device.
  • The 1986-87 graphic novel Watchmen features a fictional city-wide protest and riot in alternate universe 1977 New York City (resulting from a strike of the NYPD), that may have been inspired by the blackout riots.
  • The Welsh band The Blackout took their name from a shirt saying 'I survived the blackout' which referred to the 1977 NYC blackout.
  • Issue #6 of the comic "Die Hard: Year One" from BOOM! Studios takes place on the night of the blackout, implying it was intentionally part of a crime.
  • The Canadian rock band The Birthday Massacre have a remix of their song "Weekend" entitled "Weekend (NYC 77 Mix)" on their Looking Glass (EP). The lyrics refer to violence during a blackout, with the title hinting at the 77 blackout.
  • The film Superman was being shot during the blackout and one of the directors tried to unsuccessfuly use the prop telephone shown in the film (when Clark is trying to find a place to change), before realizing that it was fake.
[edit]

Further reading

  • Goodman, James (2003) Blackout New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
  • Mahler, Jonathan (2005) Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx is Burning New York: Farrar, Straus and Girous
[edit]

See also



Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "New York City blackout of 1977" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

Retrieved from "http://artandpopularculture.com/New_York_City_blackout_of_1977"
Personal tools
Metas