The New York band Television was an integral part of the city's underground rock movement that existed in the 1970s. Though many groups prided themselves on unfocused musicianship and an adherence to sloppy sonic aesthetics, Television pursued a sound that capitalized on a more complex and instrumentally proficient sound. The group's origins can be traced to the childhood friendship that existed between Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell, who both attended school in Delaware before moving to New York as aspiring poets. After banding together with a few other musicians and dubbing their musical ventures Television, the band started performing at various venues around the New York scene like CBGB and Max's Kansas City. Tensions between Verlaine and Hell came to a climax because Hell thought an untrained instrumental approach was more noble and pure than a technically adept style, which resulted in Hell leaving the group to pursue a solo career. The band's debut album, 1977's Marquee Moon, has gone down as an art rock classic and despite selling well in the UK, when the LP was released it went virtually unnoticed in the United States, save for a couple of savvy music connoisseurs. Though Television called it quits in 1978, it has reformed a number of times to play special shows or the occasional festival.
