LEAD: NEW YORK is a city of differences; in the East Village, those differences are just a little louder. The street life is livelier, the hairdos are spikier, the short skirts a bit shorter than in other neighborhoods. People in the East Village wear their differences proudly. There are more tattoos, more black leather, more white T-shirts and more guitars than anywhere else in Manhattan.

NEW YORK is a city of differences; in the East Village, those differences are just a little louder. The street life is livelier, the hairdos are spikier, the short skirts a bit shorter than in other neighborhoods. People in the East Village wear their differences proudly. There are more tattoos, more black leather, more white T-shirts and more guitars than anywhere else in Manhattan. There are fewer suits and ties there, too, so to wear a suit and tie is to be different. And in the East Village, to be different is to fit right in.

Since the East Village rarely sleeps, it is always alive with music. Whether it's boom boxes on the streets in the afternoon, Aerosmith albums at Dojo's restaurant in the evening, late-night blues at Dan Lynch's on Second Avenue or after-hours house music at nightclubs like the Pyramid and Save the Robots, there are always sounds within earshot.

When it comes to live music, though, the traditional sound of the East Village is rock-and-roll. In 1973, the New York Dolls posed in front of Gem Spa on St. Mark's Place for the back cover of the group's debut album; in 1977, the Ramones sent punk rock to the world by way of a small club called CBGB. Throughout the 80's, new clubs opened and closed with alarming regularity, while others like the Ritz and the Lone Star Cafe left the trashy haven of the East Village for the bigger bucks and respectability of upscale midtown locations.

If the downtown rock scene doesn't have quite the same ferocity it once did, live music still thrives between Bleecker and 14th Streets east of Broadway. In the last few months alone, new rock clubs like Woody's and the Space at Chase have opened their doors. Here is a sampling of live rock-and-roll in the area. CBGB A ''Happy New Year'' banner is still hanging above the bar at CBGB, and this dark hole at the end of Bleecker Street, historically credited as the birthplace of punk rock in the late 70's, does have a feeling of timelessness about it. More a cave than a club, CB's looks as if it has never seen natural light: candles flicker wanly on the rickety tables, and the room is thick with shadows from which graffiti legends like ''Giant Metal Insects'' loom like...