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Themusic of New York City is a diverse and important field in the world of music. It has long been a thriving home for popular genres such asjazz,rock,soul music,R&B,funk, and the urbanblues, as well asclassical andart music. It is the birthplace ofhip-hop,garage house,boogaloo,doo-wop,bebop,punk rock,disco, andnew wave. It is also the birthplace ofsalsa music, born from a fusion of Cuban and Puerto Rican influences that came together in New York's Latino neighborhoods in the 1940s and 1950s.[1] The city's culture, amelting pot of nations from around the world, has produced vitalfolk music scenes such asIrish-American music and Jewishklezmer. Beginning with the rise of popular sheet music in the early 20th century, New York'sBroadwaymusical theater, andTin Pan Alley'ssongcraft, New York has been a major part of the Americanmusic industry.[2]
Music authorRichie Unterberger has described the New York music scene, and the city itself, as "(i)mmense, richly diverse, flashy, polyethnic, and engaged in a never-ending race for artistic and cosmopolitan supremacy."[2] Despite the city's historic importance in the development ofAmerican music, its status has declined in recent years due to a combination of increased corporate control over music media, an increase in thecost of living, and the rise of local music scenes whose success is facilitated by the cheap communication provided by the Internet.[3]
New York has been a center for the Americanmusic industry since the earliest records in the early 20th century. Since then, a number of companies and organizations have set up headquarters in New York, from theTin Pan Alley publishers andBroadway to modern independent rock and hip-hop labels, non-profit organizations, and others. Many music magazines are or were headquartered in New York, includingBlender,Punk,Spin, andRolling Stone.[4]
Carnegie Hall is one of the most important music venues in the world, especially for classical music; the hall is noted for its excellentacoustics. The venue was named for philanthropistAndrew Carnegie, but fell into disrepair in the 20th century until being renovated between 1983 and 1995.Radio City Music Hall was also a major venue after opening in 1932, and was also recently renovated; it is now a significantarchitectural attraction as an example of theArt Deco style.[5]
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is the largest performing arts center in the world. The center is home to twelve resident organizations, including theMetropolitan Opera,New York Philharmonic,New York City Ballet,Chamber Music Society,New York City Opera,Juilliard School,Lincoln Center Theater, andJazz at Lincoln Center.[6] TheNew York Philharmonic, which performs atAvery Fisher Hall, is the oldest orchestra in the United States, founded in 1842. As of 2005[update],Lorin Maazel is theconductor. The Philharmonic has made more than 500 recordings since 1917, and was one of the first to broadcast live performances, beginning in 1922.[7] The New York Philharmonic produced celebrated composers such asGeorge Bristow andTheodore Thomas. Bristow was a fiercely nationalistic composer who left the Philharmonic because he felt it did not glorify American music adequately, a situation he, and later Thomas, attempted to rectify.[8]
Other institutions and organizations in New York include theBrooklyn Academy of Music,New York City Ballet, theJazz Foundation of America and theLouis Armstrong House. Notable venues that have closed include theAeolian Hall ofRhapsody in Blue fame and the oldMetropolitan Opera (demolished in 1967) at 1411 Broadway. TheApollo Theater has long been a place for African American performers to begin their careers; it has such an iconic status that Congress has declared it aNational Historic Landmark.
The New Yorkclub scene is an important part of the city's music scene, the birthplace of many styles of music fromdisco topunk rock; some of these clubs, such asStudio 54,Max's Kansas City,Mercer Arts Center,ABC No Rio, andCBGB, reached iconic statuses in the United States and the world. New York is home to several major jazz clubs, includingBirdland, Sweet Rhythm (formerly Sweet Basil), theVillage Vanguard, and theBlue Note, the latter being one of the premier spots for jazz lovers. There was a time—now long gone—when52nd Street in Manhattan, with its numerous clubs, was one of the epicenters of jazz. Future generations of music venues would retain the prolific elements of this culture. Since transmogrifying the local dance scene (deep house) to form "acid-jazz" in the late 1980s,Groove Academy/Giant Step has launched several major-label bands such asGroove Collective andNuyorican Soul.[9]
TheGreenwich Village folk scene is home to venues such as the long-standing landmarkThe Bottom Line. New York's rock scene includes clubs such asIrving Plaza, while the city's avant-garde "downtown" scene includesThe Kitchen, Roulette, andKnitting Factory. The Latin and world music scene features venues such as S.O.B.'s and theWetlands Preserve, which closed in 2001.[2]
New York has a long history of using music in various festivals and parades, though the vibrant local music scene has meant that festivals are less of a draw than in other cities, since residents are near major sources of live music all the time. The diverse groups of immigrants living in New York have each brought with them their own holiday traditions. As a result, major festivals of music in New York include theChinese New Year celebrations,Pulaski Day Parade, and theSt. Patrick's Day Parade run by theAncient Order of Hibernians. New York is home to the largest St. Patrick's Day parade in the world, a tradition that has continued since 1762 due to the large Irish population in New York. Irish folk music and folk-rock are the major styles at the two-day Guinness Fleadh festival. The College Music Journal Network's annual Music Marathon has been held since 1980, providing a major showcase for new music.Central Park SummerStage, a series of free concerts presented byCity Parks Foundation and hosting performers of many kinds, is also a major part of New York's summer music scene, which also includes the July Intel New York Music Festival. There are numerous New York jazz festivals, including the Texaco New York Jazz Festival,Panasonic Village Jazz Festival, theJVC Jazz Festival, and the free Charlie Parker Jazz Festival.[2] TheCity Parks Foundation also presents a series of thirty free concerts in ten parks across all five boroughs of the city each summer.Roz Nixon founded Great Women in Jazz in 2001. It is a month-long festival in October in New York.[10]
Additionally, New York hosts the yearly ElectricZoo festival, second only to Miami'sWinter Music Conference as a mecca for house and electronic music fans in the United States. It also holds the annualDance Parade which brings together all types of dance-oriented music from across the world (both traditional and contemporary) in a combined parade downFifth Avenue.The NYC Musical Saw Festival has been a summer staple since 2001, bringingmusical saw players from around the world to perform diverse types of music on this unique instrument. The festival, organized byNatalia Paruz, holds theGuinness World Record for the largest musical saw ensemble.
The first music performed in the area that is now New York City was thatof the Lenape Native Americans who lived there. However, little is known of these peoples' musical lives. The earliest documented music comes after the foundation of the city (then calledNew Amsterdam) by Dutch explorers, who controlled the area until the British conquest in 1664. The music of New York's colonial era was primarily British in character, gradually evolving as the United States became independent and developed a distinct culture; the influence ofAfrican-American music became very important as the city's African American population increased throughout the 18th and 19th centuries.
By the 1830s, New York was gradually becoming the most important cultural center in the United States, and was a home for many varieties of folk, popular and classical music. Late in the 19th century, many influential conservatories and venues were founded, including the world-famousMetropolitan Opera House andCarnegie Hall. New York's status as a center for musical development continued into the 20th century, leading to the foundation of many companies associated with the American music industry in the city. These companies included sheet music publishers, based around an area calledTin Pan Alley, and laterrecord labels and other organizations and institutions. The rise of theBroadway theatres began in the early part of the century; the songs from Broadwaysmusicals became some of the earliest American popular music, and eventually came to be treated aspop standards.
As the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, New York was populated by Dutch settlers who left little musical trace behind, excepting some songs such as "Dutch Prayer of Thanksgiving," "Rosa," and "The Little Dustman." Under English rule,sea shanties, open-air singing gardens, sometimes withfireworks,ballads and other Anglo-Irish traditions, became widespread. New York's colonial ballads were often topical, concerning the events of the day and the local gossip. Beginning in 1732, ballads were placed together with a story tying them together, forming a performance genre called theballad opera, the best-known of which isThe Beggar's Opera, first performed in 1752. That same period also saw the first concerts held in New York, and the arrival ofWilliam Tuckey, who helped establish church music in the city.[11]
New York's rise as the intellectual and artistic center of the United States occurred in the 1830s. This period, which coincided with an upsurge in Americannationalism, saw major growth in choral music, with musical societies being formed in most major cities, like New York; these choral societies remained a fixture of American music throughout the 19th century. Military bands were also common throughout the country, as was singing family troupes such as theHutchinson Family. Later still,minstrel shows, comic and musical acts performed by whites inblackface, spread across the country. In New York, Italian operas were very popular throughout much of the century.[8]
Near the end of the 19th century, modernconservatories opened in many cities, and New York became the home of theMetropolitan Opera House in 1882 andCarnegie Hall in 1891, the latter's opening being marked by an appearance by the famed Russian composerPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. In 1892,Antonín Dvořák became Director of theNational Conservatory of Music. Dvořák, aBohemian composer, was fascinated with Native and African American folk music, and he was enthusiastic about encouraging a nationalist American field of music that utilized those fields. Dvořák only stayed on for three years before returning to Bohemia, though he influenced later composers such as his pupil, the African American composerHarry Thacker Burleigh.[8]
George Bristow was an important composer of the latter 19th century. He was a violinist with theNew York Philharmonic, later conducting an orchestra called the Harmonic Society. He attempted to popularize an indigenous American sound in his music, using nationalist elements such as aNative American melody in hisSymphony No. 4.Theodore Thomas also worked at the New York Philharmonic before forming theNew York Symphony Orchestra. He hired many of the best performers of the day in an attempt to lure in audiences, and he promoted a more casual atmosphere to encourage attendance and enthusiasm.[12]
New York's position as a center forEuropean classical music can be traced back to the late 18th- early 19th century. TheNew York Philharmonic, formed in 1842, did much to help establish the city's reputation. In that same era was organized the short-lived rival to the Philharmonic, the American Academy of Music, founded byCharles Jerome Hopkins (born 1836 in Burlington, Vermont),William Fry,George Bristow, and Charles Steele in 1856. Two of the first major New York composers were William Fry andGeorge Bristow, both of whom were involved in a well-known 1854 controversy over the Philharmonic's programming choices. The controversy consisted of a series of letters published in theMusical World and Times following a poor review of Fry'sSanta Claus Symphony. Fry's first letter, responding angrily to the review, claimed that the Philharmonic had played no pieces by American composers, to which Bristow responded that the Philharmonic had played one piece, an overture he had composed.Henry Christian Timm, one of the founders of the Philharmonic, responded by noting a number of recently composed works.[12]
Both Fry and Bristow, despite their support for American compositions, were very European in style. Fry's most notable composition was the operaLeonora, which received mixed reviews upon its opening and was criticized for its debt toVincenzo Bellini'sbel canto style. Bristow was also very European in his style, and was a violinist and conductor with the Philharmonic until the 1854 controversy, though he later rejoined. His most important work was the operaRip Van Winkle, and was very popular at the time; most influentially,Rip Van Winkle used an American folktale rather than European imitations.[12]
The New York nativeEdward MacDowell was a major late 19th-century composer, though he spent most of his productive time in Boston. His first concerto was premiered in New York in 1888, and he returned the following year to premier another concerto. MacDowell eventually began using elements of American folk music in his compositions, especially theWoodland Sketches. TheBohemian composerAntonín Dvořák came to New York in 1892 to head theNational Conservatory. A fervent nationalist, Dvořák used the folk music of his native land in his music, and encouraged American composers to do the same. One of the Conservatory's students, the African AmericanHarry Burleigh, introduced him to the songs of theminstrel shows andspirituals, and Dvorak was deeply moved, enough to write a well-known essay in an 1895 issue ofHarper's declaring that American composers should use the diverse folk elements of their country in their compositions.[12]
In the early 20th century, the New York classical music scene includedCharles Griffes, originally fromElmira, New York, who began publishing his most innovative material in 1914. His collaboration with other area performers and composers onThe Kairn of Koridwen was an early attempt to use musical themes adopted from non-Western cultures, specifically,Japanese andJavanese music. He was to continue in this vein with the score forRupert Brooke's "Wai Kiki," the balletSho-Jo, or – the Spirit of Wine, A Symbol of Happiness, and his orchestral compositionThe Pleasure-Dome of Kubla Khan. Besides Griffes, New York composers includedMarion Bauer,Leo Ornstein, andRubin Goldmark,[12] all three of whom were either Jewish immigrants or the children of Jewish immigrants.
The best-known New York composer—indeed, the best-known American classical composer of any kind—wasGeorge Gershwin. Gershwin was a songwriter withTin Pan Alley and theBroadway theaters, and his works were strongly influenced byjazz, or rather the precursors to jazz that were extant during his time. It is not clear that he was a classical musician, though neither is it clear that he worked in jazz, popular music or any other field—he primarily synthesized and utilized elements of many styles, including the music of New York'sYiddish theatre,vaudeville,ragtime,operetta, jazz, Tin Pan Alley and Broadway songs, the music of theGullah people and the impressionist and post-Romantic music of European composers. Some of his most famous compositions were theRhapsody in Blue andConcerto in F, both of which utilized jazz idioms. Gershwin's work made American classical music more focused, and attracted an unheard of amount of international attention.[13]
Following Gershwin, the first major composer wasAaron Copland from Brooklyn, who used elements of American folk music, though it remained European in technique and form. His works included the Symphony for Organ and Orchestra (which was well received, earning him comparisons toStravinsky), the jazz-affectedMusic for the Theatre, the music for the balletAppalachian Spring and thePiano Variations. Later, he turned to the ballet and thenserial music.[12]
The early-to-mid 20th century New York classical music scene also produced composers such asRoger Sessions, an academically oriented composer known for operas such asMotezuma. The similarly academicWilliam Schuman became known for such works as theNew England Triptych and hisThird Symphony. Schuman also became president of theJuilliard School, changing the school by forming theJuilliard String Quartet and merging the Institute of Musical Art with the Juilliard Graduate School, as well as hiring teachers includingWilliam Bergsma,Peter Mennin andHugo Weisgall, whose pupils included future composersSteve Reich andPhilip Glass.[12]
In the middle of the 20th century, the most influential New York composers included the Massachusetts native and conductor and composerLeonard Bernstein, known for his worksPrelude, Fugue, and Riffs,Serenade for Solo Violin, Strings, Harp and Percussion,Chichester Psalms, and the musicalsOn the Town andWest Side Story. Another major composer wasElliott Carter, whom John Warthen Struble claimed would likely be remembered as "the most significant of the mid-20th century... composers [because he] reconceived and restructured the fundamental language of Western art music in evolving his powerful personal style... his music has earned immense respect from colleagues of virtually every esthetic stripe, as well as three generations of performing musicians and audiences." Carter's compositions includeEight Etudes and a Fantasy for Wind Quintet and a Sonata for 'cello and piano. In addition to Carter and Bernstein, in the mid-20th century New York produced the film composerBernard Herrmann,Gunther Schuller, and serialistLeon Kirchner.[12]
Many of the later 20th-century composers in various modernist and minimalist styles came from outside of New York, such asJohn Cage from Los Angeles, though many studied, performed, or conducted in New York.John Corigliano, however, is a New York native who has worked exclusively in tonal idioms for most of his career.Steve Reich innovated a technique known asphasing, in which two musical activities are begun simultaneously and repeated, gradually drifting out of sync with each other in a natural evolution. Reich was also very interested in non-Western music, incorporating African rhythmic techniques in his compositionsDrumming.[12]Rhys Chatham as well asGlenn Branca blended the minimal music with modern rock esthetics and began writing microtonal pieces for large orchestras of guitarists but also wrote other classical pieces with non-amplified instruments.Kyle Gann is a musicologist as well as a composer of post modern pieces.
Most recently, New York has become home to a Manhattan-based scene sometimes calledNew Music. These composers and performers are strongly influenced by the minimalist works ofPhilip Glass, a Baltimore native based out of New York,Meredith Monk, and others. One of the most famous persons from this scene isJohn Zorn, often cited as a jazz musician though he works in many fields and idioms. Others includeArto Lindsay,Marc Ribot,John Lurie,Laurie Anderson, andBill Laswell.[2]
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New York has been the longstanding center of the American music industry, and by extension, a major center for popular music worldwide. Attaining iconic musical status in the early 20th century, New York retained its position despite the rise of other cities such asDetroit,Chicago,Los Angeles,Nashville, andSan Francisco. However, by the turn of the 21st century, Los Angeles had surpassed New York as the pop music mecca not only in terms of the sheer number of musicians, bands, songwriters, recording studios, and record labels, but also because of its affordability compared to New York, attracting transplants to emerging creative centers like Echo Park.[14]
The African American genre ofjazz was closely associated with New York by the middle of the 20th century, when a number of avant-garde performers helped created styles such ashard bop andfree jazz. Later still, New York was the major American home for thepunk rock andnew wave movements, and was the scene for the invention of bothhip-hop and Latinosalsa music. Musicians from New York have also dominated the Jewish-Americanklezmer scene, theGreenwich Villageold-time music revival, and the straight 1960spop music exemplified by theBrill Building sound.
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As America emerged out of theCivil War, a prolificsheet music industry emerged in New York City, catering to the growing urban middle class.Piano ownership was widespread in middle-class families, and if one wanted to hear a popular new song or melody, one would buy the sheet music and then perform the piece at home. Beginning in the early 1860s, the pianist and composerJohn Nelson Pattison (active 1862–1890) published sheet music out of a piano and organ salesroom inUnion Square.[15]
Beginning in the mid 1880s, the music publishers clustered in Union Square were referred to asTin Pan Alley. This had become the major center for music publishing by the mid-1890s.[16] Tin Pan Alley eventually moved uptown to 28th street. Many professional songwriters lived nearby, churning out songs ready for mainstream audiences during a time that music, like other aspects of American culture, was becoming a national rather than a regional affair.[17]
The songwriters of this era often wrote formulaic songs, many of them sentimental ballads.
(T)hese publishers devised formulas by which songs could be produced with speed and dispatch... Songs were now to be produced from a serviceable matrix, and issued in large quantities: stereotypes for foreign songs, Negro songs, humorous ditties, and, most important of all, sentimental ballads.[18]
Some of the most notable publishers included Willis Woodward, the Witmark house of publishing,Charles K. Harris, and Edward B. Marks and Joseph W. Stern. Stern and Marks began writing together as amateurs in 1894, with "The Little Lost Child"; the song became a hit, selling more than two million copies of its sheet music after its successful promotion as anillustrated song and after it attracted the attention of popular stage performerDella Fox. However,Paul Dresser was, in the words of David Ewen, the "richest contributor of sentimental ballads to Union Square." He was an original composer, less maudlin, less cloyingly sentimental, and less cliché-ridden than his contemporaries.[19]
In addition to the popular, mainstream ballads and other clean-cut songs, some Tin Pan Alley publishers focused on rough songs such as "Drill Ye Tarriers" in 1888, believed to have been written by an unskilled laborer turned stage performer named Thomas F. Casey.Coon songs were another important part of Tin Pan Alley, derived from the watered-down songs of the minstrel show with the "verve and electricity" brought by the "assimilation of the ragtime rhythm." The first popular coon song was "New Coon in Town," introduced in 1883, and was followed by a wave ofcoon shouters such asErnest Hogan andMay Irwin.[20]
The early 20th century also saw the growth ofBroadway theatre, a group of theatres specializing inmusicals. Broadway became on the preeminent locations for musical theater in the world, and produced a body of songs that led Donald Clarke to call the era (ca. 1914 to 1950), thegolden age of songwriting. The need to adapt enjoyable songs to the constraints of a theater and a plot enabled and encouraged a growth in songwriting and the rise of composers such asGeorge Gershwin,Cole Porter,Irving Berlin andJerome Kern. Most of these songwriters wereJewish, descended from Jews who immigrated fromRussia.[17]
Professional Yiddish theater in New York began in 1882 with a troupe founded byBoris Thomashefsky. The plays in the late 19th century were realistic, while in the beginning of the 20th century, they became more political and artistic in orientation. Some performers were well-respected enough to move back and forth between the Yiddish theatre and Broadway, includingBertha Kalich andJacob Adler. Some of the major composers includedAbraham Goldfaden,Joseph Rumshinsky andSholom Secunda,[12] while playwrights includedDavid Pinski, Solomon Libin,Jacob Gordin, andLeon Kobrin.
TheNew York blues was a type ofblues music, characterized by significant jazz influences and a more modernized, urban feel than the country blues. It arose in New York in the early part of the 20th century, and quickly spread to other urban areas and, often, more affluent listeners than country blues, which is distinctively rural in nature. Prominent musicians from this field includeLionel Hampton,Ethel Waters, andJoe Turner.
In New York,jazz was fused withstride (an advanced form ofragtime) and became highly evolved, notably in the compositions ofJames P. Johnson in the 1920s.Fletcher Henderson's jazz orchestra, first appearing in 1923 and includingColeman Hawkins (and laterNew Orleans musicianLouis Armstrong) became wildly popular and helped inventswing music. Though Henderson was among the first major New York jazz musicians, he was not as able to adapt to the rapidly changing style as some of his contemporaries, such asDuke Ellington. When Ellington moved to New York, he inaugurated a legion of jazz musicians that did the same and moved the center of jazz's development from Chicago to New York.
The style that developed from New York's big jazz bands became known asswing music; it was a very danceable and catchy style, played originally by large black orchestras. Later, white bands led by musicians such asJimmy Dorsey andBenny Goodman began to dominate. These large orchestras produced a number of instrumentalists that had a profound effect on the later evolution of jazz, includingColeman Hawkins' tenor saxophone innovations, electric guitaristCharlie Christian, and improvisationalLester Young. Star vocalists also emerged, mainly women, such as the bluesyBillie Holiday and thescat singerElla Fitzgerald.[2]
New York's jazz scene was the home ofbebop, which evolved over many years and reached its full identity in the mid-1940s. Charlie Christian,Dizzy Gillespie,Charlie Parker, andThelonious Monk were among the major innovators of the style. Bebop "polarized listeners, critics and musicians alike" because it differed from swing in many important ways, including a lack of typicalriffs and danceable beats, the use of melodic progression and the chords as the basis for all soloing and improvising.
In the 1950s, jazz began to diversify into a number of new genres, spread out into many cities. The West Coast became a home forcool jazz, though the style's major innovator was New York-basedMiles Davis. New York was also a major center forhard bop, and was home toSonny Rollins andArt Blakey. Late in the 1950s, the Los Angeles-basedOrnette Coleman moved to New York, bringing with him the nascent style offree jazz. He was later joined by a number of others, most famously includingJohn Coltrane and his contemporaries, such asAlbert Ayler andSun Ra.[2]
The last few decades have seen a further diffusion of jazz from New York and other major long-time capitals, to cities and regions across the United States and the world. Many New York jazz performers during this period played fusions of jazz with rock and other styles; among the earliest of these modern musicians wasCarla Bley, cofounder of the Jazz Composers Orchestra Association, an independent distribution company for avant-garde and jazz artists. The city has also been home to the well-known modern performer fromNew Orleans, Louisiana,Wynton Marsalis and the large M-Base Collective, as well as people such asJohn Zorn who use jazz as a prominent part of their experimental music in many different styles.[2]
The neo-soul/jazz band Youman Wilder/Featuring Weird Stories is a New York-born-and-bred band with a following in Europe, Canada, and Asia.Wilder was one of late Grammy Award-winning[21] singer Amy Winehouse's favorite vocalists.
The sweet multi-part harmonies of doo-wop originated on the street corners of Harlem and Brooklyn. Although other cities such as Philadelphia and Chicago would have strong doo-wop scenes, the sound was nurtured on the streets of New York by early pioneers of the sound such asthe Ravens,the Crows,the Chords, and especiallythe Drifters, who would enjoy a long and very prolific career. By the 1950s, a plethora of groups would hail from New York, includingFrankie Lymon & the Teenagers;the Crests, led byJohnny Maestro ofthe Brooklyn Bridge, which became synonymous with Brooklyn doo-wop;the Rays;the Mystics; and pioneering female groupsthe Bobbettes andthe Chantels, who would influence thegirl group sound of the 1960s.
Beginning in the 1940s, New York was the center for aroots revival ofAmerican folk music. Many New Yorkers, especially young people, became interested inblues,Appalachian folk music, and other roots styles. InGreenwich Village, many of these people gathered; the area became a hotbed of American folk music as well as leftist political activism.
The performers associated with the Greenwich Village scene, many of whom were not originally from New York, had sporadic mainstream success in the 1940s and 1950s; some, such asPete Seeger and theAlmanac Trio, did well, but most were confined to local coffeehouses and other venues. Performers such asDave Van Ronk andJoan Baez helped expand the scene by appealing to college students. In the early 1960s, Baez was instrumental in introducing the up-and-coming young folk artistBob Dylan to her audience and he quickly achieved national prominence. By the mid-1960s, folk and rock were merging, with Bob Dylan taking the lead in July 1965, releasing "Like a Rolling Stone," with a revolutionary rock sound for its time, steeped in tawdry New York imagery, followed by an electric performance in late July at the Newport Folk Festival. Dylan plugged an entire generation into the milieu of the singer-songwriter, often writing from an urban, New York point of view. By the mid-to-late 1960s, bands and singer/songwriters began to proliferate the underground New York art and music scene. The release ofThe Velvet Underground & Nico in 1967, featuring singer-songwriterLou Reed and collaboratorNico, was described as the "most prophetic rock album ever made" byRolling Stone in 2003. New York in the mid-to-late 1960s gave birth to the contemporary singer/songwriter, with the urban landscape as a canvass for lyrics in the confessional style of poets likeAnne Sexton andSylvia Plath. In July 1969,Newsweek magazine's feature story, "The Girls-Letting Go," described the groundbreaking music ofJoni Mitchell,Laura Nyro,Lotti Golden, andMelanie as a new breed of female troubadour: "What is common to them are the personalized songs they write, like voyages of self discovery, startling in the impact of their poetry." The work of these early New York-based singer/songwriters, from Laura Nyro's insightfulNew York Tendaberry, released in 1969, to Lotti Golden's adventurousEast Village, Manhattan, diaries onMotor-Cycle, her 1969 debut onAtlantic Records, has served as inspiration to generations of female singer/songwriters in the rock, folk, and jazz traditions.The Guardian in January 2017 paid homage to the female singer/songwriters featured inNewsweek's July 1969 article, in a piece byLaura Barton: "Newsweek published an article under the headline 'The Girls – Letting Go,' charting the burgeoning careers of a group of young musicians it termed 'a new school of talented female troubadours.' They sang about politics, love affairs, the urban landscape, drugs, disappointment, and the life and loneliness of the itinerant performers, subjects that, hitherto, had largely been the preserve of male musicians." New York would see a revived interest in folk and singer/songwriters in the 1980s and 1990s led by artists likeSuzanne Vega.
Disco is an up-tempo style ofdance music that originated in the early 1970s, with its center in the United States in New York. As discothèques grew more popular later in the decade, they began moving to larger venues as the sound became popularized by artists such as Newark nativeGloria Gaynor. Many of these were in New York, includingParadise Garage andStudio 54.
As the disco trend faded, dance clubs continued to have a home in New York into the 1980s in trendy clubs such asDanceteria, remembered perhaps best as the club where arguably dance music's diva,Madonna, began her career. Club music added electronically generated sounds and samples of music such as jazz, blues, and European and Japanese electronic music.
In the early 1980s,house music, a direct descendant of disco, was forged in the underground clubs of Chicago, Detroit, and New York.
Freestyle also originated in New York during the 1980s. A sound characterized by a mixture of Latin music beats and melodies fused with elements of hip-hop and electro, it became popularized by New York natives such asLisa Lisa and Cult Jam andBrenda K. Starr.
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Salsa is a style ofLatin music that incorporates multiple styles and variations. It was developed by mid-1960s groups ofNew York City-area Cuban andPuerto Rican immigrants to theUnited States, such asMachito andTito Puente, with later variants such assalsa dura. Salsa, along with other Latin American genres, has become extremely popular in New York. Latin dancing is also very popular. Salsa, a music predominantly derived from the Cubanson montuno, was imported back to Latin America where it has become popular over the past 40 years. Salsa aficionados the world over know that the origin of the music is uniquely tied to New York.
The same phenomenon has recently occurred with yet another type of Latin rhythm,bachata. Bachata is dominated byDominicans, especially Dominicans from New York'sWashington Heights neighborhood. From The Bronx came bachata's most popular bandAventura, whose lead singerRomeo Santos embarked on a successful solo career in 2011.
Reggaeton, a popular Latin urban genre originating fromPanama andPuerto Rico, is also popular in New York, especially among young Hispanics. Reggaeton artists from New York includeArcángel,De La Ghetto,N.O.R.E., andVico C.
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New York gave rise to the creation ofhip-hop music andelectro in the late 1970s and early 1980s. "Rapper's Delight" is widely regarded as the first hip-hop record to gain widespread popularity in the mainstream. The genre got its start at neighborhoodblock parties whenDJs such asKool Herc began isolating percussion breaks infunk andR&B songs, eventuallyrapping while the audience danced. From the late 1970s to about 1984, New York was the only city with a major hip-hop scene, and the demand for records created competing independent record labels, includingProfile Records,Sugar Hill Records,Enjoy Records andTommy Boy Records, pumping out 12" records at a furuious pace due to the popularity of the new genre, the incredible creativity of the early hip-hop producers and artists, as well as the profitability of the new market. Labels were able to issue quality recordings due to the affordability of new technology, primarily theRoland TR-808 drum machine. The first wave of hip-hop records (old-school hip-hop), pomolgated by producers, artists, and writers includingArthur Baker,Afrika Bambaataa,Grandmaster Flash,Melle Mel, DJ Kool Herc,Bobby Robinson,Lotti Golden andSpoonie Gee, were electronic, some with rap vocals and some without. The year 1982 was prolific, with seminal recordings like "The Message," "Planet Rock", and "Nunk" exploring social issues, also known asconscious rap, and fusing electro with hip-hop introducing asci-fi,Afrofuturist perspective. By 1984, hip-hop began to change; new sparse beats and rock samples gave the genre a harder edge, with groups likeRun-DMC and theBeastie Boys and producersRussel Simmons andRick Rubin at the forefront of a new iteration of the genre. Hip-hop's early years saw an ongoing rivalry between the boroughs of New York, with each seeking credit for its rightful contributions to the culture. The original "beef" pittedThe Bronx, led byBoogie Down Productions, againstMarley Marl's Queens-basedJuice Crew.
By the early 1990s, however,West Coast rap fromLos Angeles was gaining national fame. In 1992,Dr. Dre'sThe Chronic became a national hit and made the West Coast the most popular center of hip-hop. However, in 1993, with the release ofBlack Moon'sEnta da Stage and later on Wu-Tang Clan's36 Chambers in the same year, East Coast hip-hop made a major comeback. The release ofNas'sIllmatic andthe Notorious B.I.G.'sReady to Die in 1994 made New York the most popular center of hip-hop once again in a timeframe of just two years. The West Coast never again enjoyed such levels of success as they did in 1992 and 1993. However, the East Coast delivered one classic album after another for the rest of the decade. Most prominent of the releases include Mobb Deep'sThe Infamous andHell on Earth,Jay-Z'sReasonable Doubt, andDMX'sIt's Dark and Hell Is Hot.Mase'sHarlem World cemented him as the most popular MC in New York in the late 1990s. However, he left the industry to pursue other callings. The East Coast still remains a prominent center of hip-hop in the current scene, but their mainstream appeal has been somewhat taken over by therappers from the Southern states of the U.S.
Each borough or area ofNew York City has its fair share of associated hip-hop acts, both commercially successful and underground.KRS-One,Fat Joe,Big Pun, andSlick Rick all grew up in The Bronx, although the latter originated fromLondon, England.Wu-Tang Clan putStaten Island on the hip-hop map, renaming the borough "Shaolin".LL Cool J,Run-DMC,Salt-N-Pepa,Eric B. & Rakim,Black Sheep,A Tribe Called Quest,Akinyele,Ja Rule, 21 Quest,[24]Pharoahe Monch,Nicki Minaj, and50 Cent are all from Queens. Additionally, theQueensbridge Projects inQueens have been an epicenter of hip-hop, producing theJuice Crew (Marley Marl,MC Shan,Kool G Rap,Roxanne Shante),Mobb Deep,Capone-N-Noreaga, and Nas. In order of appearance, Brooklyn has producedWhodini,Newcleus,Audio Two,Full Force,MC Lyte,Gang Starr,Jeru the Damaja,Masta Ace,Boot Camp Clik,AZ,Busta Rhymes,Foxy Brown,Talib Kweli,Afu-Ra,M.O.P.,Shyne, andSiah and Yeshua DapoED. TheBedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood has been a hotbed for successful hip-hop artists, includingJunior M.A.F.I.A. (consisting ofthe Notorious B.I.G.,Lil' Kim,Lil' Cease,Mase, and others),Big Daddy Kane,Jay-Z,Killah Priest,Mos Def, andJoey Badass. Lastly, the island of Manhattan, particularly Harlem, is home to artists such asKurtis Blow,Doug E. Fresh (an implant formBarbados),Biz Markie,2 Black 2 Strong,Big L,Immortal Technique,Vast Aire,Azealia Banks,Cam'ron, Mase,Black Rob,Mims,Street P,Dipset,Eyston,Warp 9, andASAP Rocky.
In modern day, New York City'sdrill musicians have achieved local and global popularity.Brooklyn drill artists includePop Smoke,Fivio Foreign,Sheff G,Sleepy Hallow, Bizzy Banks,J.I the Prince of N.Y,Jay Critch and more.[citation needed] Prominent artists of thesample drill style, originating in the Bronx, include Big Yaya,Kay Flock,B-Lovee, and more.[25]
Since the beginning of the genre, New York has been a vital force in the shaping of rock 'n' roll. DJAlan Freed, perhaps the most influential force in popularizing rock 'n' roll, broadcast his highly influential show fromWINS, which became one of the earliest exclusively rock 'n' roll stations. Early rock 'n' roll sounds such asdoo-wop andgirl group were nurtured in New York.
New York had the earliest documentedpunk rock scene. Drawing on local influences such asthe Velvet Underground,Richard Hell, and theNew York Dolls, punk music developed at clubs such asCBGB andMax's Kansas City.Patti Smith,Talking Heads,Blondie,Suicide,Television,the Fleshtones, and other artsynew wave artists were popular in the mid-to-late 1970s, as bands like theRamones were establishing the punk rock sound.CBGB andMax's Kansas City opened their doors and became influential venues.No Wave was a short-lived rock movement in New York and raisedJames Chance,DNA,Glenn Branca,Lydia Lunch,the Contortions,Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,Mars began experimenting with noise,dissonance andatonality in addition to non-rock styles.Brian Eno-producedNo New York compilation, often considered the quintessential testament to the scene.[26]Swans, and laterSonic Youth were famous in the New York punk scene.
In the early 1980s,hardcore punk was developing primarily inSouthern California andWashington, D.C. TheNew York hardcore scene was founded by 1981, and bands such asReagan Youth andKraut led the initial charge. By 1985, the New York hardcore scene had become inhabited bystraight edgers andskinheads, including bands such asAgnostic Front,Cro-Mags,Heart Attack,Youth of Today,the Plasmatics,Warzone, andMurphy's Law. With the collapse of the CBGB hardcore matinees due to constant violence, a more activistDIY scene began to develop aroundABC No Rio and thesquats of theLower East Side. New York has been at the center of the United Statesthird wave ska scene. The founders of third wave ska, which drew on BritishTwo-Tone ska, were New York bands such asthe Toasters andUrban Blight. In the early 1980s, Toasters singer/guitarist and songwriterRobert 'Bucket' Hingley establishedMoon Ska Records; the label operated until the late 1990s, giving many ska bands from New York and elsewhere international exposure. Some of the other ska bands to come from the New York scene wereSkinnerbox,The Slackers, andMephiskapheles. Other major hardcore punk bands from New York areSick of It All,H2O, andMadball. There are also ska-jazz bands, such as the New York Ska Jazz Ensemble.
New York has also contributed to theheavy metal genre, with bands such asSir Lord Baltimore andBlue Öyster Cult gaining attention from the early 1970s. During the 1980s and 1990s, it was a major center of theEast Coast thrash metal scene, which produced the bandsAnthrax,Overkill (originally from New Jersey),Nuclear Assault,Toxik andCarnivore.Funk metal groups such asLiving Colour and24-7 Spyz, andalternative metal groups such asProng andHelmet, also emerged from the growing New York metal scene. Three other major metal bands from New York areType O Negative,Emmure, andLife of Agony, all from Brooklyn.
In the 1990s and later, New York and its environs developed a small but influentialdeath metal scene.Suffocation, one of the best-known bands to emerge from the scene, earned a good deal of notoriety for their brutal, complex, and uncompromising style. Another long-lived New York death metal group isImmolation, whose innovative use of dissonance helped to establish them as underground favorites. Other bands associated with New York death metal areMortician andIncantation, the latter being originally fromPennsylvania.
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