Music of New York - New York City

New York City

New York City has long been a center for musical innovation, home to the popular music industry in the United States since Tin Pan Alley. The Tin Pan Alley was a group of songwriters in New York who dominated the sheet music industry for many years. Soon after, New York became a vital part of the burgeoning jazz and blues scenes and nascent record industries. Musical theater flourished in the city, especially on Broadway.

By the 1950s, New York had become a home for Latin music in the United States, as the city became a pan-Latin melting pot of immigrants from across the Caribbean and South and Central America. They brought with them many styles of Cuban, Dominican, Colombian and Puerto Rican music. The result was a new style called salsa music, derived primarily from Cuban and Puerto Rican styles in the early 1970s.

The 1970s also saw the evolution of hip hop in New York City. Hip hop was a cultural movement that included music as an integral part. Hip hop music developed out of block parties in The Bronx, where DJs isolated the percussion breaks of popular funk and disco songs, and MCs began rapping over the beats. By the end of the decade, hip hop had spread across the country and was beginning its march across the world. New York City was still the center for popular recorded hip hop, especially a style called East Coast hip hop. In the early 1990s, however, hip hop from the West Coast and elsewhere gain in popularity.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, a number of bands from New York City were and are prominent in the garage rock and post-punk revivals that are considered a part of the increasingly popular indie rock scene. These include The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Ben Kweller, Grizzly Bear, Vampire Weekend, We Are Scientists, The Bravery, Liars, TV on the Radio, The Cloud Room, MGMT and Interpol.