Music of New York City - Popular Music

Popular Music

New York is the center of the American music industry, and by extension, is one of the major centers for popular music worldwide. The city attained an iconic musical status in the early 20th century. Later, New York retained its position as the major center for the American music industry, despite the rise of other cities such as Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville, and San Francisco

The African American genre of jazz was closely associated with New York by the middle of the 20th century, when a number of avant-garde performers helped created styles such as hard bop and free jazz. Later still, New York was the major American home for the punk rock and New Wave movements, and was the scene for the invention of both hip hop music and Latino salsa music. Musicians from New York have also dominated the Jewish-American klezmer scene, the Greenwich Village old-time music revival, and the straight 1960s pop music exemplified by the Brill Building sound.