New York is a city located in the north east of the United States of america. It is currently home to just under 9 million people and over the years, some famous bands and musicians to have come out of this city include the likes of The Velvet Underground, The Cramps, The Ramones, The New York Dolls, Television, Talking Heads, Blondie, Suicide, Kiss, The Beastie Boys,, Run DMC, A Tribe Called Quest, Public Enemy, Wu Tang Clan, Notorious B.I.G, Jay Z, Sonic Youth, The Strokes, LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture, Interpol, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Battles, Vampire Weekend, Diiv, Frankie Cosmos, and many more.
For this city scenes we look at the story of one venue called CBGB that was a hot spot in New York City in the 1970s and 80s, it played a huge roll in the development of both new york punk, new wave and rock and roll and which hosted, often for the first time, such legendary bands and artists as The Ramones, Pattie Smith, Talking Heads, Television, Blondie, Sonic Youth.
CBGB was a rock club that is synonymous with the music scene of new york of the 1970s and 80s. Patty Smith once said “CBGBs is a state of mind”. CBGB opened up in manhattan’s east village in 1973. The letters in the name were an abbreviation of County, Blue Grass and Blues which were the types of music that the venue was originally intended to host but the club quickly became a hub for the emerging punk rock and new wave scenes that were developing in New York at the time.
Its important to understand that during this time, New York was also in the epicenter of disco music, clubs like studio 54 and the paradise garage with legendary DJ Larry Levan playing every weekend were witnessing a legendary moment in the history of clubbing culture. New York City would also go on to on to become the birthplace of hip hop, DJs like grandmaster flash and Cool Herc that moved to new york from jamaica and brought soundsystem culture with him, ignited a whole new culture when they decided to use two turntables to switch between two record and extend the rhythm section of a disco track, that MCs would then go on to rap over. The birth of Hip Hop was just another example of the groundbreaking music was being made in new york in the 1970s and 80s.
Like all good things, CBGB came to an end. In 2006 the legendary venue closed with one final concert performed by Patti Smith, an artist that had been there at the beginning in 1973. As they say though, New York is the city that never sleeps and the end of CBGB by no means meant the end of New York’s prolific ability to produce world class musicians and bands.