DC Public Library System

This must be the place, music, community, and vanished spaces in New York City, Jesse Rifkin

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

This must be the place

bibliography

1352244178

Jesse Rifkin

music, community, and vanished spaces in New York City

A fascinating history that examines how real estate, gentrification, community, and the highs and lows of New York City itself shaped the city's music scenes--from folk to house music--and how those scenes shaped the city. Take a walk through almost any neighborhood in Manhattan and you'll likely pass some of the most significant clubs in American music history. But you won't know it--almost all of these venues have been demolished or repurposed, leaving no record of what they were, how they shaped music scenes, or their impact on the neighborhoods around them. Traditional music history tells us that famous scenes are created by brilliant, singular artists. But dig deeper and you'll find that they're actually created by cheap rent, empty space, and other unglamorous factors that allow artistic communities to flourish. The 1960s folk scene would have never existed without access to Greenwich Village's Washington Square Park. If the city hadn't gone bankrupt in 1975, there would have been no punk rock. Brooklyn indie rock of the 2000s was only able to come together because of the borough's many empty warehouse spaces. But these scenes are more than just moments of artistic genius--they're also part of the urban gentrification cycle, one that often displaces other communities and, eventually, the musicians themselves. Drawing from over a hundred exclusive interviews with a wide range of musicians, deejays, and scenesters (including members of Peter, Paul and Mary; White Zombie; Moldy Peaches; Sonic Youth; Treacherous Three; Cro-Mags; Sun Ra Arkestra; and Suicide), writer, historian, and tour guide Jesse Rifkin painstakingly reconstructs the physical history of numerous classic New York music scenes. This Must Be the Place examines how these scenes came together and fell apart--and shows how these communal artistic experiences are not just for rarefied geniuses but available to us all

Introduction: New York is over (if you want it) -- What we talk about when we talk about $100 -- All the news that's fit to sing: folk music in Greenwich Village -- Friends and neighbors, that's where it's at: minimalism, loft jazz, and the invention of SoHo and Tribeca -- The beginning of a new age: Max's Kansas City, glam rock, and the birth of punk -- Make it last forever: the Loft and Paradise Garage -- Today your love, tomorrow the world: CDGB & OMFUG -- Contort yourself: no wave, mutant disco, and the arrival of hip-hop -- Big Apple rotten to the core: music and conflict in Alphabet City -- World clique: Danceteria and the birth of the Midtown megaclub -- NYC's like a graveyard: the story of antifolk -- What would the community think: Downtown music, the Lower East Side, and the cultural death of Manhattan -- The three us all in a trench and stuck a monument on top: DIY in Williamsburg and beyond -- Conclusion: NYC ghosts and flowers