Some of the greatest music ever recorded happened in studios in New York City.
Listen to Kind of Blue, and you can hear Miles Davis’ trumpet bouncing off the 50-foot ceiling of an abandoned church on 30th Street. Listen to Sound of Silence, and you can hear Simon & Garfunkle’s harmonies reverberate through the stairwell of a building on 52nd Street.
By the early 1960s, Times Square was the heart of a booming music industry. Songwriters and producers blended music from the city's immigrant communities - doo-wop, salsa, gospel, country, and blues - in search of the next ‘hit record.’ America’s post-war global economic power was matched by its cultural power, as American Pop music was exported around the world, symbolizing modernity and freedom.
From Elvis Presley’s groundbreaking fusion of country-boy charm and African American rhythm and blues in a still-segregated America, to Aretha Franklin’s powerful demand for R-E-S-P-E-C-T at the height of the Civil Rights movement, the music recorded in these studios became a powerful force for cultural and political change within the US.
During the 1970s, studios like Record Plant revolutionized the concept of a recording studio, transforming it into a creative playground where Jimi Hendrix could experiment with the sonic possibilities of the electric guitar.
Punk was priced out, so smaller, scrappier studios surfaced, embracing the emerging music and digital technology of the 1980s. De La Soul pioneered sampling in a loft in the Fashion District. The Beastie Boys recorded the first rap album to top the Billboard Hot 100 above a restaurant in Chinatown.
But by the 1990s, digital technology had revolutionized not only music production, but also music distribution. As record sales gave way to streaming service subscriptions, the revenue that paid for studio time disappeared, and few studios could compete with the New York real estate market.
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New York City is constantly under construction, building and rebuilding, but never sentimental. The music is revered, cherished, and celebrated - but the spaces it was recorded in are not. There are no plaques on the wall or bronze markers on the sidewalk.
Today, Columbia Studio B, where Simon & Garfunkle recorded Bridge over Troubled Water, is a Duane Reade Pharmacy. Atlantic Studios, where Aretha Franklin recorded Respect, is a luxury apartment building with rents of up to $25,000 per month. Mayfair Studios, where The Velvet Underground recorded Sunday Morning, is now a 5-star hotel - one of many construction projects in Times Square replacing buildings that housed studios in the 1960s. What was once a center of innovative cultural creation is now home to generic cultural consumption.
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Over the past two years, I've been documenting the lost history of recording studios in
New York City. My research has uncovered a rich story of the social, cultural, and economic impact of these studios and the music they produced.
Their story celebrates New York City's history as a center of musical innovation, and challenges us to consider how we honor and preserve spaces that have contributed to our collective identity and cultural heritage.
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contact: steve@whisperandhush.com
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