New York state of music

“We single-handedly lowered the standards of an entire industry”

— David Johannsen of the New York Dolls, in “Once Upon a Time in New York” on BBC4

During the 1970s, while New York City was in economic and cultural meltdown, the disaffected and disenfranchised minorities of the city spawned punk, disco and hip-hop. Within a few years, punk had moved to London, disco to the rich elite of Studio 54, and hip-hop, after a decade or so, took over the world.