Editing New York City Music Scene (section)

===New York House and Club Culture (1985–1995)===

While Chicago is credited with originating house music as a genre, New York made crucial and distinctive contributions to its development. The Paradise Garage's Larry Levan was a direct influence on Chicago's Frankie Knuckles, and New York developed its own strand of the music — sometimes called '''garage house''' or '''New York house''' — characterized by gospel-influenced vocals, soulful chord progressions, and a more organic feel than the austere Chicago sound.

Producers including François Kevorkian, Shep Pettibone, and Arthur Baker worked at the intersection of dance music, R&B, and emerging electronic technology, producing records that defined New York's club sound. The label Strictly Rhythm, founded in 1989, became the primary home of New York house through the early 1990s. The music remained primarily underground and tied to club culture, but its influence spread internationally, particularly to the UK, where New York house records were enormously influential on the nascent rave scene.