Editing New York City Music Scene (section)

===Alternative Rock and Indie New York (1985–2000s)===

Through the late 1980s and 1990s, New York sustained a vital indie rock and alternative scene, centered in venues including Maxwell's in Hoboken (just across the Hudson in New Jersey but integral to the NYC scene), the Knitting Factory in Tribeca, and Wetlands Preserve in TriBeCa. Sonic Youth — whose members Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, Lee Ranaldo, and Steve Shelley had been part of the no wave downtown scene — became the most internationally prominent New York alternative band of the era, their abrasive, guitar-noise-driven art rock influencing countless acts and their championing of Nirvana helping to bring that band to wider attention.

The '''Knitting Factory''', opened in 1987, became the center of New York's avant-garde jazz and experimental music community, hosting artists including John Zorn, whose Naked City project synthesized jazz, grindcore, and film music into a characteristically New York genre-collapsing whole. The early 1990s also saw the emergence of a New York rap underground, centered on labels including Rawkus Records, which released work by Mos Def, Talib Kweli, and Pharoahe Monch, offering a lyrically sophisticated alternative to the increasingly commercial mainstream.

{| style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"
|-
! colspan="3" style="background-color: #1a1a1a; color: #ffffff; padding: 8px; text-align: left; font-size: 1.05em;" | Key Artists by Era and Genre
|-
! style="border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 6px; background-color: #2e2e2e; color: #fff;" | Era / Genre
! style="border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 6px; background-color: #2e2e2e; color: #fff;" | Key Artists
! style="border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 6px; background-color: #2e2e2e; color: #fff;" | Notes
|-
| style="border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 6px;" | Jazz / Harlem Renaissance
| style="border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 6px;" | Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker
| style="border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 6px;" | Apollo Theater and Harlem club scene; global spread of jazz
|-
| style="border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 6px;" | Folk Revival
| style="border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 6px;" | Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Phil Ochs, Dave Van Ronk, Peter, Paul and Mary
| style="border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 6px;" | Greenwich Village coffeehouses; civil rights movement connections
|-
| style="border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 6px;" | Downtown Avant-Garde
| style="border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 6px;" | Velvet Underground, Patti Smith, Television, Sonic Youth
| style="border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 6px;" | Art-world connections; CBGB and loft spaces; proto-punk and no wave
|-
| style="border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 6px;" | Punk / New Wave
| style="border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 6px;" | Ramones, Talking Heads, Blondie, Television, Richard Hell
| style="border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 6px;" | CBGB scene; direct influence on British punk
|-
| style="border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 6px;" | Disco / Dance
| style="border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 6px;" | Larry Levan, Nicky Siano, Arthur Russell, Cerrone
| style="border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 6px;" | The Loft, Paradise Garage, Studio 54; Black and Latino LGBTQ+ culture
|-
| style="border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 6px;" | Hip-Hop
| style="border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 6px;" | DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, [[Run-DMC]], [[Public Enemy]], [[Beastie Boys]], Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, Nas
| style="border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 6px;" | South Bronx origins; Def Jam Records; global dominance
|-
| style="border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 6px;" | Salsa / Latin
| style="border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 6px;" | Celia Cruz, Rubén Blades, Willie Colón, Héctor Lavoe
| style="border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 6px;" | Fania Records; El Barrio and South Bronx; Caribbean and Latin American reach
|-
| style="border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 6px;" | Indie / Alternative
| style="border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 6px;" | Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo, Interpol, The Strokes, LCD Soundsystem
| style="border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 6px;" | Downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn; Matador and DFA Records
|}