Musical Locations

The Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame has honors the musicians who shaped not just a genre, but an entire cultural movement.

Explore Seanchaí and the Unity Squad, pioneers of Irish Rebel Hip-Hop, blending Irish storytelling with hip-hop beats and electronic rhythms in NYC.

The Hauser & Wirth Gallery in New York City played host to an extraordinary event: the launch of a collaboration with the Kronos Quartet and the Red Hot Organization.

Creem Magazine, America’s only rock ‘n’ roll magazine, was founded in 1969 by Wayne State student Barry Kramer and Brit Tony Reray in a defeated building in Detroit’s Cass Corridor.

Fela Aníkúlápó Kútì was a Nigerian musician, bandleader, composer, political activist, and Pan-Africanist who popularized Afrobeat. Learn the significance of his home, Kalakuta Republic, in Nigeria.

Learn about “Amapiano” which loosely translates to “the pianos” in Zulu and artists like Kabza De Small who pioneered the genre.

The Pan African Film & Arts Festival (PAFF), the largest Black Film Festival in America, is happening in Los Angeles.

In Summer 2012, a street was dedicated to J Dilla. It is called  “Allée Jay Dee”. and it is located in the city of Montpellier, France.

The Ponce Art Museum offers music events like HAPPY ART to expose younger patrons to the visual arts.

Learn about Drill music, and where it originated in the streets of Chicago.

YG Entertainment is laying the groundwork for the future of music by developing groups in K-Pop

Learn about how Pharoahe Monch and The band Th1rt3en shot a music video in the Andrew Freedman Home, a catalyst for the arts in the Bronx.

J Dilla aka Jay Dee crafted his style from about 1992 to 1997 in a basement in Detroit. His studio gave birth to a revolutionary approach to hip-hop production.

Spectacles Clothing Store and the Founder Zana are tastemakers in Detroit. Spectacles is a Detroit store selling eyewear, clothing, articles and books.

Learn about Reggae and Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One, where he developed artists like Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, The Skatalites, and Lee “Scratch” Perry. Laying the foundations of Jamaican music culture.

Soulection started in LA but they have become a source sharing the newest musical voices for GenZ and Millennials around the world.

Learn more about who the “Kilby Girl” is, and about Kilby Court the iconic, Utah venue where this group of fans got their name.

Learn about the legendry New York club the Paradise Garage and the legacy of Larry Levan that became the genre of garage house music.

Record Time is a shop that was a centerpiece of Detroit’s music scene.

Sacramento has pivoted to a growing city embracing investment, and community involvement in arts, entertainment, and hip-hop like never before.

Punk rock emerged in the mid-1970s from an underground Manhattan club called CBGB.

Native Tongues crew’s (Jungle Brothers, De La Soul, and A Tribe Called Quest among others) early work in Calliope Studios started a hip-hop movement.

Few artists have influenced style, fashion and music like David Bowie did during his 50-years career explore, Hansa Studios, where he made his seminal hits.

Graystone Ballroom is legendary in big band jazz and swing. It opened in1922 billed as “Detroit’s Million Dollar Ballroom”.

Bossa Nova was born in the alley of bottles in Rio De Janeiro.

Musicland Studios was located in Munich, Germany was established by Italian record producer, songwriter Giorgio Moroder.

The influential “Brill Building Sound” and the style of popular songwriting and recording created by its writers and producers defined 60’s popular music.

Learn more about Greene St. Recording Studios and it role in recording the golden years of NY hip hop in the 90’s

Gold Star Recording Studios was a trailblazing studio that changed the course of modern music through technology and hosting pioneering producers.

On Saturday, November 19th, 2016, the corner of 192nd St and Linden Blvd in St. Albans, Queens, NY was dedicated as Malik ‘Phife Dawg’ Taylor Way in memory of the member of rap group A Tribe Called Quest who died in March of 2016 as a result of complications from diabetes. Shortly after his passing a small group of men took it upon themselves to dedicate a mural and a street they loved and immortalized in song, in his honor.

The Warehouse (or the “House”) was a nightclub established in Chicago, Illinois it is most famous for being what many consider to be the birthplace “house music” under its first musical director, DJ Frankie Knuckles.

Visit Aretha Franklin’s home during the Motown Era.

Levi Stubbs was the lead vocalist of the legendary musical Motown group The Four Tops. The Detroit-based quartet also included Renaldo “Obie” Benson, Lawrence Payton and Abdul “Duke” Fakir.

When it opened in 1910 the Howard Theatre it was known as “the largest colored theatre in the world.” After falling to disarray it was restored and reopened in 2012.

The Blue Bird Inn was “The hippest modern jazz nightspot” in Detroit during the city’s bebop era.

Iggy Pop and his band the Stooges got started in this home. It was a hot spot in the local Ann Arbor music scene.

The Watts Club Mozambique was established in 1969 by Detroiter Cornelius Watts to showcase local talent.

Rudy Van Gelder’s Studio is a location where practically every major jazz musician of the 1950s and 1960s was recorded. Rudy Van Gelder was considered the greatest recording engineer of all time.

Bookies was ground zero for the Detroit New Wave scene and home for Detroit’s punk rock scene

The Graystone became Detroit’s “cradle of jazz,” and many greats including Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie and Guy Lombardo took the stage here and became nationally renowned while playing at the Graystone

Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing. Other elements include beatboxing. Since its emergence from the South Bronx, hip hop culture has spread around the world. Hip hop music first emerged with disc jockeys creating rhythmic beats by looping breaks (small portions of songs emphasizing a percussive pattern) on two turntables, more commonly referred to as sampling. This was later accompanied by “rap”, a rhythmic style of chanting or poetry presented in 16 bar measures or time frames, and beatboxing, a vocal technique mainly used to imitate percussive elements of the music and various technical effects of hip-hop DJ’s. An original form of dancing and particular styles of dress arose among fans of this new music. These elements experienced considerable refinement and development over the course of the history of the culture. Hip hop originated, by most accounts, in the late 60s with Clive Campbell, also known as DJ Kool Herc. In fact, Herc is the person that brought the first hip-hop music to the Bronx […]

Archer Record Pressing, is one of 12 record pressing plants left in the US. It is the plant where most of the classic Detroit Techno vinyl records were pressed.

Santurce’s famous market – La Placita – has been the hub of San Juan’s nightlife and salsa scene for many years. The historic market plaza and its surrounding streets host what becomes a street party and jam session

Salsa music is a genre of music, generally defined as a modern style of playing Cuban Son, Son Montuno, and Guaracha with touches from other genres of music. We highlight one of the oldest Theatres in the Carribean, Teatro La Perla. Teatro La Perla is a historic concert venue in the city of Ponce Puerto Rico.

Trap music is a music genre that originated in the early 1990s in the Southern United States. It is typified by its aggressive lyrical content and hip hop instrumental sound.

The Detroit Sound Project Team, traveled with Derrick May to WIRE 12 event at Yokohama Arena in Tokyo, Japan (Fall 2012)

The Packard Plant was designed by Albert Kahn. It was a automotive manufacturing center from 1903 to 1962. While the parties migrated week to week in the 90’s, the infamous Packard Plant, a long abandoned auto factory that in recent years became the primary party space monument to urban decay and the illegal underground party scene.

the Motown Museum was the home of Motown Records’ which was founded by Berry Gordy, in 1959 in Detroit. The small flat where he lived and worked is now called Hitsville U.S.A., and is home to an extensive array of Motown artifacts, photographs and other memorabilia.