Disco and House
Disco is an up-tempo style of dance music that originated in the early 1970s, with its center in the United States in New York. As discotheques grew more popular in the early 70s, they began moving to larger venues. Many of these were in New York, including Paradise Garage and Studio 54.

In the early 1980s, house music, a direct descendent of disco, was forged in the underground clubs of Chicago and New York. The common element of most house music is a 4/4 beat generated by a drum machine or other electronic means (such as a sampler), together with a solid (usually also electronically generated) bassline. Upon this foundation are added electronically generated sounds and samples of music such as jazz, blues and synth pop.

Hip Hop
Nas's album, Illmatic, had a profound impact on East Coast hip hop during the mid-1990s

New York City is a prominent part of hip hop music. The genre began there at neighborhood block parties when DJs, like DJ Kool Herc, began isolating percussion breaks in funk and R&B songs, eventually rapping while the audience danced. For many years, New York was the only city with a major hip hop scene, and all of the early recordings came from New York. People like Kurtis Blow and LL Cool J brought hip hop to the mainstream for the first time, while so-called East Coast rap was perfected by artists including Eric B. & Rakim.

By the early 1990s, however, West Coast rap, from Los Angeles, was gaining national fame. In 1992, Dr. Dre's The Chronic became a national hit and made the West Coast the most popular center of hip hop. The East Coast, however, included multi-platinum artists like Puff Daddy, Jay-Z and Notorious B.I.G., along with critically acclaimed acts like Wu-Tang Clan, Nas, Big L, and Busta Rhymes.