Diverse and important field in the world of music; no American city has as central a place in music history as New York City. It has long been a thriving home for jazz, rock and the blues, and is the birthplace of hip hop. The city's culture, a melting pot of nations from around the world, has produced vital folk music scenes such as Irish-American music and Jewish klezmer. Beginning with the rise of popular sheet music in the early 20th century, New York's Broadway musical theater and Tin Pan Alley's songcraft, New York has been a major part of the American music industry.
Music author Richie Unterberger has described the New York music scene, and the city itself, as "(i)mmense, richly diverse, flashy, polyethnic, and engaged in a never-ending race for artistic and cosmopolitan supremacy".[1] Despite the city's historic importance in the development of American music, there are those who feel that its status has declined in recent year, due to a combination of increased corporate control over music media, an increase in the cost-of-living and the rise of local music scenes whose success is facilitated by the cheap communication