You might be surprised to lean that beyond Jay-Z and Liza Minelli, a metric ton of human beings have sang songs about New York. From the Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York” to Bowling For Soup’s “Soho” to The Pogues’ “Thousands Are Sailing,” New York has been a great source of inspiration to musicians through the years. Finally though, we have a map that pinpoints which parts of New York have been shouted out by by musicians over the years. The best part? You can help fill it up!
The NYC Music Map, which tries to pinpoint the areas in New York City referenced by musicians, was put together by real estate developer Constantine Valhouli. While it’s similar in spirit to the Wikipedia page of songs about New York City, The Atlantic points out that it’s much, much cooler seeing it all mapped out. The map even links to YouTube videos of the songs, if they’re available, though we don’t know why it doesn’t in the case of “Ludlow Street,” the only good (or at least interesting) song on Julian Casablancas’ solo album.
That being said, maybe we’ll email Valhouli with a link to the video. He’s got an email address, musicmapnyc [AT] gmail.com, that he set up so that people can email him suggestions for the map that he’s missed. It looks like there’s plenty of Brooklyn to fill in, so if you’ve got a song, shoot him an email.