Music Building

In 1979, Jack P. Lerner created the Music Building at 584 8th Avenue in Manhattan. Consisting on 70 studios, it was the first facility in New York that had so may studios exclusively leased on a monthly basis to musicians.

Some of the first tenants included Madonna, Joey Ramone, Lenny Kaye (of the Patti Smith Group), the New York Dolls, The Fleshtones, Blondie, Billy Idol, etc.

In the early 80’s many of the artists who created the New York punk Rock scene were either rehearsed and hung out in the Music Building and thus the Building was considered one of the birthplaces of the movement (CBGB’s and Max’s Kansas City were other hallmarks of that scene).

At about the same time, a second Music Building was opened in Jamaica, Queens. Tenants at that property included Metallica, Anthrax, Onyx, etc. LL Cool J recorded his first demos at the Queens Music Building. Just as the Manhattan MB was the center of punk rock, the Queens MB was the center of the New York Heavy Metal movement and early rap.

The Music Building has been featured in several musician documentaries on VH1 and MTV in addition to a plethora of books on Punk Rock and other publications.