Six Current and Upcoming NYC Music Exhibits (and Museums) You Should Check Out

New York City is home to a diverse array of music history. At different points, its streets have been filled with the sounds of jazz, punk, hip hop, rock ‘n’ roll, folk and more. And as some of this history slowly fades away with time and gentrification, it needs to be discussed and remembered in some fashion.

Every so often, pieces of the city’s music scene become immortalized in a museum exhibit, contextualizing what made an artist or the scene so great. Right now, there are a handful of new exhibits getting started around the city doing just that, as well as permanent exhibits and museums and tours that continually update their music collections.

Vinyl Bay 777 brings you a list of six exhibits and museums in New York City that will satisfy the music buff in all of us. From exhibits that give you an intimate look at an artist or their creative process to tours and museums built on the city’s music landmarks and genres, these picks are sure to give you a broader view of music past and present.

1.       Iggy Pop: When I said “intimate,” I REALLY meant it for this one. A few months ago, Iggy Pop posed for an art class at the New York Academy of Art in the buff. That experience turned into ‘Iggy Pop Life Class,’ an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum displaying these portraits created by students of all ages and backgrounds. The exhibit opened on November 4 and runs through March 26, 2017.

2.       Rolling Stones: Another intimate look into the life of a rock band, the Rolling Stones have been celebrating their 50-year with a traveling exhibition taping into the band’s early 60s start. What is it an exhibit of, you might ask? ‘Exhibitionism’s’ main focus is a recreation of the band’s first apartment together in London. It shows the band living in squalor, with dirty dishes, old beer bottles and vinyl records strewn everywhere. The exhibit, which also features art by Andy Worhol, Alexander McQueen and John Pasche, started out in London before coming stateside to Industria in NYC this weekend. ‘Exhibitionism’ runs through March 12, 2017.

3.       Taylor Swift: Adoptive New Yorker Taylor Swift has a new pop-up exhibit coming to the Big Apple this coming weekend. Sponsored by the Grammy Museum, the ‘Taylor Swift Experience’ gives patrons an intimate look at the singer and her musical process. Located at the South Street Seaport, the interactive exhibit features personal photographs and videos, handwritten lyrics, on-stage outfits and more.  The ‘Taylor Swift Experience’ runs from November 18 through February 19.

4.       Walking Tours: Local show promoter Rocks Off has been putting on “Rock N Roll History Walking Tours for the last three years and, from experience, they are amazing. On weekends during the spring, summer and fall months, they present two tours which take you to the former sites of Manhattan’s most notorious venues, bars and more: ‘The History of Art, Crime, Drugs and Punk Rock on the Lower East Side’ with Cro-Mags’ John Joseph, and ‘The Origins of the Underworld of Lower New York’ with Seth “the Goon” Abrams.

5.       National Jazz Museum: The National Jazz Museum is a Smithsonian-Affiliated museum in Harlem that “preserves, promotes and presents jazz by inspiring knowledge, appreciation and the celebration of jazz locally, nationally and internationally.” It is right in the middle of where the Harlem Renaissance took place in the mid-1930s and 40s, so the neighborhood is as full of history as the museum itself.

6.       Morrison Hotel Gallery: This gallery has three locations across the country, but their main one is in SoHo. Their main purpose is to promote music and photography. Right now, they have a display by Patricia O’Driscoll of Gregg Allman called ‘Midnight Rider,’ which runs until November 27. Following that will be a Neil Young Retrospective called ‘Long May You Run,’ which opens on December 2 in New York.

Whether you are interested in learning about the inner workings of the Rolling Stones and Taylor Swift, watching Iggy Pop bear all or getting to know NYC’s music scene just a bit better, there are great exhibits and museums in New York that have you covered. Check these out before they are gone.

Find music from NYC’s iconic scenes at Vinyl Bay 777 and vinylbay777.com. We have one of the largest collections of vinyl, CD, cassettes, DVDs, memorabilia and more on Long Island with thousands of titles to choose from! Now open every day!