Take a walk through almost any neighborhood in Manhattan and you'll likely pass some of the most significant clubs in American music history. But you won't know it- almost all of these venues have been demolished or repurposed, leaving no record of what they were, how they shaped music scenes,or their impact on the neighborhoods around them. Traditional music history tells us that famous scenes are created by brilliant, singular artists. But dig deeper and you'll find that they're actually created by cheap rent, empty space, and other unglamorous factors that allow artistic communities to flourish. But these scenes are more than just moments of artistic genius- they're also part of the urban gentrification cycle, one that often displaces other communities and, eventually, the musicians themselves.