This list serves as somewhat of a soundtrack to the book: Please Kill Me: A Oral History of Punk. Rooted essenitially in NYC, the book provides a detailed account of the scene and the music. Soon to follow will be: Hip Hop NYC 1970-1980.

Before we get all that mail... yes, I know as well as you that the MC5, Iggy Pop (both Detroit) and the Dead Boys (Cincinnati) are not from NYC. But their impact on the scene and the musicians in the rest of the list is fairly significant.

The Velvet Underground
MC5
The Stooges
The Ramones
The New York Dolls
Suicide
The Dictators
Patti Smith
Blondie
The Dead Boys
Television
Richard Hell and the Voidoids
The Talking Heads
The Heartbreakers
Johnny Thunders
Iggy Pop
Lou Reed