Gentrification Kills Bowie’s Favourite New York Studio
Manhattan’s legendary analogue recording studio the Magic Shop, where artists including Sonic Youth, Lou Reed and David Bowie recorded albums, is to close in March after rising property prices made the business unviable.
Writing on Facebook, studio boss Steve Rosenthal paid tribute to the ‘late, great David Bowie for recording Blackstar and the Next Day at the studio’ though was candid about the cultural decline that forced him to shut down 28 years after opening.
“I get that New York City is always changing and adapting like the living city it is. Maybe what I believe in is no longer of value, but it was for us and we lived it,” he wrote.
“As the city becomes more of a corporate and condo island, some of us wish for a better balance between money and art, between progress and preservation, and we hope that one day we will see a reversal of the destruction of conscience and community we are witnessing.”
“Or maybe not,” he concluded, “After all I’m just a guy from The Bronx.” (Facebook )
