This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/nyc by /u/richarizard on 2023-10-05 15:14:38.
Every month, I publish a full curated list of things to do in NYC, and the November Blankman List is no exception. As is customary by now, the list includes at least one event for every day of the month and has far more than just music, including a dog-themed book sale, a mathematical lesson on fractals, a cooking workshop, and a wide range of theater and dance performances.
Those monthly lists are paywalled—a step I took several months back to justify the time it takes to make them. But the subscription fees are not what drive me. This kind of post is what drives me. I love the research and organization of list-making, and for November, I created a free offering that showcases how uniquely broad the musical offerings are in this city. This November NYC concert list is also available on the same Substack as my monthly list and includes a few additional genres due to the character limits of Reddit posts.
Categorizing Music
I was a math major in college, and this idea that objects, no matter how abstract, can always be organized became my favorite part of the subject. It is with this mindset that I consider how to construct a concert list that is as musically comprehensive as possible.
In the list below, I break down all of music into five broad categories:
- Popular Music
- World Music
- Art Music
- World Art Music
- Everything Else
These are not perfectly distinct, fully encapsulating labels (or eigengenres, if you will), but together they do a decent enough job of classifying all music that is possible to hear in New York City in November.
Plus, a bonus for this post: a Spotify playlist that includes one track representing each of the concerts below. I listened to it on shuffle recently, and it is a wild ride.
Disclaimer: before going anywhere, please confirm the date, time, cost, and location using the listed website. Any event is at risk of being rescheduled, relocated, sold out, at capacity, or canceled. I try to vet quality and describe accurately, but I may misjudge. Costs are rounded to the nearest dollar and may change.
Popular Music
Let’s start with the genres that people in the US are most likely to listen to. I would consider all of these different forms of “popular” music, meaning that they’re typically meant for socializing and dancing to, and many of these genres dominate charts like the Billboard Hot 100 or Spotify’s Top 50. Many of them (though not all!) are easy to find concerts for around the city:
Blues
- Wednesday, November 8: Ellis Hooks
- Southern gospel-influenced acoustic blues; 7–9:30 pm
- $10 cover at door
- Terra Blues
- 149 Bleecker St (NoHo, Manhattan)
Country
Electronic
Gospel
- Thursday, November 9: Kirk Whalum: A Soulful Catholic Life
- Gospel-influenced smooth jazz; 7 pm (6:30 pm doors)
- $48
- The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture
- 18 Bleecker St (Bowery, Manhattan)
Hip-Hop
- Monday, November 20: Lil Uzi Vert: Pink Tape Tour
- Trap hip-hop; 8 pm (7 pm doors)
- $65–$333+
- Barclays Center
- 620 Atlantic Ave (Prospect Heights, Brooklyn)
Jazz
Metal
- Saturday, November 25: Ulcerate, Altars
- New Zealand and Australian extreme metal; 6:30 pm
- $37
- Saint Vitus Bar
- 1120 Manhattan Ave (Greenpoint, Brooklyn)
Pop
- Thursday, November 30: Cautious Clay
- Indie pop singer-songwriter; 8 pm (6 pm doors) & 10:30 pm (10 pm doors); through December 3
- $52 + $20 minimum food and drink (full menu available)
- Blue Note Jazz Club
- 131 W 3rd St (West Village, Manhattan)
Punk
- Saturday, November 11: The Menzingers
- Pop punk; 6:30–10:30 pm
- $44
- Knockdown Center
- 52-19 Flushing Ave (Maspeth, Queens)
R&B
Rock
Showtunes
Soul
- Friday, November 3: Moon Soul
- Ambient jazz-influenced soul; 8–8:45 pm
- Free entry (full food and drink menu available)
- Freddy’s Bar
- 627 5th Ave (South Slope, Brooklyn)
World Music
Already, that’s quite a span. The above genres contain deep and varied roots, and all of them give way to entire worlds of subgenres. Yet they have a lot in common. They are all in the Western tradition, with features like twelve-tone equal pitch temperament (e.g., the frets of a guitar or keys of a piano), harmony based mainly on major and minor tonalities, and a rhythm with (usually four) clear, emphasized downbeats divided into bars. In general, they feature Western instruments like the piano, guitar, and drum set, and can be broken down into a bass line, chord progression, and sung melody.
Once you leave the US, however, and especially once you leave the Western hemisphere, all of those characteristics can be bent or broken. Below are genres of music that still fall under the broad umbrella of popular music but are heavily influenced by, if not practically restricted to, a culture outside this country.
That said, I’m not a fan of the label of “world” music. It’s an unfairly US-centric way of defining music. It defines music but what it’s not instead of what it is. Yet, I’ve only got concerts taking place in NYC in November to work with. For better or worse, New York City is part of the United States, so here is a variety of “world” music to be found around the city:
Afrobeats
- Sunday, November 5: Wizkid: More Love, Less Ego Tour
- Nigerian Afrobeats dancehall; 7:30 pm
- $60–$266+
- Barclays Center
- 620 Atlantic Ave (Prospect Heights, Brooklyn)
Bachata
- Friday, November 10: Wason Brazoban
- Bachata dance party; 9 pm–4 am
- $34
- Salsa Con Fuego
- 2297 Cedar Ave (University Heights, The Bronx)
Chinese Traditional
- Friday, November 17: China Institute Calligraphy and Music Meetup
- Calligraphy workshop with traditional Chinese music (no calligraphy experience required); 6–8 pm; additional dates: Oct 20 & Dec 15
- $10 general / free for students (includes refreshments)
- China Institute at the Metropolitan College of New York
- 40 Rector St, 2nd Floor (Financial District, Manhattan)
Javanese Traditional
- Saturday, November 4: Peni Candra Rini
- Traditional and experimental music from Java; 8–9:30 pm
- $20 suggested
- Barbès
- ...
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