Blondie and Television — CBGB Era Apartment, Lower East Side

The Bowery in the mid-1970s was the epicentre of the New York punk and new wave scene centred on CBGB, which opened at 315 Bowery in 1973. Television — Tom Verlaine, Richard Lloyd, Richard Hell, and Billy Ficca — were arguably the most artistically significant band of the CBGB generation, playing extended, interlocking guitar improvisations that bore no resemblance to conventional punk. Verlaine and Hell had lived in a squat on the Bowery in the early 1970s; their literary bohemianism, informed by Rimbaud and the New York School poets, set the tone for what the neighbourhood became.

Blondie formed in 1974 with Debbie Harry and Chris Stein at its core, initially playing a more overtly pop-influenced version of downtown New York cool. Their trajectory from CBGB regulars to mainstream stars — via 'Heart of Glass,' 'Rapture,' and 'Call Me' — was the template for new wave's commercial crossover. Richard Hell, who left Television to form the Voidoids, gave punk its look as much as its sound: the torn clothes and spiky hair that Malcolm McLaren absorbed and repackaged for the Sex Pistols.

CBGB closed in 2006 and the space is now a John Varvatos clothing store, though the walls retain some of the original graffiti as decor. The Bowery has gentrified dramatically but remains a rewarding walk. The New Museum on the Bowery opened in 2007 and represents the area's continued arts identity. A historical marker acknowledges CBGB's importance.