New Jersey's Greatest Hits

I love New Jersey, I love music, and I LOVE music from New Jersey. Here are some reason's why: You could stock a record store full of artists from Jersey. Do you want Old School, how about Hoboken's native son Frank Sinatra? Too old school, maybe try Newark's Frankie Valli and the 4 Season's(The hit Broadway musical "Jersey Boys" is based on The Seasons). You want some new school? Try on some Gaslight Anthem(New Brunswick) or Screaming Females(New Brunswick). We got dudes: Redman(Newark), Donald Fagen of Steely Dan(Passiac), and Bill Evans(North Plainfield). We got diva's: Dionne Warwick(Newark), Whitney Houston(Newark) and Lesley Gore(Tenafly). We even got disco with Newark's Gloria Gaynor. We also got pop: Vitamin C(Old Bridge), Ricky Nelson(Teaneck) and Frank's daughter Nancy Sinatra(Jersey City). We definatley got punk:Bouncing Souls(New Brunswick, by way of Basking Ridge), Lifetime(New Brunswick) and Thursday(New Brunswick). Combine the 2 for pop-punk and you get My Chemical Romance(North Jersey) and Midtown(Springfield). Suprisingly, P Funk was even born here-George Clinton(Plainfield). Want to celebrate some good times? Call Jersey City's Kool and The Gang. That's not even mentioning some of the wackest-but most popular- musicians of the pop world, The Jonas Brothers(Not brothers, but all from the shore area). If I stopped here, the list would still be an amazing list of musicians. Titans in all their respected genres. Rock and Roll Hall of Famers even. Some of the greatest selling artists of all time. But the list doesn't stop there. Jazz great Count Bassie was born in Redbank and has a theatre there named after him. Ska guys Streetlight Manifesto are from the Keasbey area. Even if you're a person who hate's ska, we got you covered with New Brunswick's Hub City Stompers. Don't even get me started on some of MY favorite artists from the Garden State like NJ harcore legends Vision(Bridgewater) or their buddies Shades Apart(Bridgewater). New Brunswick rapper Cymarshall Law reps Jerz hard. As do Inspector 7(New Brunswick), The Fire Still Burns(New Brunswick), Razorblade Handgrenade(Newark, BCHC), and The Turnbucklers(Clark). The Sirs are currently broken but all are from NJ. Two of my girlfriends favorite bands are The Measure(SA) from New Brunswick and Metuechen's own The Roadside Graves. Holy shit I'm outta breath. I didn't even mention own states royalty, Queen Latifah(East Orange). If you're down with OPP then you're down with East Orange's Naughty by Nature. And if we move not to far to South Orange you have the birthplace of Miss Lauryn Hill. Jersey City was home to PM Dawn and Newark claimed rap groups Lords of the Underground, Outsidaz and Artifacts. Frontmen Glenn Danzig(Lodi) and Pete V. AKA Jack Terricloth(Central Jersey) both have New Jersey birth certifacates, as do most of their respective bands The Misfits and Sticks & Stones. The Court Tavern's favorite band, The Smithereens, are from Carteret and Adrenalin O.D. called Elmwood Park home. I'm not EVEN gonna mention all the artists born in Jersey that grew up elsewhere like Ice T(Newark), Paul Simon(Newark), AD Rock(South Orange) and ALL of The Sugerhill gang(Englewood). Or the artist born somewhere else but grew up in Jersey like Akon(Newark), Wyclef Jean(North Jersey), or Patti Smith(Deptford Township.) With all these great musicians you need a place to play, right? Some great musical hubs, past and present, are cities like Trenton(City Gardens and The Conduit) and New Brunswick(The Roxy, Melody, Underground, Court Tavern and Patrix to name a few), Asbury Park(The Saint, Lanes, Wonder Bar, and Stone Pony) and Clifton(Dingbatz, Harp and Bard, and Clash Bar). Plus all the other live music venues scattered thoughout the state like Roxy and Dukes(Dunellen), The Stanhope House, and The Loop Lounge(Carlsdadt). Not to mention the large venues for big touring bands like The Tweeter Center(Camden), The Meadowlands(Secaucus), PNC (Homdel), Starland Ballroom(Sayerville) and all the Casinos in Atlantic City. If you love live music then New Jersey's for you. If you'd rather listen to the radio you can check out 105.5 WDHEA(The Jersey Giant), 88.7 WRSU(Rutgers), 89.5 WSOU(Seton Hall), 91.1 WFMU(Jersey City, longest running freeform radio station in the country), or 88.3 WBGO(Newark, Jazz station). You can watch New Jersey natives Matt Pinfield(East Brunswick) host MTV's 120 minutes or Eddie Trunk(Madison) host VH1's That Metal Show. New Jersey also claims two of the Northeast's largest independent record stores, The Princeton Record Exchange(Princeton) and Vintage Vinyl(Fords). Shit man, Thomas Edison invented the phonograph record in Menlo Park and Victor Talking Machine Company, the largest record player company in the world at the time, called Camden home. Jersey's the shit. Where would the world be without New Jersey's contributions to Rap, R&B, Jazz, Funk, Punk, Hardcore, Pop, or Arena Rock. Oh yeah, Arena Rocker's Bon Jovi were born and raised in the Sayerville area. Almost forgot those guys. And look at that, I made it a whole article about New Jersey music and I didn't even mention that Springsteen kid from Freehold.