Exclusive | Inside the gritty, hidden NYC music mecca where Madonna and The Strokes found their sound — and where musicians are still vying for a room to rehearse

Times Square’s hidden music mecca is still hitting all the right notes.

Long before soulless glass towers and blinding LED billboards reshaped one of NYC’s most notorious neighborhoods, some of pop culture’s biggest names strutted, sang and even slept in the halls of The Music Building — one in scores of recording studios around the Crossroads of The World responsible for pleasuring the world aurally over a period of decades.

This one not only survived decades of gentrification — it’s still thriving.

Hidden behind a nondescript gray metal door at 584 Eighth Ave. between 38th and 39th streets, amps are still cranked, drums pound, and the spirit of rock and roll never dies. 17

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Today, young musicians and up-and-coming bands continue to fight for space at the legendary stronghol