Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, also simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and the artists, producers, engineers, and other personnel who have influenced its development.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation was established on April 20, 1983, by Ahmet Ertegun, founder and chairman of Atlantic Records. After a long search for the right city, Cleveland was chosen in 1986 as the Hall of Fame's permanent home. Architect I. M. Pei designed the new museum, and it was dedicated on September 1, 1995.
Foundation
The RRHOF Foundation was established in 1983 by Ahmet Ertegun, who assembled a team that included publisher of Rolling Stone magazine Jann Wenner, record executives Seymour Stein, Bob Krasnow, and Noreen Woods, and attorneys Allen Grubman and Suzan Evans.The Foundation began inducting artists in 1986, but the Hall of Fame still had no home. The search committee considered several cities, including Philadelphia ; Memphis, Tennessee ; Detroit ; Cincinnati, Ohio ; New York City; and Cleveland.
Cleveland lobbied for the museum, with civic leaders in Cleveland pledging $65 million in public money to fund the construction, and citing that WJW disc jockey Alan Freed both coined the term "rock and roll" and heavily promoted the new genre, and that Cleveland was the location of Freed's Moondog Coronation Ball, which is often credited as the first major rock and roll concert. Freed was also a member of the hall of fame's inaugural class of inductees in 1986. In addition, Cleveland cited radio station WMMS, which played a key role in breaking several major acts in the U.S. during the 1970s and 1980s, including David Bowie, who began his first U.S. tour in the city, Bruce Springsteen, Roxy Music, and Rush, among many others.
During early discussions on where to build the Hall of Fame and Museum, the Foundation's board considered a site along the Cuyahoga River in downtown Cleveland. Ultimately, the chosen location was along East Ninth Street in downtown by Lake Erie, east of Cleveland Stadium. At one point in the planning phase, when a financing gap existed, planners proposed locating the Rock Hall in the then-vacant May Company Building but finally decided to commission architect I. M. Pei to design a new building. Initial CEO Larry R. Thompson facilitated I. M. Pei in designs for the site. Pei came up with the idea of a tower with a glass pyramid protruding from it. Pei initially planned the tower to be high, but was forced to reduce it to due to the structure's proximity to Burke Lakefront Airport. The building's base is approximately.
Building
The groundbreaking ceremony for the building took place on June 7, 1993, with Pete Townshend, Chuck Berry, and Billy Joel in attendance.The museum was dedicated on September 1, 1995, with the ribbon being cut by an ensemble that included Yoko Ono and Little Richard, before a crowd of more than 10,000 people. The following night, an all-star concert was held at Cleveland Stadium and featured Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, Al Green, Jerry Lee Lewis, Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen, Iggy Pop, John Fogerty, John Mellencamp, and many others.
In addition to the Hall of Fame inductees, the museum documents the entire history of rock and roll, regardless of induction status. Hall of Fame inductees are honored in a special exhibit located in a wing that juts out over Lake Erie. The exhibit space and inaugural exhibits were designed by Bruce Burdick's San Francisco design firm The Burdick Group.
Since 1986, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has selected new inductees. The formal induction ceremony has been held in New York City 28 times ; four times in Los Angeles ; and seven times in the hall of fame's home in Cleveland.
The 2009 and 2012 induction weeks were made possible by a public–private partnership between the City of Cleveland; the State of Ohio; the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; and local foundations, corporations, civic organizations, and individuals. Collectively, these entities invested $5.8 million in 2009 and $7.9 million in 2012 to produce a week of events, including free concerts, a gospel celebration, exhibition openings, free admission to the museum, and induction ceremonies at Public Hall.
Millions viewed the television broadcast of the Cleveland inductions, and tens of thousands traveled to Ohio during induction week to participate in the events. The economic impact of the 2009 induction week activities was more than $13 million, and it provided an additional $20 million in media exposure for the region. The 2012 induction week yielded similar results.
In 2020, the Rock Hall announced plans to renovate and expand its footprint by a third. The architecture firm PAU, founded by Vishaan Chakrabarti, will lead the project.
Layout
The building contains seven levels. On the lower level is the Ahmet M. Ertegun Exhibition Hall, the museum's main gallery, which includes exhibits on the roots of rock and roll. It also features exhibits on cities that have had a major impact on rock and roll: Memphis, Detroit, London, Liverpool, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and Seattle. There are exhibits about soul music, the Fifties, Sun Records, hip hop music, Cleveland's rock and roll legacy, the music of the Midwest, rock and roll radio and dee-jays, and the many protests against rock and roll. This gallery also has exhibits that focus on individual artists, including the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, and others. Finally, the Ahmet M. Ertegun Exhibition Hall includes a theatre that features films on various subjects such as American Bandstand.The first floor of the museum is the entrance level. It includes a café, a stage that the museum uses for various special performances and events throughout the year, and a section called "Backstage Stories". The second floor includes several interactive kiosks that feature programs on one-hit wonders and the Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. This level also includes a gallery with artifact-filled exhibits about Les Paul, Alan Freed, Sam Phillips, and the evolution of audio technology.
Visitors enter the Hall of Fame section of the museum on the third floor. This section includes "The Power of Rock Experience", which includes one of Jonathan Demme's final works, a film shown in the Connor Theater. The film includes musical highlights from some of the Hall's induction ceremonies. Visitors exit the Hall of Fame section on the fourth floor. That level features the Foster Theater, a state-of-the-art 3-D theater that is used for special events and programs.
Finally, the top two levels of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame feature large, temporary exhibits. Over the years, numerous exhibits have been installed on these two levels, including exhibits about Elvis Presley, hip-hop, the Supremes, the Who, U2, John Lennon, the Clash, the Grateful Dead, Bruce Springsteen, Women Who Rock, and the Rolling Stones.
Architecture
Designed by I. M. Pei and structurally engineered by Leslie E. Robertson Associates, the building rises above the shores of Lake Erie. It is a combination of geometric forms and cantilevered spaces that are anchored by a 162-foot tower. The tower supports a dual-triangular-shaped glass "tent" that extends onto a 65,000-square-foot plaza that provides a main entry facade.The building houses more than 55,000 square feet of exhibition space, as well as administrative offices, a store, and a café.
"In designing this building," Pei said, "it was my intention to echo the energy of rock and roll. I have consciously used an architectural vocabulary that is bold and new, and I hope the building will become a dramatic landmark for the city of Cleveland and for fans of rock and roll around the world."
New York City Annex
In 2006, the RRHOF partnered with three entertainment production companies to create a branch museum in New York City. On November 18, 2008, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex NYC opened in Manhattan's SoHo district. Located at 76 Mercer Street just west of Broadway, the Annex occupied an underground space of. The branch museum operated in much the same way as its Cleveland parent, featuring archetypal display pieces like Prince's coat from Purple Rain, David Byrne's "big suit" from Stop Making Sense, and Elvis Presley's motorcycle jacket and Bible. But from its start, the Annex also had a distinct New York area focus that made plenty of space for big items like the phone booth from CBGB, layered thick with band stickers over the decades; Bruce Springsteen's own 1957 Chevrolet; a special gallery reserved for the city's musicians; and an intricate scale model of Manhattan highlighting sites of rock history.Jann Wenner served as chairman of the board of the Annex. At its opening night gala, he inadvertently created a controversy after he told a reporter, "One of the small sad things is we didn't do it in New York in the first place." He later expressed regret for his remark, which he said had been misconstrued and clarified that "I am absolutely delighted that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is in Cleveland."
The Annex closed on January 3, 2010, its quick demise reportedly due to the 2008 financial crisis and a subsequent downturn in the city's tourism. The museum's final major exhibition was about John Lennon and his years in New York City.
Exhibits and features
Since 1997, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has featured numerous temporary exhibits that range in size from major exhibits that fill the top two floors of the museum to smaller exhibits that are often installed in the main exhibition hall on the lower level.The museum's first major exhibit opened on May 10, 1997. It was called I Want to Take You Higher: The Psychedelic Era, 1965–1969 and included memorabilia from numerous artists including John Lennon, Eric Clapton, John Sebastian, Jefferson Airplane, and Janis Joplin, as well as items related to the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival and 1969's Woodstock.
That exhibit was followed by Elvis Is in the Building, which ran from August 8, 1998, to September 5, 1999. This year-long tribute was the first exhibit devoted to a single artist: Elvis Presley, the "King of Rock and Roll" and the first inductee into the RRHOF in 1986. Graceland supplied a significant selection of representative artifacts for this special tribute that spanned Presley's life and career. Next, the museum curated Roots, Rhymes and Rage: The Hip-Hop Story, which was the first major museum exhibit to focus on hip-hop. It ran from November 11, 1999, to August 6, 2000. It was followed by Rock Style, an exhibit that focused on both rock and roll and fashion. It featured clothing from Buddy Holly to Alice Cooper, Ray Charles to David Bowie, and Smokey Robinson to Sly Stone. After it closed in Cleveland, Rock Style traveled to other museums in the U.S.
Other temporary exhibits have included Lennon: His Life and Work, which ran from October 20, 2000, to January 1, 2003, followed by In the Name of Love: Two Decades of U2 and Reflections: The Mary Wilson Supreme Legacy Collection. A major exhibition titled Louder than Words: Rock, Power, Politics was on display during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
Other large temporary exhibits have focused on the Clash, the Doors, the Who's Tommy, and Bruce Springsteen. Another thematic temporary exhibit focused on the role of women in rock and roll. Many of these exhibits travel to other museums after closing in Cleveland. A major temporary exhibit in 2017 told the story and impact of Rolling Stone magazine.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame also curates many smaller temporary exhibits. Over the years, these exhibits have focused on such topics as the Vans Warped Tour, the Concert for Bangladesh, Woodstock's 40th and 50th anniversaries, Austin City Limits, the Monterey International Pop Festival, Roy Orbison, Motown's 50th anniversary, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Marty Stuart, Paul Simon, Graham Nash, John Mellencamp, and Geddy Lee's basses.
The museum also devotes exhibits to photography and artwork related to rock and roll. Among the photographers whose work has been featured at the Hall of Fame are George Kalinsky, Alfred Wertheimer, Tommy Edwards, Kevin Mazur, Janet Macoska, Lynn Goldsmith, Linda McCartney, Mike McCartney, Robert Alford, and George Shuba. The museum also featured the artwork of Philip Burke in one of its temporary exhibits, and a later exhibit featured Herb Ritts.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum produces numerous public programs, including concerts, interviews, lectures, film screenings, and other events that help tell the story of rock and roll.
Every February, the museum celebrates Black History Month by hosting concerts, film screenings, and lectures that illustrate the important role African-Americans have played in the history of rock and roll.
Another program is the Hall of Fame Series. This series began in April 1996 and features interviews with Hall of Fame inductees in rare and intimate settings, most often in the Museum's Foster Theater. The interviews are usually followed by a question-and-answer session with the audience and, often, a performance by the inductee.
A similar program is the Legends Series, whose only real difference from the Hall of Fame Series program is that it features artists who have not yet been inducted into the Hall of Fame. Peter Hook of Joy Division, Spinderella of Salt n Pepa, Tommy James, and the Chi-Lites are among the artists who have participated in the Legends Series.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's most acclaimed program is the annual American Music Masters series. Each year, the museum celebrates one of the Hall's inductees with a week-long series of programs that includes interviews, film screenings, and, often, a special exhibit. The celebration ends with an all-star concert held at a Cleveland theater. The concerts include a diverse mix of artists—from Hall of Fame inductees to contemporary musicians.
The American Music Masters series began in 1996 with Hard Travelin': The Life and Legacy of Pete Seeger. Since then, the programs have honored the following inductees: Jimmie Rodgers, Robert Johnson, Louis Jordan, Muddy Waters, Bessie Smith, Hank Williams, Buddy Holly, Lead Belly, Sam Cooke, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Les Paul, Janis Joplin, Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew, Aretha Franklin, Chuck Berry, The Everly Brothers, and Johnny Cash. In 2019, the concert series's format was retooled, and the event was renamed the Rock Hall Honors, in which the honored performer is joined in concert by guests of their choice. The first Rock Hall Honors concert, featuring Mavis Staples, was performed in Cleveland in September 2019.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame won the 2020 Webby People's Voice Award for Cultural Institution in the category Web.