Cleveland (AP) – From Alice Cooper and Eric Clapton to Joan Baez, Whitney Houston and Leonard Cohen to the Beatles and Miles Davis, from Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan to Johnny Cash, Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner and Billie Holiday to Janet and Michael Jackson: The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is an illustrious society.
Almost 350 musicians and bands have so far been awarded the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. On Wednesday (September 2nd) exactly a quarter of a century ago, a physical memorial was erected for them for the first time with the opening of a museum in Cleveland, Ohio.
The eye-catching building with glass pyramids by the star architect IM Pei, who died in 2019, is located in Cleveland directly on Lake Erie and is one of the biggest attractions of the metropolis in the Midwest of the USA, which had strongly advertised its settlement. “Rock connects us,” says the museum’s website. “Our mission is clear: to come together, learn and inspire through the power of rock and roll.”
Musicians such as Billy Joel, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Little Richard performed during construction and at the opening. Since then, according to the operator, more than 12.6 million people have visited the museum. In the coronavirus pandemic, the building, which shows memorabilia about its famous honorees, was temporarily closed, but is now reopened with limited capacity and in compliance with hygiene measures and mandatory masking. Smaller concert events are also taking place again. The annual concert to welcome the new members had to be canceled this year.
The idea of a hall of fame for famous personalities of rock & roll originated in the music industry in the mid-80s. In 1986 the first members were accepted, including the singers Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, James Browne, Sam Cooke, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley and Little Richard. In 2020, the bands Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails were added, as well as the posthumous singer Whitney Houston (1963-2012) and the rapper Notorious BIG (1972-1997).
More than 1000 musicians, musicologists and other members of the industry now decide on admission. The fans can also have their say. At least 25 years must have passed since a band or musician’s first album was released in order to be recorded. Other genres of music also have their own halls of fame, but not all of them have their own museums.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame does not satisfy all fans: Among other things, far too few women have been accepted so far, wrote Joe Kwaczala, who moderates a podcast about the Hall of Fame, recently on the industry magazine “Vulture”. Kwaczala describes himself as a long-time fan of the Hall of Fame, but also describes it as “an institution of questionable importance, the decisions of which repeatedly provoke firestorms of disappointment and anger”. The voices of the fans and music genres such as electro and heavy metal are not sufficiently taken into account, the author criticizes – and lists some bands and musicians who are still waiting to be inducted into the Hall of Fame: Pat Benatar, Dave Matthews Band, Kraftwerk and Chaka Khan.
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