Exhibit :: Blog
Women Who Rock Exhibit Installation Update #3
We are excited to unveil our latest exhibit, Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power, tomorrow here at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum! The exhibit is the first of its kind documenting nearly a century's worth of music featuring more than 70 female artists, filling two entire floors of the museum with costumes, instruments, handwritten lyrics, video and listening stations, plus much more.
Watch this video for an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at artifacts from some of the aritsts highlighted in the exhibit, including Wanda Jackson, Mavis Staples, Mary Wilson of the Supremes, Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Rihanna and Lady Gaga!
These Women Rock
This past week the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opened its new exhibit devoted to telling the story of some of rock and roll’s most iconic artists to rave reviews. The Wall Street Journal called Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power “thoroughly entertaining” and the Huffington Post said “It’s a must-see.” Here’s a look back at opening night from Meredith Rutledge, who lead the exhibit’s curation.
The opening of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s new Women Who Rock was a grand series of “wow” moments that are difficult to put into words. The first happened when Darlene Love looked at her section in the new inductee exhibit and then her display in the Women Who Rock exhibit. If that wasn’t a big enough thrill, I was lucky enough to witness Darlene, Cyndi Lauper and Wanda Jackson all meeting for the first time. The three legends hugged and traded compliments with laughter and tears. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, inductee Ronnie Spector made a surprise appearance on the main stage, grabbing the microphone. I thought my head was going to explode when I saw Darlene step over ...
Rock Hall opens one of the most comprehensive Beatles exhibits in the world as part of the Museum's redesign
As part of our re-design of the Museum’s galleries, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has just opened a fantastic new Beatles exhibit. It features all new casework, a video element and – best of all – several great new artifacts. The Museum has had a great relationship with Yoko Ono since day one. As a result, we have always had numerous artifacts representing John Lennon, including his Sgt. Pepper uniform, the guitar he played during the bed-ins for peace that he and Yoko held in 1969, several lyric manuscripts and a black leather jacket from the Beatles’ days in Hamburg. This time around, as we revamped our Beatles exhibit, both Olivia Harrison and Ringo Starr also contributed artifacts. George Harrison’s widow loaned us a striped suit that he wore during the Beatles’ 1966 tour of the U.S. and an orange jacket that he wore to the premiere of Yellow Submarine. Ringo loaned us a red jacket that he wore in the “Strawberry Fields Forever” promo film. In addition, the exhibit includes Lennon’s collarless jacket that he wore in 1963 and 1964, the Beatles logo drumhead from the band’s appearance on the Ed Sullivan show in ...
Lady Gaga's Meat Dress was on display at the Rock Hall as part of the Women Who Rock exhibit
The meat dress is here! Yes, Lady Gaga’s meat dress is now at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and has been installed in our Women Who Rock exhibit. After Gaga wore the dress at the 2010 MTV Music Video Awards show, we contacted her managers and asked if we might be able to get the dress for our exhibit. They said yes, but obviously it had to be treated in some way so we could exhibit it. They sent the dress to American Taxidermy in California, where it was placed in a meat locker. It was then placed in a vat of chemicals and, while still pliable, was put on a body form and allowed to dry. This process actually took a while because the dress was made up of separate layers of Argentinian beef. After drying, the meat was painted to look fresh, rather than the dark, beef-jerky look it had taken on when it began dehydrating. The dress actually arrived at the Museum last Friday. We opened the crates on Monday and started getting it ready to be put on exhibit. And now it is up! You have to come and check it ...
Clarence, you are dearly missed
The music world lost one of its finest artists over the weekend. Clarence “The Big Man” Clemons died on Saturday at a hospital in Palm Beach, Florida. His death was caused by complications from a stroke he had suffered on June 12th at his home in Florida. Best-known as the saxophonist in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, Clemons was a great musician and a dramatic stage performer. In addition to being a member of the E Street Band, Clemons played with numerous other artists, including Aretha Franklin, Ringo Starr, Jackson Browne and, most recently, Lady Gaga.
Clemons was born on January 11, 1942, in Norfolk, Virginia. He began playing sax as a child, after his father gave him an alto saxophone for Christmas. His father made him practice in a room at his fish store, annoying Clarence, who wanted to be out playing with the other kids. Then, when he was a teenager, he got turned onto the music of King Curtis and other R&B musicians and he switched to tenor sax. He got a music and football scholarship to Maryland State College. In the mid-Sixties, he was going to try out for the Cleveland Browns, but an ...
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Only Better
Last fall, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum began undertaking the first major re-design of its galleries since the Museum opened back in 1995. We’ve just finished the first phase of the project, and I have to say it looks incredible!
We had a couple of major goals for the project. One was to upgrade all of our audio, video and interactive installations. The other was to tell the story of rock and roll in a more chronological way. We’ve always had the complete history of rock and roll, from its roots in the blues, rhythm & blues, gospel, country, folk and bluegrass up to the present, but it was not presented in any particular order. Well, we’ve changed that. In the Ahmet Ertegun Gallery, for example, we’ve kept the Mystery Train theater, which contains a film about the roots of rock and roll up to Elvis. But we got rid of the second theater, which had a film about the Beatles up to some more contemporary artists. In its place, we’ve created a new exhibit about our Early Influence inductees and a whole new roots of rock section. The area features beautiful ...
Women Who Rock spotlight: Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday
I saw the film Lady Sings the Blues, starring Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Diana Ross, when I was about 11 years old. One of the images in the movie that still resonates with me is one in which the around 11-year-old Billie Holiday, circa 1926, is working as a cleaning and errand girl for a Baltimore “house of ill-repute.” When she is supposed to be scrubbing the front stoop, she sneaks away and spends most of her time leaning over the Victrola in the brothel parlor, cranking up Bessie Smith’s latest hit, “’Taint Nobody’s Biz-ness if I Do.” She plays the record over and over, singing along, studying every note and syllable. So, that film was not only my introduction to Billie Holiday, it was also my introduction to Bessie Smith, and an important lesson in how artists pass the cultural torch. Watching Diana Ross’ portrayal of Billie Holiday learning from Bessie Smith, I recognized the same way that I studied every Supremes’ 45 on my old Sears Silvertone. I can imagine Lady GaGa at 11 years old, listening to Madonna’s “Express Yourself” on her Walkman in exactly the same way. Seeing Lady Sings ...
Women Who Rock spotlight: The Piano That Started it All
On the fourth floor of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, there’s an old upright piano. It’s the first artifact you see when you go to the Hall of Fame’s Women Who Rock exhibit. It’s the piano that Lady Gaga played when she was a little girl. Gaga’s father’s parents bought the piano in 1966 for $780. When Gaga was not even a year old, her grandparents gave the piano to her parents. According to Gaga’s mother, “When Stefani started to crawl, she would use the leg of the piano to pull herself up and stand, and in doing so, her fingers would eventually land on the keys. She would stay there and just keep pressing the keys to hear the sound. We would then start to hold her up or sit on the bench and let her tinker, you know, things like ‘Chopsticks’ and ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb.’” Gaga began taking piano lessons when she was four. She wrote her first song when she was five. It was called “Dollar Bills” and was inspired by Pink Floyd’s “Money.” She continued to play this piano until her parents ...
