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 The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland , Ohio. © Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Comes to New York By Tiffany Razzano With its vast musical history, New York City is finally getting a venue to showcase it all, as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, based in Cleveland, Ohio, has announced it will open a 25,000 square-foot extension in NYC this November. The annex, located at 76 Mercer Street, will call Soho its home. It will cull its featured artifacts from those on display in Cleveland and then some, with a focus on Hall of Famers as well as New York-area musicians and those who spent a portion of their career in the area, such as John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Billy Joel and Madonna. Already confirmed for the extension's exhibits are guitars owned by Eric Clapton and Johnny Ramone, memorabilia from the now defunct, but legendary, CBGBs and the 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible that was owned by Bruce Springsteen. "New York City has a longstanding reputation as the land of opportunity for aspiring artists and musicians, and as a result some of the most internationally-celebrated musical performers of this Century have had their start right here on our streets," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. "It's only fitting that the role our City has played in launching the careers of so many of the world's most talented artists be recognized and honored with the opening of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex." New York City has perhaps the richest musical landscape in the country, so it's no surprise the Hall of Fame is opening an annex here. NYC was home to the great jazz and blues scene of the first half of the 20th century, boasting such well known figures as Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis... The list can, and does, go on. In the 1940s and 1950s, Greenwich Village became the epicenter of the country's revival of American folk music, with iconic performers such as Dylan and Joan Baez bringing folk, and later folk-rock, to the mainstream in the late '50s and 1960s. And, with venues such as CBGBs and Max's Kansas City, let's not forget the punk rock movement. Velvet Underground, Patti Smith, Blondie, The Ramones, Talking Heads - all synonymous with NYC. There's also Sonic Youth, which formed as part of the "No Wave" movement in the city in 1981, and the NYC hardcore punk scene of the '80s that rivaled what was going on in Southern California and Washington D.C. at the time. Over the past decade or so, NYC has been the home of a garage rock revival. Now, here's the disclaimer, so people don't send us any hate mail (Eh, I guess go ahead and send us hate mail if you want). Yes, that was a very brief overview, and yes, there are many, many, many more great musicians and genres, as well as subgenres, that could be mentioned. But, just the fact that there are way too many of these musicians and genres to mention in a brief news article goes to show the wealth of musical history New York City boasts. And it continues to build on that musical tradition, with more bands and musicians calling NYC their home than you can possibly imagine (seriously, go onto MySpace and search for music by location and see how many bands pop up in your search). Whether you're into folk or anti-folk or punk rock or roots music or hip-hop or whatever, odds are you can find something going on any night of the week that will pique your musical interest. To keep up on news about New York City's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame extension, go to www.rockhall.com. |
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