Power of Rock Expands The Show at The Rock N Roll Hall of Fame

Cleveland’s Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame recently introduced a new exhibit that invites fans to learn what it feels like to be a star inducted into the Hall. The new exhibit, “Power of Rock,” comes with film clips, laser lights, smoke and recorded stories by Hall inductees.

Fans can come into an interactive booth and hear biographical stories of some of rock’s biggest names, including what ignited their passion for music and for becoming a rock star.

Taken all together, the new themed exhibit includes more than three decades of induction ceremonies: pre-and post-show interviews, and, of course, ceremony highlights. There’s also some exhibitions from the museum that are specific to the Hall of Fame inductions. According to an Associated Press story, the exhibits include one of Prince’s stage wardrobes and a guitar played by the Talking Heads.

Since rock legends Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley were inducted back in 1986, 800 more acts have been inducted into the hallowed hall. With the added exhibit most trips to the Hall will begin with a begging theater watching the induction ceremony highlight reel. The theater is a real 4-D experience, complete with laser lights, smoke, and seat-shaking bass beats that make you feel like you’re right in the middle of a stadium show.

Inductees on the highlight reel cross the musical spectrum from folk rocker Bob Dylan to thrash kings Metallica and the pop-inspired Purple One, Prince. The movie moves fast, providing a primer on the highlights of rock through the years. Then, it’s on to the rest of the tour.

The Cleveland Museum has always been a paean to a truly American art form that evolved through the decades thanks to multiple “British Invasions,” and alternative takes on a genre that was born from a marriage of R&B and C&W styles.

Walking through the museum visitors get an up close and personal education in the evolution and alchemy that created the loosely defined musical style we call rock. From R&B, Gospel and Bluegrass, rock morphed into surf music, and folk. Then singer-songwriter bands and psychedelic rock of the late 60s gave way to the Southern Rock and Hard Rock of the 70s. The 80s brought more metal, glam rock, hair bands, and European “invaders” who brought a “new wave” of music to American shores.

The museum is both an advertisement for and a celebration of rock music in all its varied glory, daily inspiring the next generation of wordsmiths, ax shredders, and mic pilots to melt our brains and electrify our hearts.