From the moment rock and roll hit the airwaves, it has played a crucial role in politics and social movements around the world. The library and archival materials featured in this research guide explore the power of rock to change attitudes about patriotism, peace, equality and freedom. How do artists exercise their First Amendment rights? How do they challenge assumptions and beliefs? How does their work stimulate thought and effect change? These materials and more were represented in the Rock Hall's 2016-2017 collaborative exhibit with the Newseum, “Louder Than Words: Rock, Power and Politics.”
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Digital video (available on-site only):
Let Freedom Sing: How Music Inspired the Civil Rights Movement
Introduction by Louis Gossett, Jr. -- It all begain in the church -- "Strange fruit" -- WDIA and Black radio -- "I shall not be moved" : the Freedom Riders and the sit-ins -- "We shall overcome" : folk singers, marching on Washington -- "A change is gonna come" -- "People get ready" : the movement gains momentum -- "Mississippi goddam" : waiting long enough -- "Cryin' in the streets" : the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. -- "Say it loud -- I'm Black and I'm proud" : the Black power era -- "What's going on?" : Tamla-Motown takes a stand -- "Get up, stand up" : the civil rights movement internationalizes -- "Fight the power" : civil rights and rap -- Where we are today -- "A change is gonna come" : reprise -- Louis Gossett, Jr., closing.
Popular Music and Human Rights
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Hip Hop Movement
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The soundtracks of the civil rights movement, 1945-1965; the black power movement, 1965-1980; and social visions of the hip hop movment, 1980-present.
33 revolutions per minute : a history of protest songs, from Billie Holiday to Green Day
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A history of protest music embodied in 33 songs since the 1930s.
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Next Stop is Vietnam: the War on Record, 1961-2008.
Give Peace a Chance
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Exhibition featured manuscripts, scores, instruments, artwork and other works from John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Stevie Wonder, Bob Marley, U2, Laurie Anderson, Graham Nash, Holly Near, Phil Ochs, Laura Nyro, Joe McDonald and others
Music of the World War II Era
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Over Here, Over There: the Andrews Sisters and the USO Stars in World War II
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Examines the efforts of the Andrews Sisters and other USO performers to entertain servicemen during World War II
The Politics of Post-9/11 Music
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Politics of post-September 11 music
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Digital Video (available on-site):
Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday
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Homocore
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Music as a form of social activism dates back for centuries, but rarely has there been a movement as daring, exciting and provocative as homocore, the queer-oriented rock scene, which through its cult following in clubs around the country presents a brazen face to the queer sociopolitical movement. Journalist David Ciminelli has been immersed in the queer rock scene since the early 1990s as a fan, writer, musician and band manager. He charts the homocore scene from the 1990s to today. Through interviews with scene leaders such as Pansy Division, Bob Mould (Husker Du), Jinx Titanic (Super8 Cum Shot), I Am Loved, Clint Yeager (Sour) and the Skinjobs, Ciminelli tells the story of using music to promote tolerance and ponders whether pro-gay music is a powerful enough tool of activism to gain mainstream acceptance.--From publisher description
No More Nice Girls
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Queering the Pitch: The new gay and lesbian musicology
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Babes in Toyland Collection, undated
Print of the album art for Fontanelle and lyrics to "Middle Man."
Gayle Wald Riot Grrrl Collection, 1991-1994
Correspondence, flyers, radio show playlists, stickers, zines, and other miscellaneous materials related to the Riot Grrrl movement in New York City, Chicago, and D.C., specifically the bands Fifth Column and the Lucy Stoners, the WPRB radio show at Princeton "Ladies First," and record label Hide Records and Tapes.
Kill Rock Stars Collection, 1991-2010
Although the label's music has never reflected just a single genre or underground music movement, it is most notable for releasing the work of various riot grrrl bands during the mid-1990s, including Bikini Kill, Sleater-Kinney, Bratmobile, Huggy Bear, Heavens to Betsy, and Excuse 17. Contains press releases, clippings, photographs, tour dates, radio reports, biographical information, artist proofs, and poster art.
Additional Rock Hall materials on Riot Grrrl can be found by searching the catalog for individual artist and band names.
The Fales Library & Special Collection at NYU has the Riot Grrrl Collection, which documents the evolution of the Riot Grrrl movement through the creation of early Riot Grrrl zines, music, and activism, particularly in the years between 1989 and 1996.
(from Bikini Kill Zine, No.2, 1991)
BECAUSE us girls crave records and books and fanzines that speak to US that WE feel included in and can understand in our own ways.
BECAUSE we wanna make it easier for girls to see/hear each other's work so that we can share strategies and criticize-applaud each other.
BECAUSE we must take over the means of production in order to create our own meanings.
BECAUSE viewing our work as being connected to our girlfriends-politics-real lives is essential if we are gonna figure out how we are doing impacts, reflects, perpetuates, or DISRUPTS the status quo.
BECAUSE we recognize fantasies of Instant Macho Gun Revolution as impractical lies meant to keep us simply dreaming instead of becoming our dreams AND THUS seek to create revolution in our own lives every single day by envisioning and creating alternatives to the bullshit christian capitalist way of doing things.
BECAUSE we want and need to encourage and be encouraged in the face of all our own insecurities, in the face of beergutboyrock that tells us we can't play our instruments, in the face of "authorities" who say our bands/zines/etc are the worst in the US and
BECAUSE we don't wanna assimilate to someone else's (boy) standards of what is or isn't.
BECAUSE we are unwilling to falter under claims that we are reactionary "reverse sexists" AND NOT THE TRUEPUNKROCKSOUL-CRUSADERS THAT WE KNOW we really are.
BECAUSE we know that life is much more than physical survival and are patently aware that the punk rock "you can do anything" idea is crucial to the coming angry grrrl rock revolution which seeks to save the psychic and cultural lives of girls and women everywhere, according to their own terms, not ours.
BECAUSE we are interested in creating non-heirarchical ways of being AND making music, friends, and scenes based on communication + understanding, instead of competition + good/bad categorizations.
BECAUSE doing/reading/seeing/hearing cool things that validate and challenge us can help us gain the strength and sense of community that we need in order to figure out how bullshit like racism, able-bodieism, ageism, speciesism, classism, thinism, sexism, anti-semitism and heterosexism figures in our own lives.
BECAUSE we see fostering and supporting girl scenes and girl artists of all kinds as integral to this process.
BECAUSE we hate capitalism in all its forms and see our main goal as sharing information and staying alive, instead of making profits of being cool according to traditional standards.
BECAUSE we are angry at a society that tells us Girl = Dumb, Girl = Bad, Girl = Weak.
BECAUSE we are unwilling to let our real and valid anger be diffused and/or turned against us via the internalization of sexism as witnessed in girl/girl jealousism and self defeating girltype behaviors.
BECAUSE I believe with my wholeheartmindbody that girls constitute a revolutionary soul force that can, and will change the world for real.
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