From Journalism to Exhibits: The Public Classroom of Rock and Roll

Abstract

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and MuseumI am not an educator in the traditional sense of the word.I have never worked at a school or university.I have never taught a traditional class.I have never given tests or handed out grades.Despite that, I have spent the last thirty years involved in the study of rock and roll, as a writer, an editor, and now, a curator.And the products that result from that study-magazine articles, books, museum exhibits-go a long way toward educating people of all ages about the history and importance of rock and roll.Throughout my childhood, I had two loves-writing and rock and roll.In college, I majored in journalism, with minors in history and politics and government.Upon graduation, I got a job at Cleveland's daily newspaper, The Plain Dealer, as a copy editor on the news desk.After about a year, as a result of an unusual series of events, I was hired by Rolling Stone, as a copy editor for the magazine's music coverage.Thus began what would become a fifteen-year career as a writer and editor at Rolling Stone.Throughout this period, from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, Rolling Stone was the dominant music magazine in the United States.It was in a league of its own in terms of both influence and circulation.The magazine also maintained high journalistic standards.When Jann S. Wenner, Rolling Stone's editor and publisher, founded the magazine, he wanted it to live up to the journalistic standards then being set by The New Yorker.Thus, the magazine valued good writing and editing and, much to the surprise of many, it also had a fact-checking department.When someone wrote a story for Rolling Stone, the writer had to turn in all of his or her interview tapes and any research materials.Then the fact-checkers would go through the story line by line to verify all of the information.Because of that, I still rely on Rolling Stone as a source for accurate facts about rock and roll.The magazine's prominence and influence opened many doors for its writers.In most cases, when bands released a new album, they would do a media blitz, holing up in a hotel or restaurant in New York or Los Angeles for a day and seeing journalist after journalist, giving each of them about a C

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