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"Women Who Rock" exhibit opens May 13 at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
from: cleveland.com
by Jeff Piorkowski, Sun News
Sure, there have been female stars over the years such as Connie Francis, Brenda Lee, Lesley Gore, the Supremes, Madonna and Janet Jackson, but the distaff side was usually far outnumbered when it came to high chart rankings.
"Women have more power these days," said Lauren Onkey, vice president of education and public programs at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. "They have more legal power, more power within the music industry. I think it's gone along with the rest of society and culture."
As such, Onkey and the rest of the Rock Hall staff is set to open May 13 the new main exhibit "Women Who Rock," which traces female music makers from the start of recorded music to today. The exhibit takes in women in the fields of country, rock, dance pop, blues and other forms of music.
It includes items like the Gibson guitar mother Maybelle Carter played with the Carter Family in the first half of the 20th century, when the family pioneered country music, to the piano a young Lady Gaga played while growing up in New York in the 1990s while going by her given name Stefani Germanotta. In between are costumes, handwritten lyrics by the likes of Joni Mitchell and Laura Nyro, guitars played by rockers such as JOAN JETT and other artifacts.
Onkey said the Rock Hall's leaders had been discussing the idea of a women's exhibit for a few years, but that the decision to move forward with it was made last summer. The Rock Hall had in its archives about 40 percent of what makes up the exhibit, so it began in 2010 the process of reaching out to artists and their management for the remainder of what is being shown.
"From what we've been hearing, there's going to be a lot of interest in this exhibit," Onkey said. "People who like music but who don't like history may be attracted to this exhibit because of its social story."
Like society, everything about pop and rock music has changed with the times, including the fashions worn onstage -- from the glittery dresses of the early '60s, to the far-out fashions of the drug-influenced mid- and late '60s, to the sexy, barely-there outfits of today.
"You can see in pictures of Carole King how she went from the bouffant hairstyle (in the '60s) to the natural, flowing hair (in the early 1970s, when she released her landmark album "Tapestry")," Onkey said.
Then, there was the punk era. Standing by a stage costume worn by Siouxsie Sioux, Onkey said, "Punk opened up a lot of avenues for women. The women of the '70s shook up a lot of stereotypes."
There is also a costume worn by New York poet/rocker and Rock Hall of Famer Patti Smith.
"Patti Smith doesn't like even being considered a woman in rock," Onkey said. "A lot of these women don't like that label."
The "Women Who Rock" exhibit will be open for viewing through February, having taken the place of the long-running Bruce Springsteen exhibit.
So, at least for the next nine months at the Rock Hall, the women will, indeed, have the power.
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