The official opening of the museum on Septem-
ber 2, 1995, kicked off a week of events celebrating
rock-and-roll music that included a benefit concert
with a stellar list of performances by rock-and-roll gi-
ants such as Chuck Berry, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee
Lewis, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen. At the
museum’s opening, its exhibits revolved around a
large collection of John Lennon artifacts donated by
Yoko Ono that included Lennon’s guitar from the
1965 Beatles concert at Shea Stadium, written lyrics,
and a pair of eyeglasses worn by Lennon while he
lived in Hamburg.
Impact The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum
provided a centralized location for the preservation,
commemoration, and promotion of rock-and-roll
music. The museum uses its collections to tell the
story of how and why this popular genre of music has
had a tremendous impact on American culture. In
this capacity, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame serves
as an important educational institution.
Further Reading
Juchartz, Larry, and Christy Rishoi. “Rock Collec-
tion: History and Ideology at the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame.”Review of Education, Peda-
gogy, Cultural Studies19, nos. 2/3 (May, 1997):
311-332.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. http://www.rockhall
.com.
Talevski, Nick.The Unofficial Encyclopedia of the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame. Westport, Conn.: Green-
wood Press, 1998.
Amanda Bahr-Evola
See also Architecture; Music.
Rock Bottom Remainders
Identification Rock band consisting of best-selling
authors
Date Formed in 1992
In realizing the youthful dream of playing in a rock-and-
roll band, a group of successful middle-aged professional
writers spoke to the ascendancy of the culture of the baby-
boom generation.
Taking its name from a publisher’s term for heavily
discounted books, the Rock Bottom Remainders is a
group of well-known authors who gained a second ce-
lebrity through their participation in an enthusiastic
amateur “garage band”-style rock group. The rock
band was founded by literary publicist Kathi Kamen
Goldmark in 1992 for a charity event at the American
Booksellers Association convention. The group’s
sense of fun and its party-band performance style
found an appreciative audience and attracted profes-
sional rock musicians such as Bruce Springsteen,
Roger McGuinn, and Warren Zevon, who on occa-
sion enjoyed sitting in with the band. Ever-shifting
personnel included Dave Barry, Stephen King, Amy
Tan, Barbara Kingsolver, Roy Blount, Jr., Robert
Fulghum, Scott Turow, James McBride, and Matt
Groening, with actual rock musician Al Kooper as
musical director. Its repertoire consisted of classic
blues and familiar rock standards, such as “Louie
Louie,” “Wild Thing,” “Bye Bye Love,” “Nadine,”
“Midnight Hour,” and “Gloria.”Impact With a music video, an album, and perfor-
mances for charity all over the country, the band en-
joyed success throughout the 1990’s and beyond.
The band achieved legendary status when, in 1995,
it was part of the famous celebration of the open-
ing the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland,
Ohio.Further Reading
McGrath, Charles. “Rock On, but Hang On to Your
Literary Gigs.”The New York Times, June 4, 2007,
p. E1.
Marsh, Dave, ed.Mid-life Confidential: The Rock Bottom
Remainders Tour America with Three Chords and an
Attitude.New York: Viking Press, 1994.
Margaret Boe BirnsSee also Barry, Dave; King, Stephen; Kingsolver,
Barbara; Literature in the United States; Music; Pub-
lishing; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum. Rock the Vote
Identification Political advocacy organization
Date Founded in 1990Rock the Vote offered a nonpartisan voting drive for the
under-thirty demographic, which had been notorious for ab-
staining from elections in the United States.726 Rock Bottom Remainders The Nineties in America