Hall of Fame

We had to stop in Cleveland and visit the Hall of Fame, we could not miss it . But we did not expect that most of the visitors were old, even older than us. So when I saw a baby with a young dad I took a picture.

Rock is the music of the baby boom generation so why being surprised if everybody around us is old? I think in my mind I still feel young, it is the body who has changed. I look around at couples, groups, single people of my age and older listening to the songs, watching the videos, enjoying the display of the various artists and I think that like me they are remembering a very special segment of their life.

For us music was powerful, it was amti-establishment, it was liberating. I hope it still is but I am sure this role has faded away in the West. Music has a different role today.

We spent a few hours looking around, the videos are amazing but the museum is not, I say it is overage. Anyway, one interesting observation is that the history of Rock music begins in the 1920s in the US and it is heavily influenced by black rhythm, which is something we knew, of course. Elvis bridged the two, a white man singing as a black man, is this why he became the god of rock?

I wrote this to point out that in post War War II America there was a strong movement which wanted to shed the many divisions inside the nation, a nation looking at a bright future. Of course, the country had its own idiosyncrasies and there were many forces resisting unification, but the overall tendency was to find a common ground. Music was one of the main bridges among people and ideas.

Today the situation is very different, the nation is split and many of the bridges have been burned.

Monday 7 October