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ROCK & ROLL comprises a cacophony of musical forms. Yet few would disagree that it emanates primarily from a handful of traditionally Black styles: blues, jazz, and gospel. According to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, “It is the very essence of the Black experience that we have to thank for what we recognize as rock music today.�� There also is consensus that rock’s most traditional (but not ubiquitous) characteristics include strong rhythmic elements (a “beat-driven�� structure) and, particularly in its early vestiges, the use of "blue notes" (flatted thirds), a "call-and-response" vocal pattern, and a framework based on a 1-4-5 chord progression (tonic, subdominant, dominant).

ALAN FREED—Cleveland radio DJ and poster child for the Payola scandals of the late 1950s—did not invent the term rock & roll. But he does get credit for popularizing the term and for bringing to life what is generally thought of as the world’s first rock & roll concert: The Moondog Coronation Ball, held at the CLEVELAND ARENA on 21 March 1952. However, the term rock & roll predates Freed by about 70 years. On 25-Apr. 1881, comedian John W. Morton of Morton's Minstrels performed a song entitled Rock and Roll. Five years later, a comic song titled Rock and Roll Me was performed by Johnny Gardner of the Moore's Troubadours theatrical group. The first recorded use of the phrase came in the late 1890s: The Camp Meeting Jubilee by the Edison Male Quartet and (shortly after) the Columbia Quartette. Still, these tunes did not refer to a musical form but, most likely, to swaying dance movements or the “rocking and rolling movement�� of various watercraft. These connotations held well into the 1930s, with rock & roll titles and mentions adopted by performers such as the Boswell Sisters, and Verne and Irene Castle. Around that time, however, many of the era’s popular blues singers recast rock & roll in significantly more explicit terms. Some of the starkest examples might be 1944’s Rock Me Mama by Arthur Crudup (“Rock me mama like a southbound train��) or 1951’s Sixty Minute Man by Billy Ward and his Dominoes ("I rock 'em, roll 'em all night long"). From that point forward, rock & roll became the disruptive, youth-oriented, and often sexualized medium that we think of today.

Like most music, rock & roll evolves regularly, taking on new forms and faces over time. A classical music performance, for example, might feature Renaissance, Baroque, Romantic, Symphonic, Opera, Chamber, or “modern�� styles. Rock is no different, except that its many metamorphoses have occurred in a remarkably short time. Rockabilly, do-wop, motown/soul, psychedelic, prog/orchestral, heavy-metal, folk/country rock, industrial, disco, punk, alt-rock, grunge, hip-hop, and pop all reside under today’s “big tent�� of rock & roll. Cleveland performers, venues, and audiences have embraced them all.

Courtesy of Alan Freed, Cleveland clearly holds title to the emergence of rock & roll as a distinct music entity. Freed’s influence was greatest through much of the 1950s, but dissolved following the Payola (pay to play) scandals. However, Cleveland radio influencers like Bill Randle, Phil McLean, "Captain" Carl Reese, and Pete “Mad Daddy�� Myers stepped in as rock expanded from its R&B base to include the rockabilly format that most associate with the 1950s. Thus a decade that began with the R&B-heavy Moondog Coronation Ball (and several other Moondog events) quickly absorbed the newer blues/country-based form birthed years earlier by the likes of Hank Williams, Jimmy Rodgers, Elizabeth Cotton, and Leadbelly. Numerous rockabilly greats made their way to Cleveland, including Elvis Presley, who visited Cleveland’s Brooklyn High School in October 1955�� his first headlined concert above the Mason-Dixon Line. (Elvis performed at The Circle Theater (10208 Euclid Ave.) several months earlier as a member of The Bill Black Trio). On the same Brooklyn High School bill were Bill Haley and his Comets, whose Rock Around the Clock became a teen anthem. In Apr. 1958—only 10 months before the “music died”—Buddy Holly entertained Clevelanders at PUBLIC AUDITORIUM. Eleven months later, blues/rocker Bo Diddley played the Arena.

The 1950s also witnessed the growth of doo-wop, one of popular music’s first departures from the traditional 1-4-5 framework. Influenced by greats such as the Ink Spots and the Mills Brothers, bands like the Drifters, Platters, Coasters, and Cleveland’s own Moonglows—all featured smooth, multi-part harmonies anchored by mellifluous bass voices. Many graced local venues such as The Cleveland Arena, PALACE THEATER, and Keith’s East 105th St. Theatre. Doo-wop was particularly prominent in the music rotation of WJMO-1490 AM, the first Cleveland radio station to adopt a Black-oriented format.

Throughout the 1950s, numerous smaller rock venues also gained stead. Gleason’s Music Bar (5219 Woodland Ave.) is considered Cleveland's first rock & roll nightspot. Nearby, the Chatterbox Musical Bar & Grille (5123 Woodland Ave.) featured a mix of popular musical forms: from Sonny Carter to the Four Tops. Otto’s Grotto in the basement of the STATLER HOTEL (1127 Euclid Avenue) hosted local and national rockers.

As the 1960s dawned, doo-wop remained strong, but rockabilly’s alure diminished. Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper had died, Elvis entered the Army, Chuck Berry entered prison, and Little Richard abandoned rock & roll music for born-again Christianity. Rockabilly icon Carl Perkins remained somewhat popular but the antics of Jerry Lee Lewis turned off many fans. This temporary dénouement was the opportunity many music industry execs had been waiting for—a chance to create a cleaner, somewhat sanitized version of rock & roll. Enter the Teen Idols: good-looking, non-threatening, largely-male singers such as Ricky Nelson, Neil Sedaka, Fabian, Connie Francis, Bobby Rydell, Paul Anka, Annette Funicello, Bobby Vinton, Bobby Vee, and Frankie Avalon. Most of their offerings were pleasant, heart-tugging swoons of high school, malt shops, sock hops, and (most of all) teenage love, angst, and heartbreak.

Cleveland audiences connected with their teen idols primarily through a growing variety of local media: Jerry G. on radio station KYW; Dick "Wilde Childe" Kemp, Jack Armstrong, Mike Reineri, Larry Morrow, and Lou "King" Kirby on WIXY-1260; Johnny Holliday, Carl Reese, “Emperor�� Joe Mayer, and Norm N. Nite on WHK; and Casey Kasem via the syndicated "American Top 40" countdown. On TV, fans watched their favorites on national programs like Dick Clark’s American Bandstand and Shindig, and on local broadcasts such as The Big Five Show (later called Upbeat) with Cleveland’s own “Emperor�� Joe Mayer and, later, Don Webster. A two-year run of The Monkees TV series (1966-1968) endeared millions to the “pre-fab Four.��

Several years into the 1960s, everything changed with the advent of the British Invasion, led by The Beatles, who rocked PUBLIC AUDITORIUM in Sept. 1964 and CLEVELAND MUNICIPAL STADIUM in Aug. 1965. Second only to the Beatles in popularity were the Rolling Stones, who played Public Auditorium in Nov. 1964 and the Cleveland Arena in June 1966. Around that time, there seemed to be little bit of English on everything, courtesy of bands like The Animals, The Who, Cream, The Moody Blues, and Led Zeppelin, all of which staged live performances in Cleveland during the 1960s.

Soul music also grabbed the spotlight in the 1960s, spearheaded by a huge array of Black performers such as Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Stevie Wonder, James Brown, Al Green, The Isley Brothers, Patti LaBelle, and Cleveland’s own O’Jays and Bobby Womack. Prior to Hip-hop, soul music was arguably the rock music’s most popular and diverse expression of African-American talent and the Black experience. The category’s myriad subgenres include the Motown style (mellow and pop-friendly); Deep/Southern Soul (driving, energetic, and gospel driven); Memphis Soul (smooth, sultry); New Orleans soul (R&B oriented); Chicago Soul (light and gospel-influenced); and Philadelphia Soul (full and orchestral doo-wop-inspired vocals). Soul bands and fans graced Cleveland venues like the Inn Spot, THE AGORA, The Plato, The Corral, Hire’s, Shibley’s Sahara, and the Speakeasy. However, ground zero for national soul acts may have been LEO'S CASINO on Euclid Ave. at East 75th St. Between 1963 and 1972, this venue hosted Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Jackie Wilson, Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles, Dionne Warwick, the Supremes, the Temptations, and the Four Tops. Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin gave some of their first performances at the club. Otis Redding made his last stage appearance at Leo’s prior to his fatal plane crash in 1967.  

The second half of the decade witnessed what some consider Rock & Roll’s most unconventional turns. Rockers from The Beatles and Stones to Mountain, Black Sabbath, Jonny Winter, Deep Purple, and Cleveland’s own James Gang presented a harder, fiercer edge to rock. More or less concurrently, Southern California-based folk/country rock counterbalanced the hard stuff, courtesy of smooth and generally introspective innovators like The Mamas and the Papas; The Beach Boys; the Byrds; Crosby, Stills and Nash; The Flying Burrito Brothers; Joni Mitchell; Jackson Browne; and James Taylor. Somewhere in the starry-eyed middle came the psychedelic, symphonic sounds of Pink Floyd, Yes, Genesis, and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Although few Clevelanders made the journey, these and other musical styles came together in Aug. 1969 for “three days of peace and music�� in the rain and mud of Bethel NY. Woodstock’s crowds rocked with Jimmy Hendrix, The Who, Ten Years After, and Creedence Clearwater Revival; protested the war with Richie Havens and Country Joe and the Fish; embraced “world music�� with Ravi Shankar; journeyed back to the ��50s with Sha Na Na; and got folked up on Melanie, Arlo Guthrie, and Joan Baez.

The same sort of musical mélange dominated Cleveland’s mid-late 60s club scene. Live-music venues sprouted like weeds: Otto’s in the Flats, The Roundtable, The Agora, Cyrus Erie, D’Poo’s, and The Chesterland and Mentor Hullabaloo. In these and other spots, thousands of young locals danced and drank to the sounds of local bands like Bocky & the Visions, The Baskerville Hounds, Circus, The Case of ET Hooley, I Don’t Care, Reign, Dragonwyck, Dick Whittington’s Cats, Rainbow Canyon, Eli Radish, and The Measles. And a surprising number “broke out�� (i.e., became national attractions): The James Gang, THE RASPBERRIES  Glass Harp, Damnation of Adam Blessing, The Outsiders, and The Choir. Established national acts also made regular stops in Cleveland hot spots: Led Zeppelin, The Doors, The Allman Brothers, and Simon and Garfunkel performed at Musicarnival. Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, The Youngbloods, the Velvet Underground, and Blood Sweat & Tears graced LA CAVE, a subterranean University Circle dive that hosted an enormous number of rock’s emerging luminaries. The Arena, the place where it all began, brought in The Beach Boys and The Animals. Blossom Music Center—designed as the summer home of the Cleveland Orchestra—hosted its first rock concert in 1968, featuring Arlo Guthrie and Judy Collins. The next year, Blood, Sweat & Tears drew 24,00 fans to Blossom.

The ��60s also gave us two of the world’s most impactful “back-office�� rockers, when former haberdashers Jules and Mike Belkin brought The Four Freshmen and The New Christy Minstrels to Public Auditorium. Before the 2-Feb event, the city had no business professionals whose job was sell Cleveland to popular performers. Now it had two of the best and most successful concert promoters anywhere. By the end of the decade, the Belkins (Jules did PR and booking, Mike handled negotiations) were a force—helping to launch the careers of future greats Jimi Hendrix, Bette Midler, and Barry Manilow, and ultimately bringing to Cleveland an A-list that would include The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Doors, Kiss, AC/DC, Bob Seger, Pink Floyd, U2, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Billy Joel, and Pearl Jam. The brothers also moved into management, beginning with The James Gang, and expanding to include Cleveland’s own Michael Stanley Band and Wild Cherry, as well as Wild Cherry alumnus Donnie Iris. Later Mike and Jules would become a driving force behind Cleveland’s World Series of Rock. In 2001 their company became Live Nation, currently the country's largest concert promoter.

Another rock revolution also was occurring on the radio, when Cleveland’s own WNCR, with its “progressive rock�� format became the first commercially successful FM radio station in the United States. WNCR gave Clevelanders the opportunity to hear rock music outside the painfully redundant rotation of top-40 hits played by the AM stations. WNCR also dispensed with the (informal but widely observed) 3-minute play rule, a cornerstone of AM radio. “B-sides�� became fair game and the station often played entire albums, bestowing on this format the moniker “album rock.�� Billy Bass became the first black program director of a major US station—another first for WNCR. Martin Perlich and Doc Nemo weaved jazz and classical music into their late-evening shows.

Arising more or less simultaneously (and lasting far longer) was WMMS, arguably the most popular and durable FM station Cleveland has ever known. WMMS�� format followed most, if not all, the same programming principles as WNCR. But its longevity was likely the result of a uniquely talented and wildly popular group of DJs. Within a decade of the station’s inception, Denny Sanders, Len (Boom Boom) Goldberg, Matt (the Cat) Lapczinski, Jeff Kinzbach, Ed "Flash" Ferenc and Kid Leo Travagilante were household words.

Still, rock & roll at the end of the 1960s, not unlike the dusk of the 1950s, fell under a cloud. Despite Woodstock’s “three days of peace & love,�� the hippy ideal—an egalitarian world grounded in music, soft-drugs, and (most saliently) opposition to the VIETNAM WAR—was disintegrating. Drug use became increasingly deadly, myriad rock stars became hopelessly hedonistic, and frustration mounted as the war in Southeast Asia raged on. Multiple audience deaths at California Altamont Speedway in December 1969 soured many rock devotees.

For rock & roll, the cusp of the 1970s was equally gloomy. Brian Jones passed in July 1969. Jimi Hendrix followed in Sept. 1970 and Janis Joplin died the next month. In July 1971 Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors, died—the final member of the 1970s�� morbid ��27 Club.�� In Oct. 1971, 24-year-old guitar god Duane Allman died in a motorcycle accident. The war in Southeast Asia continued. The Beatles were no more.

But in the main, rock & roll only got bigger: more complex, more choreographed, more businesslike. The big sounds of bands like Cream, Mountain, and Black Sabbath paved the way for ��70s powerhouses such as Aerosmith, AC/DC, Van Halen, and Led Zeppelin. And more than ever before, rock was becoming theater. Think Alice Cooper or, perhaps, Kiss. Musical theatrics grew steadily throughout the decade, often in the guise of “glam rock�� (generally characterized by flamboyant costumes, gay allusions, and story-oriented lyrics). David Bowie (who appeared at Public Hall as Ziggy Stardust in 1972) and The New York Dolls (Allen Theater, 1974) are particularly otherworldly examples. Lou Reed, who walked on the wild side at Music Hall in 1978, was considered to be a major influence on some of the era’s most prominent Cleveland-born acts: Pere Ubu, the Dead Boys, Rocket From the Tombs, Peter Laughner, and others.

On the airwaves, Cleveland was big as any big-time city. In Oct. 1971, Soul Train debuted on Cleveland television station WKYC—one year after its launch on Chicago’s WCIU. Inarguably TV’s most important Black-oriented music program, the show ran for 35 years. In 1973, Dick Clark, host and producer of American Bandstand, introduced Soul Unlimited, Soul Train’s only contemporaneous competitor. The program lasted less than a year.

Even as radio station WNCR faded away, WMMS rose to become the top rock & roll station in the country, known far and wide for its famous DJs and perhaps for its raspy and irreverent Friday afternoon “Get Down Salute�� by WMMS ad salesman Murray Saul. Today WMMS is often considered the most influential rock station in America, and its anthropomorphic Buzzard mascot the most popular radio symbol. Airplay on WMMS was the stepping stone that helped propel acts such as David Bowie, Rush, and Bruce Springsteen onto the national stage.

Sponsored by WMMS, 1974 saw the debut of Cleveland’s World Series of Rock—day-long multi-act summer rock concerts held at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The World Series of Rock became a wild and often-problematic symbol of rock & roll excess: more decibels, more rowdiness, more drug use, and more bands per event. Over the course of 7 years, upwards of 50 bands—including The Beach Boys, Santana, Chicago, The Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, Pink Floyd, Journey, The Cars, and Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band—made it to the World Series. Northeast Ohio native sons Michael Stanley, Joe Vitale, and Joe Walsh performed there in 1974 and 1975.

Adding to the chaos, the RICHFIELD COLISEUM opened in 1974. The venue was designed primarily for sports—the hope being that it would draw both Akron and Cleveland fans to Cleveland Cavaliers basketball games. The Coliseum also was the site of the 1975 boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Chuck Wepner, which some believe was the inspiration for the movie Rocky. But the venue became notorious for rock as well as Rocky. Although its first event featured crooner-in-chief Frank Sinatra; the venue drew scores of real rockers such as Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Stevie Wonder, Led Zeppelin, Frank Zappa, The Grateful Dead, David Bowie, Queen, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, Prince, Madonna, The Police, U2, Metallica, and Guns N' Roses.

Throughout the 70s, rock also maintained a softer and jazzier side. Many of the folk-focused icons of the 60s survived and thrived; among them, James Taylor, Carol King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon, and Paul Simon. In 1979, Simon spent 6 weeks at The Agora filming the movie One Trick Pony. Moreover, the folkie ranks swelled considerably as “soft rock�� emerged as its own genre, exemplified by the likes of John Denver, Cat Stevens, Seals and Crofts, The Stylistics, Jim Croce, The Carpenters, Fleetwood Mac, Olivia Newton John, and Roberta Flack. Jazz influences also became more evident in the music of bands such as Steely Dan, 365bet�����������籭lanta Rhythm Section, Stevie Wonder, and Boz Scaggs, all of whom made it to northeast Ohio during the 1970s.

By mid-decade, other rock sounds began their ascension, most predominantly built upon dance-based rhythms. Bands like Cleveland’s Wild Cherry recorded Play That Funky Music and Hot to Trot. Local hero Eric Carmen (sans The Raspberries) added Hungry Eyes, from the movie Dirty Dancing. British super-band Queen introduced thumping danceable tunes like Keep Yourself Alive and We Will Rock You. From this resurgence of R&B underpinnings came the roaring rise of Disco. The twin godfathers of this astonishing but controversial turn were Michael Jackson, late of The Jackson 5, and The Bee Gees. In Cleveland, downtown was Disco Central, with crowds swaying shoulder-to-shoulder at the Mad Hatter, Nite Moves, and the Piccadilly, as well as gay-oriented clubs such as Traxx, Twiggy’s, and The Nine of Clubs.

Somewhat ironically, “punk rock�� rose up as a raunchy, deliberately nasty response to the perceived mainstreaming of popular music. Loud, fast, fuzzy and more than a little simplistic, the punk rock torch was carried by national acts like The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, The Clash, and The Stooges. Clevelanders hung out at the Agora, Pirates Cove, Real World, The Smiling Dog Saloon, The Phantasy, and Clockwork Orange—dancing, bumping, yelling, and even spitting to the sounds of local groups like Rocket from the Tombs, The Pagans, The Bizarros, The Electric Eels, The Mirrors, and The Dead Boys.

The early 1980s struck several melancholic chords. In Sept. 1980 Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham died of alcohol abuse. Three months later, John Lennon was killed by a deranged fan. Reggae superstar Bob Marley succumbed to cancer in May 1981. Members of AC/DC, The Grateful Dead, Derick and the Dominoes, and Canned Heat also lost members in the decade’s first 18 months. Despite all that darkness (or perhaps because of it) the lightness and danceability of pop grew stronger. Even disco—the music people loved to hate and which more-or-less died on “Disco Demolition Night�� in Chicago in July 1979—enjoyed several small resurgences.

In Cleveland, the eclecticism of rock’s Big Tent was demonstrated by the wild mix of area bands that made big splashes locally (Mr. Stress, Pere Ubu, The Waitresses, the Wild Giraffes, Lucky Pierre) and, to varying degrees, nationally (Michael Stanley Band, LeVert, Nine Inch Nails). The greatest national impact was arguably industrial rock exemplars Nine Inch Nails which, to this day, has sold over 20 million records and been nominated for 13 Grammy awards. Another is Akron-based The Pretenders, led by Crissy Hynde. The Pretenders�� first album was released in January 1980 and has been named one of the best albums of all time by VH1 and Rolling Stone. Clevelander Neil Giraldo—musician, songwriter, record producer and husband of Pat Benatar—also deserves mention. His contributions to rock & roll include sales of roughly 45 million records, five Grammy Awards and an additional four Grammy nominations.

Heralding the start of this wild decade was MTV, which launched in 1981. Within a few years the music video became an essential tool for showcasing popular music—advancing the trend launched by theatrical rock in the 1970s. In effect, rock visuals had become almost as important as rock sounds. Cleveland concerts by Prince (Richfield Coliseum, 1984), Madonna (Public Auditorium, 1985) and Michael Jackson (Richfield Coliseum, 1988) were the decade’s aegis of a complete rock experience: show business in the truest sense.

As a business, rock & roll attained ever more social, political, and commercial power. One of several examples is 1985’s Live Aid, rock’s biggest social-benefit concert to date. Designed to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia, Live Aid featured performances by many of the genre’s decade's biggest stars, including Dire Straits, Queen, David Bowie, The Who, Elton John, Paul McCartney, The Four Tops, Black Sabbath, Crosby, Stills and Nash, The Beach Boys, Madonna, Rod Stewart, Eric Clapton, and Bob Dylan. Staged in two locations (London and Philadelphia) Live Aid went far beyond entertainment, demonstrating the ability of rock music—abetted by simulcast technology—to advance the common good.

Equally seminal (particularly for Clevelanders) was the 1983 establishment of the ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME Foundation, spearheaded by Ahmet Ertegun, founder and chairman of 365bet�����������籭lantic Records. The still homeless entity began inducting artists in 1986, the same year that—after an arduous search process—Cleveland was chosen to be the Rock Hall’s permanent home. The lakefront groundbreaking took place on 7-June 1993, attended by Cleveland’s civic leaders and rock legends Pete Townshend, Chuck Berry, and Billy Joel. Designed by architect I. M. Pei, the new structure was dedicated on 1-Sept. 1995. In addition to cementing Cleveland’s role as rock & roll’s cornerstone, the Rock Hall has (according to the Hall’s 2023 annual report) achieved an overall annual economic impact of $225.6 million, created 1,800 jobs, and generated $140 million in annual revenues for Ohio businesses and $21 million in state & local taxes.

Radio station WMJI introduced Clevelanders to “Classic Rock�� in 1980, before which time the thousands of great rock tunes from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s were simply “oldies.�� With roots dating to 1948 (via WTAM-AM) WMJI remains a radio cornerstone and classic rock is one of the nation’s most-listened-to categories. WMMS continued to fly high in the 1980s despite losing broadcast cornerstones John Gorman and Denny Sanders to upstart station WNCX and Kid Leo to Columbia Records. The two stations battled for years, with WMMS slowly increasing its regimen of Top 40 hits and WNCX sticking with classic rock. WMMS won Rolling Stone magazine’s Radio Station of the Year 9 times between 1979 and 1987.

Several more-or-less-new rock forms emerged in the 1990s. Leading the charge was Grunge, characterized by a raw sound and generally heavy, angst-laden lyrics. Espoused most fluently by Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Rage Against the Machine, and Alice in Chains, Grunge came complete with its own fashion statement: flannel shirts, ripped jeans, and general unkemptness. Joining the infamous 27 Club, Kurt Cobain, founder and leader of Nirvana, died by suicide on 5-Apr. 1994.

Another new subgenre, “pop punk,�� combined the energy of punk with the somewhat-innocent danceability of pop music. Bands like Green Day, Blink-182, and Weezer created a large fan base partly by making punk-based music accessible to a more mainstream audience. New alternative sounds also came from abroad, with an influx of British bands such as Oasis, Radiohead, Blur, Pulp, and Suede. Demonstrating Cleveland’s important role as a “breakout town,�� a great many of the above-mentioned bands played our city’s smaller venues in the 1990s, including Nirvana (Empire Concert Club, 1991), Green Day (Euclid Tavern, 1992), Rage Against the Machine (Agora Theater 1993), Weezer (The Odeon, 1994), and Radiohead (Peabody’s Downunder, 1995).

Cleveland also contributed a variety of musical groups to the 1990s fray, most notably Mushroomhead, whose performances combined heavy alt sounds with theater staging, wild costumes, and masks. In only its second performance the band entertained some 2,000 people at The Agora Theater in 1993. Another local contributor was The Cowslingers, which often combined alt themes with rockabilly/country touches.

Although hip-hop was almost 20 years old by the 1990s, the musical form’s popularity reached new heights. Like do-wop in the 1950s and soul in the 1960s, hip-hop was/is dominated by African Americans and it remains the musical form that speaks most-directly to the Black experience—a sort of street poetry. Nonetheless, hip-hop has been embraced and stylized by myriad communities around the world, including highly successful rappers such as Eminem and Cleveland’s own Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Machine Gun Kelly, and M.C. Brains. Hip-hop hopped up in Cleveland on myriad occasions, including 2pac’s 1996 show at the former Gund Arena (now ROCKET MORTGAGE FIELDHOUSE). 1999 was a particular hip-hop highlight: In Mar. 1999 The Hard Knock Life Tour hit the CSU Convocation Center, with hip-hop icons Jay Z, DMX, Method Man, Redman, and Ja Rule. One month later, Eminem played the Odeon.

Seldom has Cleveland hit the national spotlight with more force than The Concert for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, held at Cleveland Municipal Stadium on 2-Sept. 1995. In addition to being one of the largest concerts in the city’s history, the night’s performances paid homage to the amazing diversity that had come to characterize rock & roll: From rock godparents Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis, to soul icons James Brown and Aretha Franklin, to crossover icons Willie Nelson and Bruce Hornsby, to monster rockers Led Zeppelin and The Allman Brothers, to latter-day heroes Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp. The Rock Hall had it all.

Rock’s ever expanding breadth was illustrated further during the only Rock Hall induction ceremony to take place in Cleveland in the 1990s: Held on 6-May 1997 at the Grand Ballroom of the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel (now Hotel Cleveland) the show featured everything from funk (Parliament-Funkadelic) to disco (The Bee Gees) to folk-rock (Crosby, Stills and Nash) to latter-day rock (Tom Petty).

Since 2000, the tent has only grown larger, fueled by the genre’s endless inventiveness, fans�� continued embracing of all its forms and, perhaps most impactful, a host of technological innovations. Since the birth of rock & roll, music media has evolved through 78, 45, and 33 RPM records; reel-to-reel, 8-track, and cassette tapes; laser and compact discs; and on to electronic delivery—from peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing (Napster, Grokster, LimeWire, BitTorrent) to the nearly ubiquitous streaming services of today (Pandora, Spotify, iTunes, iHeart Radio, etc.). Subscribers to Sirius XM satellite radio now number in the tens of millions, and untold numbers of live and recorded performances are accessed through YouTube, on-demand television, streaming channels, and cable TV. “Regular�� broadcast media (radio and television) remain viable, although the great majority of radio offerings also can be accessed online. Video games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band allow younger audiences to access and even play classic and contemporary rock music.

The net effect is that music from almost any artist, place, or era can be accessed by consumers of almost any age and location. Largely unburdened by the cost and availability of physical media, a person can steep him or herself in 1950s rockabilly as easily as 1990s grunge or new-millennium pop. And although they may sell fewer “albums,�� older bands are far more able to stay in the public eye: Recent super-high-grossing concert tours range from the Rolling Stones (formed in 1962) to Depeche Mode (formed in 1980) to Taylor Swift (born in 1989). Thus the new-millennium sounds that rule the “airwaves”—pop, hip-hop, pop-punk, emo, post-grunge, alt-rock, and indie—compete directly with do-wop, soul, folk-rock, heavy metal and so forth. Rock is everywhere—except perhaps on the shelf of listener’s homes.

In Cleveland, rock events continue at mammoth sites like Cleveland Browns Stadium, Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, and BLOSSOM MUSIC CENTER; mid-size venues such as the Agora Theater, Jacobs Pavilion, Music Box, and House of Blues; and more-intimate spaces like The Grog Shop, Beachland Ballroom, Brothers Lounge, Martini6, and Foundry Concert Club. Local bands thrive and the buzzard still flies, as do radio stations WNCX (classic rock), WENZ (hip hop), and WNWV (alternative).

“Rock and Roll [in one form or another] will never die.�� �� Neil Young

Christopher Roy

Sources

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Wolff, Carlo. Cleveland Rock & Roll Memories: True and Tall Tales of the Glory Days, Told by Musicians, DJs, Promoters, and Fans Who Made the Scene in the '60s, '70s, and '80s. Cleveland: Gray & Company. 2006

Adams, Deanna R. Rock ‘n�� Roll and the Cleveland Connection, Kent OH Kent State University Press, 2002

Adams, Deanna. Cleveland Rock & Roll Memories. Kent OH: The Kent State University Press. 2002

The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll. New York: Rolling Stone Press (Random House). 1976

Chakerian, Peter. Pop Goes Cleveland! The Impact of Cleveland (and Northeast Ohio) on Pop Culture. Cleveland: Cleveland Landmarks Press. 2010

Nite, Norm N. Rock On Almanac. New York: Harper Collins. 1992