2 Punk Hall of Fames?

Y'all are missing the f@^*ing point.

Punk was never meant to move units.

Punk was organic.

Punk was reactionary.

Punk had no rules.

Punk was never safe to put in a museum.

Let's take a step back.

And take a deep breath.

Back in college, I actually took an Intro to Rock and Roll class. I thought it would be fun, it was not.

It is universally accepted that Rock's Big Bang centered around Bill Haley and the Comets' "Rock Around the Clock."

I didn't argue the core premise, but by the time the Beatles came ashore in the mid-60's, most of America had already forgotten about Bill Haley and his Comets. 30 years after Bill Haley, there was a groundswell for a home of Rock and Roll.

In the late 1980's, Clevelanders were all on board with building a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on the shores of Lake Erie. The City Fathers touted Cleveland as a tourist destination, I grumbled that Cleveland built a nice, shiny tomb for Rock.

I feel stronger about that sentiment than I did in the 90's. Why?

Rock was the music of rebellion. How do you celebrate the art of rebellion?

But I've been wrong before, so I went to the Rock Hall and it was...fine, I guess. The energy is just all wrong. I have been to the Rock Hall 4 times in the last 25 years (because it's 20 minutes from my house) and it's like any other museum.

Trust me, I have a much longer opinion, but we are going to keep moving in the interest of brevity.

Fat Mike of NOFX and Pat Smear of the Germs founded the Punk Rock Museum in 2023 and I'm also torn about that building in a different way.

First problem is: I don't really like NOFX or the Germs.

Second Problem is: The exact same argument that I had against the Rock Hall.

How do you create a museum about a reactionary movement, against the reactionary movement, against popular music. Rock rebelled against the institution, until they became the institution.

Punk really is just a double negative.

Punk is dirty, punk is sloppy. The only thing it really had going for it was its "do-it-yourself" mentality.

Now, with all that being said, I though Fat Mike and Pat Smear did the Punk Museum concept the "right way." No one is voted in or out. Just piles and piles of cool punk memorabilia. And tour guides are members of punk bands.

Begrudgingly, I stepped off my soapbox and thought "let the punks have their fun. I'm just an old curmudgeon..."

Then, just this week:

MRR Archives Find a New Home

Henry Rollins on his New Punk Rock Museum

Why did I lump both stories together? Arguably, Maximum Rock and Roll is the most important magazine in punk history. They announced they were moving their archives to Middle Tennessee State, about a half an hour outside Nashville. And Henry Rollins discussed his vision for the upcoming Punk Rock Museum in Nashville itself.

Nothing screams punk music like Central Tennessee.

Side Note I: I googled PUNK BANDS FROM TENNESSEE, never heard of ANY of those bands.

The last thing we need in this country is TWO punk museums. The most punk thing you can do is to burn down the Rock Hall in Cleveland, not build another museum.

I can see it now, after a few years of lagging attendance at the Nashville Museum, there will be a buzz when they announce: You know who were the first punks? THE BEATLES!

Just like at the Rock Hall, that museum promised to enshrine all your favorite Rock Bands, then "redefined" Rock to include almost every modern genre of music, including pop bands like ABBA, and then mostly ignored more extreme edges of Rock like Punk and Metal.

In order to sell tickets.

Side Note II:

Has anyone ever planned their Family Vacation around visiting the Rock Hall?

Maybe if you had no money and lived in Akron.

I tried to generate an AI picture of the Rock Hall exploding and got this:

I tried over 30 times, but couldn't get the image to truly work.

Then I realized that AI couldn't generate an accurate image. Why? Because the Rock Hall itself is a copyrighted image. You can't even take pictures of it.

Which is symbolic of the problem of having a Rock Hall.

Very obscure punk song, from a very obscure punk band, in the shadow in the Rock Hall.

Addendum: Literally as soon as I hit the publish button, this was the first post that came up on my Facebook Feed.

The Post Punk and Industrial Museum? Curator Martin Adkins declares "Museums are the Next Punk Rock!"

3 Punk Hall of Fames?

Ministry is not Punk, but when I think of Martin Atkins, this is the video I think of.

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