Memphis Rock and Soul Museum!

Jordan and I are attending Memphis museums on their free day while he is on his Spring Break. Yesterday we went to the Rock and Soul Museum. Check out my impressions from our tour.

Jordan and I in front of the Rock and Soul Museum in the FedEx Forum plaza

The Rock and Soul Museum is located in Memphis, Tennessee, around the corner from the bustle of historic Beale Street. Founded in 1996, the museum was developed by the National Museum of American History as a part of the legendary Smithsonian Institution. Originally meant to be a traveling exhibition, funding for such was never available. The museum became a Memphis reality when a group of Memphians stepped in to secure funding to construct the museum locally.[1] Touring the Rock and Soul Museum should be an important part of any trip to Memphis because it does a fantastic job of situating the musical heritage of Memphis within the overarching cultural context of the Mid South.

The tour begins with a seven minute video discussing the convergence of country, blues, soul, and rock music in the rural Midsouth, and how Memphis came to be the epicenter of that music. The video is dated by the musicians and record executives who appear in it, but not by the information or cinematic style. From there, the tour is self-guided with an optional audio component. The first room of the exhibit focuses on the shared roots of country and blues in Southern porch culture, sharecropping, and rural life. Along with a reproduction of a rural porch, the exhibit featured a covered wagon and representations of cotton and cotton culture. My only complaint about this portion of the exhibit is that it was possible to hear the introductory video while touring it, since the two rooms are only separated by a heavy black curtain. It would be beneficial at some point to build a wall separating the two. The exhibit continues with the depiction of a country kitchen and bedroom; a depiction of how the music migrated, along with sharecroppers, to Memphis; and continues with music memorabilia. It ends with a collection of modern albums that were recorded in Memphis, a blurb about each, and a wonderful wall of post-its inviting visitors to “record” themselves in Memphis.

I especially loved how the video and exhibits combined musical history with social history, particularly race relations, civil rights, and sharecropping. I also loved the “touchability” of the exhibits and artifacts. Signs invited visitors to explore the porch replica and to touch items set out on the table in the kitchen exhibit. Some artifacts, such as an old radio, were housed in glass cases, of course, but quite a bit of the objects were out. I felt like displaying objects in this way in such a setting really helped to immerse the visitor in the cultural history that gave rise to the musical revolution of the 1950s and 60s. In addition, there were multiple forms of media, including text, photograph, audio and video. The text on the exhibits was not overwhelming, but still informative, especially combined with the photographs, descriptions of objects, and audio tour.

The audio tour was also a wonderful accompaniment to the exhibits. The combination of interpretation, famous voices, and music on the audio tour helped to provide visitors with an interesting and varied tour experience. Halfway through the tour, Jordan discovered that one of the juke boxes on display actually had a code next to each song that, when entered into the audio tour handset, played the particular song to which it corresponded. I thought that this was a fun and interesting novelty within the tour. I also really enjoyed the post-it wall at the end of the tour. It is a smart way to gauge visitors’ opinions about the tour, involve children, and make visitors personally invested in the museum experience.

            

The Rock and Soul Museum is a wonderful gem in the middle of the busiest part of Memphis. The walk to and from the museum was half the fun of the experience. We parked several blocks away, but the walk wasn’t difficult as we passed through Beale Street, past the Ida B. Wells historic marker, through the FedEx Forum open air plaza, and into the museum. Going in the early portion of the evening was an especially exciting time to visit because one could hear the music from Beale Street drifting through the air. The location of the museum was a bit of strategical genius because the surrounding area sets the mood perfectly. Visiting the Rock and Soul museum was a Memphis experience I wish I had done sooner. I definitely plan on returning to experience more of the exhibit at a more leisurely pace.  

My post-it "record"

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[1] For more information, see http://memphisrocknsoul.org/aboutus.