From time to time, some of our more passionate guests will get worked-up over certain pieces of memorabilia in our collection and try to take us to task over them. Usually, this stems from someone assuming that a joint called the Hard Rock should exclusively display memorabilia that fits into their personal definition of what “hard rock” music is. Here’s the thing – our memorabilia collection strives (successfully, we think) to present a truly broad cross-section of music culture. If we only adhered to an “it must be rock music to qualify” ethos, not only would we have to purge pop-culture icons like Madonna or Michael Jackson from our collection, we’d have to lose every piece of memorabilia from before 1954. More importantly, we’d miss out on presenting some of the most unique – and most significant – pieces from the crazy and wonderful world of popular music. Let’s take a closer look at some of the things we’ve been asked about. You can also see a lot more of these kinds of items at our interactive memorabilia site.
Let’s start with one of the most controversial pieces in our collection – the jacket Rob Pilatus of Milli Vanilli wore to the 1990 Grammy™ awards:
We get negative comments from guests about this piece every day, but those folks miss the point. Think of what this jacket represents. It’s a true piece of history. Rob accepted his unearned Grammy™ in this thing. It’s painful to think that Rob’s life was turned completely upside down by the lip-synch scandal, and he eventually overdosed and died, but today’s pop stars do THE EXACT SAME THING MILLI VANILLI DID on a daily basis and no one bats an eye. What’s the difference between Milli Vanilli’s lip-synching and today’s “singers” using Auto Tune to make them sound semi-talented? This jacket represents everything that’s cynical and usurious about the music industry, which makes it a fantastic piece of memorabilia.
Here’s another piece we catch a lot of grief over. It’s the outfit worn by MC Hammer in the “Dancing Machine” video:
There are always people who think hip-hop music doesn’t belong in our collection, but those people clearly don’t understand rock music. MC Hammer was like some sort of bizarre, inescapable force of nature in the early ‘90s, and his trademark super-baggy pants will go down in history as one of the most ill-advised fashion choices of the 20th century. For that reason alone, MC Hammer outfits are like gold to us. We realize MC Hammer doesn’t exactly qualify as an emcee with true hip-hop bona fides, so here’s a Kangol hat and gold chain from L.L. Cool J:
Here’s a great one – Frank Sinatra’s gold-plated AKG microphone:
Amazingly, we occasionally catch some flak for having this piece displayed. First of all, it’s Frank Sinatra’s gold microphone. That equals totally awesome. Second, you people better be careful, or the Chairman of the Board might come out of the grave just to kick some ass. He’s done it before, he’ll do it again. Frank may not have been a rock artist, but every single front man in music – from Elvis to Jagger to Bono – owes Frank a heavy debt. Sinatra was the guy who pioneered the whole concept of the singing teen idol. Better recognize.
With the exception of the Milli Vanilli jacket, the things we get the most negative reaction to are usually from contemporary female pop artists. Hardly a day goes by without a guest balking at Britney Spears’ waitress outfit from the “Crazy” video. Check it out:
We’re well aware that Britney isn’t Janis Joplin, but the legacy of the teenage sexpot singer is as old a rock music itself. Their music is designed for prepubescent kids who quickly grow out of it and latch on to something with more substance. In a way, these pop-tarts are opening up the world of music to kids who’ve previously only paid attention to cartoons. Whether that’s a good thing is up to you.
Another example of female pop star backlash is this Shakira piece:
Shakira wore these on the Oral Fixation tour in 2006, and we constantly get asked why we’re displaying them. If people would take the time to do a little digging before they do their dissing, they’d realize that Shakira is one of the most philanthropic pop stars in history. Her Pies Descalzos foundation has donated over $40 million to underprivileged and impoverished youth in South America. This means there’s a direct line from the legendary ’67 Monterey Pop Festival to Shakira. Monterey Pop was the first charity rock show, and it set the template for charitable works by pop stars that is still followed today. Shakira is doing an admirable job of furthering that legacy. We’re proud to have her in our collection.
The adverse reaction to female pop artists doesn’t just apply to the teenybopper set; we get a fair amount of negative reactions to our Cher collection, too:
Hating on Cher makes no sense to us at all. It’s like some people aren’t aware that she had a career before that vapid auto-tuned nightmare, “Believe”. Well, you better believe she did. Did you know that Cher was a background singer for Phil Spector in the sixties? She sang on classics like The Ronette’s “Be My Baby”, The Crystals’ “Da Doo Ron Ron”, and The Righteous Brother’s “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling”. Of course, she was also the queen of musical comedy variety shows in the ‘70s with Sony Bono, and served as Bob Mackie’s muse for his over-the-top clothing designs. This halter is a Mackie piece. Cher rules. Deal with it.
Another ‘70s teen idol we’ve been asked about is Donny Osmond. We hear stuff like, “how is Donny Osmond a rock artist?” and “what does Donny Osmond have to do with anything cool?” Here’s an outfit he wore in the early ‘60s on a Bob Hope special:
Aside from this outfit being the goofiest thing in history – and therefore badass – the Osmonds rocked. Don’t believe us? Check out the boys tearing it up on “Crazy Horses”. It’s damn near heavy metal.
Finally, let’s look at a piece that at one time represented everything any self-respecting rocker despised. Here’s the sun sculpture that hung over the dance floor at legendary disco Studio 54:
It’s funny how well disco music has aged. Today’s dance music is made almost entirely by machines and, compared to disco, it lacks a human element and a true soul. It’s great to listen to old disco records and savor some dance grooves that were played by actual living humans. ‘70s disco rocks harder than most contemporary rock bands. Check out A Taste of Honey throwing down live in ’78.
So there’s a few pieces we catch grief about fairly often. Actually, we love it when guests have a strong reaction to something in our collection – even if it seems negative. It allows us to get into the big music-nerd debates that we all dig having. That’s what this collection is all about.