Rock 'n Roll in New York City

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex NYC in Soho provides rock enthusiasts an opportunity to re-experience the history of rock and roll via an experiential, technologically advanced exhibition. Upon admission to the museum, visitors are provided with a headset that furnishes the soundtrack to accompany the artifacts and multimedia presentations featured along this tour.

The journey starts with a multimedia presentation of some of the inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Then the tour travels along a narrow the Hall of Fame that features a slide show of a number of musical legends grouped according to various categories. Here I found the tour got a bit bottle necked as everyone gathered around to see the first slide show and then proceeded to the next slide show. Hang back for about five minutes and one can have the slide show sans the crowds.

As one moves along the exhibition, one encounters a collection of items taken from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum located in Cleveland, Ohio. The interactive nature of this exhibit assumes one has knowledge of rock music history as artifacts like Elvis Presley's jumpsuit, Michael Jackson's handwritten lyrics to a number of his songs and even Bruce Springsteen's 1957 Chevy with little explanation as to the significance of these items to the history of rock and roll. But if you're a history buff who knows the background behind this music, then one can travel through these artifacts and relive those days when you first encountered rock and roll.

As this is New York City, a sizeable section of the exhibit is devoted to exploring the NYC roots of rock and roll with a particular emphasis on the music of Bruce Springsteen, as well as the punk and new wave scenes of the 1970s and '80s. A special rotating exhibition hall profiles a particular legend such as the current display titled "John Lennon: The New York City Years" that explores Lennon's history of political and social activism as well as his passion for music, art and film,

The annex is open Sunday through Thursday from 11am to 10pm and Friday to Saturday from 11am to midnight with last admission one hour prior to closing. Ideally, try to allow for at least ninety minutes in order to truly savor all this exhibition has to offer. To obtain tickets, call (866) 9-ROCKNY or (866) 976-2569, log on to www.rockannex.com or go to the box office located at 76 Mercer Street (between Spring & Broome Sts.), New York, NY 10012.