ABSTRACT
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum stages a kind of journey from contested memory to consensual memory, choreographing the visitor's movement through various exhibits that culminate in the dazzling consensual ceremony of the Hall of Fame video montage. The memory-narrative generated by the Hall of Fame begins when the visitor seats him or herself on the floor, an arrangement that serves as a canny reminder of the seating at an outdoor rock concert. The contradictory narratives that emerge from the museum's range of discourses about Rock and Roll and how it should be remembered are characteristic of the way public memory is constructed, a process that involves an exchange of views and debate about the fundamental issues facing a society. The Rock Hall's powerful solicitation of vernacular memory, however, also brings to light symbols and meanings that cannot be readily shaped to the requirements of public memory.
