The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

THE ROCK and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum opened in Cleveland this past Labor Day weekend, amid vast hype and a thinner layer of dissent — i.e., people who argued that putting rock'n'roll in a museum kills off the spirit of the music. To me, if rock mattered — if rock matters — then it's as deserving of serious study as any other form of culture. To think otherwise is to reaffirm the highbrow/lowbrow boundaries rock'n'roll exists to tear down.