Imagine walking into a museum and the first thing you see is an 11-foot cyborg Eddie, famed mascot of Iron Maiden. It’s a pretty overwhelming site for the uninitiated, but then the goal of The Grammy Museum’s latest exhibit Golden Gods: The History of Heavy Metal hopes to bring everyone into the fold.
Opening last week at the museum dedicated to music – from inspiration to recording – Golden Gods is a tribute of sorts to a genre that doesn’t always get the highbrow treatment. According to the show’s website: “Through rare artifacts from iconic metal bands and interactive experiences, the exhibit will teach visitors about the origins of Heavy Metal, its many subgenres, the bands that made Heavy Metal famous and offer a look into the controversy that has surrounded the genre for the past four decades.”
The exhibit is featured as one of the museum’s special exhibits, along with The Beatles LOVE and Bob Dylan, l’explosion rock. It features a trove of metal memorabilia including Rob Halford of Judas Priest’s jacket, Ozzy Osbourne’s cape, album art, guitars and even the 24 Marshall amps from Slayer.
And the whole thing came about during a meeting in a quiet Grammy Museum office.
“About two years ago our production manager and myself went into our executive director’s office and said we really think we should put up a metal exhibit; their fans are so deserving of something that honours the genre,” Kait Stuebner, senior manager of education at the Grammy Museum and co-curator of Golden Gods explains.
For Stuebner, the exhibit is as much about the music as it is the fans that have embraced the genre, and really never let go. It’s this dedication by fans, and the bands that are also fans, that made putting the exhibit together very easy.
“We would email managers looking for artifacts and we would get emails from the bands saying how excited they were and how pleased they were and thank you for honouring this genre of music,” she says.
Like all museums, school tours are popular, and Golden Gods has become a real favourite for kids who are definitely fans of the interactivity, if not metal – yet.
“We have two drum stations where you can go and play along with Meshuggah, and then we have a scream booth where Danny of Asking Alexandria teaches you the vocal technique behind screaming in a soundproof booth,” says Stuebner. “It’s been the highlight for many of the students."
The exhibit stays up until February 2013. But then it’s onto planning the next phase. As any metal fan knows, it’s hard to explain the genre and subgenres quickly.
“We knew we couldn’t fit it all in there, but we tried as best we could,” Stuebner explains. “We joke around, only half joking to be honest at this point, we said this was Golden Gods the History of Heavy Metal Part 1. We have to follow it up at some point.”
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