thank you for being with us this evening at the national archive. come back and see us again soon. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] >> you're watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span 3. like us on facebook at c-span history. all weekend as we head into coverage of the republican national convention in cleveland american history tv is joining our charter communications cable partners to showcase history of the city. to learn more about the city's on our current tour, visit c-span.org/citiestour. we continue when i look at the history of cleveland. ♪

where not going to take it it we ain't going to take ♪ >> we are very excited to have you here the exhibit. it's a brand-new exhibit at the rock 'n roll hall of fame that looks like cultural events, our history and how we process thanks to the lens of rock 'n roll. a lot of what we do here at the rock 'n roll hall of fame books and artists and genres and the impact of the music. but when you step back and look at rock's ability to shape how we view things, how we process things, how people understand rock as ais notion of hasrful artform that really

a tremendous impact on some the most important conversations we are having in our culture. >> ♪ all i want to say is they don't really care about us ♪ >> we've been talking about this exhibit for a number of years, something we thought was a very fruitful topic. now is the rnc comes to cleveland we are partnering with the museum to open this in summer 2016 here in cleveland. and also that have a travel to the museum and d.c. for the next residential nomination. we organized it to look at topics like lgbt issues, freedom, protest songs, rock, youth and political campaigns, rock's ability to help coalesce and creative movement. look at those different topics and organize them by presidential administration, from eisenhower going through today with obama and see how our

perspective has changed over time. how issues have evolved through lyrics, through the art form of rock 'n roll, and how our society has reacted as a result. and how music has also reacted as society has changed. a big part of what we are doing is telling stories. people come here for these talisman and artifacts. it's an object that has so much power and so much history embedded. it is magical. this is really a sacred object for us. this is jimi hendrix's electric guitar in the 1968 understrength asked her. this is the guitar hendrix used on stage when he infamously played "the star-spangled banner" at woodstock. ♪ >> you have a lot of people that

were considering a rock 'n roll distorted guitar version of the star-spangled banner to the just short of burning the flag. movements a protest and a time when a lot of people were frustrated with the process that were going on -- protests never going on and the turbulence created by these hippies. cavettndrix gets on the show and talks about this, he says this is a tribute. i am a patriot. >> you were in the 101st airborne, so when you write nasty letters -- when you mentioned the national anthem and talk about playing it in an unorthodox way you really get a guaranteed percentage of hate mail from people who say how dare you. >> no, no. i thought it was beautiful. there you go. [applause] for him to useay

his ability to connect that passion and this new set of rock 'n roll and demonstrate his patriotism. demonstrate his love for the country. 50 years later you see it is not a common for someone to play a guitar, and a letter guitar version of the star-spangled banner in front of a basketball game or a ballpark. at the time it was controversial. it was also a moment in time where the performance captured the turbulence of the time, the juxtaposition of patriotism and a love of the country with a change that says we will not do things the same way. hendrix did not do the star-spangled banner the same way. he did in his own way. we have a couple artifacts here, , the ballot of5 the green berets and letters from vietnam. this is johnny cash's shirt that

really -- when you look at these two artists, gets easy to look back 40 or 50 years later and think that everyone was against the annan. -- the vietnam war. there were some surprises we forget about my the ballot of the green berets. >> ♪ men who fight by night and day courage from the green berets ♪ >> there was a lot of times throughout history we see it is not just what we remember, not just what is elevated in pop culture. vietnam is a story that is very clear that we know that rock played a role. when you really dig deep there are surprises in there and some alternative perspectives and some stories that sometimes get lost. you also have examples of artists like neil young criticizing some political views and songs.

♪ >> lynyrd skynyrd responding with "i hope neil young will remember." >> ♪ i southern man don't need him around anyhow ♪ >> you have these times when it doesn't just happen in society, but you have the debate having -- happening with the songs and the single people release. compare what is happening now to what is happening in the past, it sometimes provides some insight or new perspective, some new way of moving forward. we have some artifacts from d snider who helped us unveil this exhibit this year. dee snyder were these items when he testified in the u.s. senate committee hearing on censorship, the 1985 pmrc hearings.

>> you say your song "under the blade" is about surgery. surgery with had your hands tied in your legs strapped? >> the song is written about my guitar player. he was having polyps removed from his throat and he was fearful. i said eddie, i will write a song for you. >> congressman together this list of songs they identified as kind of public enemies number one through 15 in terms of making the case that rock 'n roll has to be controlled, censored, this led to warning labels being put on cds. songs, when you talk to artists, they were not that outrageous. sniderey brought dee it's easy to understand what they wanted him there. he was as metalhead. you were mascara.

he was a character. >> no, i think i said at one part is that songs about persons to further own imagination, experiences and dreams into the lyrics. people can interpret it many ways. mrs. gore was looking at sadomasochism and bondage and she found it. those looking for surgical references would have found it as well. >> he was chosen to be going to testify. what they did not know is that this was a sober, articulate family man it was very passionate about the subject and helped make this case about the reason that rock 'n roll as an art form should not be censored. there were a couple of instances in our history where the government starts to get involved. there is a pmr see hearing where wererc hearing when they investigated for the payola scandal. >> it's time again for another

of your favorite rock 'n roll sessions. for all the gang and the moondogs. >> that's the story about a guy who is corrupt and according to the government he is taking money to play music. >> enjoy the moondog show. ♪ >> it was much more than that. they were operating under the assumption that no one would play what they called at the time race music. no one would play this to a white kid without some sinister motivation behind it. clearly there was some financial gain that he was gaining, and it wasn't about the concern for corruption are what is happening in the radio waves. it was the concern that this nascent genre of rock 'n roll is starting to take root and is starting to get into our kids transistor radios and ears and starting to introduce new ideas that challenge the status quo

and create questions and challenge authority. that was a threat to the government. later on the fbi sent a letter -- the nwa for the song " when martin luther king was assassinated, the day after that james brown had a concert in boston. >> sometimes i feel against brown. -- like james brown. --ant you to know >> and boston was one of the few cities that do not have riots after king's assassination because james brown kept it cool. other artists came in after him and said the careful. you may be a target now because now the government knows that if you can stop a riot, you can start one too.

several times in our history you have a situation where the status quo looks at rock 'n roll and says it is making our kids do bad things. it is promoting illicit sexual activities, it is advocating drug use. it is not really music. it should be stopped. that happens with elvis, that happens with the beatles, that happened with twisted sister, it happened with frank zappa, it happened with nwa. it still happens, because the status quo has the feeling that this music has the power to create tremendous unrest or to calm people, and therefore, have to get involved in controlling. these are the original costumes >> this is one of my favorite displays. these are the original costumes worn by the village people. when you think about the village people, they represent a time when our society is starting to change how they view on

-- homosexuality and the gay culture. the song ymca, which in some ways is controversial, but is also part of the american songbook. it is very much accepted, parts of our culture, part of our history. that represents an important time in history because it starts to be when these artists are literally coming out. they are making it ok. there are a couple of different things that are happening in that general time frame if you think about the disco sucks movement. that was a passionate, powerful grassroots movement where people were protesting a type of music. in hindsight, sometimes it was ridiculous. why do you need to protest what someone listens to? it was in some ways a dog

whistle from the conservative side, saying we are not ok with this studio 54 and the village people and the gay culture being out. throughout history, you see examples of artists, especially in race relations, making a statement. sometimes it is nina simone talking about overt and rage. lines and boycotts, they try to say it is a communist plot, all i want is the quality or my sister, my brother, my people, and me ♪ >> that history continues today. you look at the race relations monae isuntry, janelle writing songs about walter scott, michael garner, trayvon martin, michael brown. using her popularity and her voice to make a statement. >> ♪ we are going to be all right ♪ >> kendrick lamar at the bt

bet awards has this over all right song that uses his celebrity and popularity to get movement to the black lives matter movement. still to this day, this music and these artists provide a voice to people who might not always be heard otherwise. >> we are presenting this exhibit not as a look at artists res but asose -- gene , a look at our culture through the lens of rock 'n roll. this is a powerful artform that has the ability to help us process things. it helps bring a voice to people who might not otherwise be heard. it helps us work through some of the most important conversations in american culture. >> our cities tour staff

recently traveled to cleveland to learn about its rich history. learn more about the city and other stops on our tour online. you are watching american history tv. all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. announcer: the republican national convention from cleveland starts monday. watch live, every minute, on c-span3 listen live on the free c-span radio app. it's easy to download from the apple store or google play. watch live or on-demand any time , on your desktop, phone, or tablet, where you will find all our coverage in a full convention schedule. and like us twitter on facebook to see video of newsworthy moments. the 2016s a minute of republican national convention, starting monday at 1:00 p.m. eastern on c-span.

the c-span radio app, and c-span.org. >> each week until the 2016 election, road to the white house rewind brings you archival coverage of presidential races. president nixon accepts his party's nomination for a second term in miami beach, florida. american prosperity to comparing the united states on what he saw to trips to the soviet union and china. in addition, the president promises to end the vietnam war and achieve quote peace with honor,". he won the 1972 election in a landslide, gearing 49 states. this speech is just over 40 minutes, at our coverages from nbc news. [cheers and applause]