After that performance, “thousands of rock bands were formed using that same lineup of two guitars, a bass and a drum set,” says Dobney. Soon, Berry helped revolutionise the sound, establishing the electric guitar as the genre’s primary voice and visual icon.“We’re looking China Electric folding bike at rock ‘n’ roll instruments as an art. This exhibition will provide a rare opportunity to examine some of rock ‘n’ roll’s most iconic objects up close,” says Dobney. The show runs here from April 8 through Oct 1 before travelling to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in Cleveland, where it will be on view from Nov 20, 2019 through Sept 13, 2020.Even as guitars were lovingly painted and sometimes even built by the musicians who played them (like Eddie Van Halen’s red and white “Frankenstein” guitar, featuring a Fender-style body and neck with Gibson electronics), instruments were also famously destroyed by rock stars as part of their act. In ‘Play It Loud,’ an exuberant show that can be heard as well as seen, the Metropolitan Museum of Art takes on the history of rock ‘n’ roll through iconic instruments on loan from some of rock’s biggest names.

All exemplified virtuoso musicianship and awe-inspiring swagger..Guitars used by Jimi Hendrix (L) and Eric Clapton are displayed with concert posters at the exhibit.“My guitar was confiscated if I took it to the school field to play,” he says. Not this one. ‘Creating an Image’ opens with an enormous, jagged electric piano housed in acrylic with built-in lights, owned by Lady Gaga.Also featured is a setup like that used by the Beatles on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ in 1964.There are flamboyant costumes worn by Prince and Jimmy Page, videotaped interviews with ‘guitar gods,’ even shattered guitars. (Photo: AP)Highlights include Chuck Berry’s ES-350T guitar (at the entrance to the exhibit), John Lennon’s 12-string Rickenbacker 325, an electric 500/1 ‘violin’ bass on loan from Paul McCartney, Keith Moon’s drum set and the white Stratocaster played at Woodstock by Jimi Hendrix.‘Expanding the Band’ explores the way the classic four-piece rock band was augmented by instruments like dulcimers, sitars and a range of experimental keyboards to expand the sound. “So to see guitars from people I listen to, it’s absolutely phenomenal. By the 1970s, women, too, were fronting bands and finding platforms for their own personae and skills, Dobney says.A guitar made and played by Eddie Van Halen of Van Halen is displayed at the exhibit.

“Instruments are some of the most personal objects connected to musicians, but as audience members we are primarily used to seeing them from far away, up on a stage in performance.A wall image of Springsteen taken from behind with his guitar over his shoulder illustrates how for some stars, the guitar became almost an extension of their body.Each of the four rigs is accompanied by a videotaped interview with the artist explaining how they created their unique sound.Over 130 instruments are featured in the show, including ones played and beloved by the Beatles, Elvis Presley, Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, The Grateful Dead, Lady Gaga, Joan Jett, Metallica, Steve Miller, Page and other rock ‘n’ roll greats. They serve as muses, tools and visual icons and many of them are hand-painted and lovingly designed,” says Jayson Kerr Dobney, curator in charge of the department of musical instruments at the Met. ‘The Rhythm Section’ explores the sources of the genre’s powerful rhythms, with accented backbeats created using a drum set and electric bass guitar. The show features its own rock ‘n’ roll soundtrack and is organised in thematic sections. (Photo: AP)‘Setting the Stage’ explores rock’s early days in the American South of the late 1940s and early 1950s, when pianos, saxophones and acoustic guitars were among the instruments of choice.