Talk us through some of those voices and some of those greatest impacts, you know, folks who've had the greatest impact on American music.

The thing about American music is that it's really not American anymore.

It's the world's, right? You can go to Chile and hear blues.

You can go to Iceland and hear soul.

You can go to Russia and hear hip hop.

It is predominant throughout the world.

And the reason why it is is because this American music is our most important cultural resource.

Do you see yourself as a visionary and maybe as someone now who was, forgive the pun, born to run this Bruce Springsteen Center?

How did you pick those artists, uh, that you wanted to, to feature, and, and, and more importantly, how did you get all those cool artifacts?

I could tell you this.

You know, I've been in this music museum business incredibly for 35 years, and never, not once, did I ever come across a more challenging, uh, proposition and, and, and situation than trying to explain American music in about 3,000 square feet.

You know, uh, we need an entire Smithsonian museum dedicated to American music.

It's that rich, that large, that important to us.

And to try and do that, uh, in 3,000 square feet was the biggest challenge I've e- curatorial challenge I've ever faced.

So we came up with the idea that what we'll do is provide, if you will, snapshots of the most important American music genres on one side of the big cases that we have.

What was the process in putting all of that together? What was your approach? Who did you wanna get? Did you know what songs you wanted to, to target?

Bob Santelli is the center's executive director and an American music historian.

This is one of my favorite cases here because... of the power of the artifacts.

That's Louis Armstrong's trumpet.

That's Dizzy Gillespie's trumpet.

John Coltrane's saxophone in Ella Fitzgerald's concert dress.

We had to figure out how to encompass the story of American music in a rather small space and yet make sure it was relevant, it was accurate and reflective of what Bruce's music is all about.

Where does

Bruce Springsteen's contribution fit in that overall narrative?

Bob Santelli is the center's executive director and an American music historian.

This is one of my favorite cases here because of the power of the artifacts.

That's Louis Armstrong's trumpet.

That's Dizzy Gillespie's trumpet.

John Coltrane's saxophone in Ella Fitzgerald's concert dress.

We had to figure out how to encompass the story of American music in a rather small space and yet make sure it was relevant, it was accurate and reflective of what Bruce's music is all about.

Where does Bruce Springsteen's

contribution fit in that overall narrative?

Wow.

That's Dizzy Gillespie's trumpet.

John Coltrane's saxophone and Ella Fitzgerald's concert dress.

We had to figure out how to encompass the story of American music in a s- rather small space, and yet make sure it was relevant, it was accurate, and reflective of what Bruce's music is all about.

Where does Bruce Springsteen's contribution fit in that overall narrative?

His contributions are increasingly significant.

His place is right up there, uh, with all the greats, including Bob Dylan.

And so what we're trying to do here is it's not, this is not a tribute to him.

What do you see as you look forward in the way that these kinds of institutions are carrying this story for, you know, future generations?

Yeah.

It's a good question, Alan.

You know, back in the Gilded Age, in the 1890s, there was this great explosion of art museums, right? Uh, people began building them.

There's a, pretty much an art museum now in every major American, even minor American cities.

They're there.

But it took us till the 1960s for the very first music museum, and that was 1967, the Country Music Hall of Fame actually opened.

What, what's gonna be, what's gonna be fixed?