Museum Joanneum

New digital home for the Styrian rock archive

Johannes Silberschneider, aka Johnny Silver, David Reumüller, Maria Froihofer and Michael Posch present the rock archive and catalog on February 28 at the Museum of History Graz(Bild: UMJ/J. J. Kucek)

Styrian popular music since the 1950s is collected in the Rock Archive, which was founded in 2007. It has now found a new home in the Museum of History and is an online treasure trove not only for music fans.

For almost 20 years, David Reumüller, Gottfried Krienzer and Robert Lepenik have been collecting everything to do with Styrian pop and rock music since the 1950s in their rock archive. Now this digital goldmine has landed at the Universalmuseum Joanneum and become a living part of the Museum of History.

Following an elaborate relaunch, Styrian musicians, bands, studios, clubs and scene greats from the past to the present can now be accessed by anyone at www.rockarchiv-steiermark.at. In addition to numerous photos, you can find discographies, interviews, films, sound samples and festivals, as well as themed online exhibitions. The rock archive is a work in progress and is constantly being expanded. But one thing it already shows is the great cooperation between Styrian musicians and the exceptional situation in 1984, which rewrote Styrian music history.

Johnny Silver & The Clappers at the 1978 band competition in Graz's Kammersaal.(Bild: UMJ/Lohr)

Time travel into pop history
This completely overhauled online presence will be presented today at 7pm with musicians, contemporary witnesses and plenty of memories. The evening will be hosted by David Reumüller, not only co-founder of the Rockarchiv, but also a musician and artist, together with actor and passionate collector Johannes Silberschneider, whose alter ego Johnny Silver has been shaking up local rock history as a singer and musician since the 1970s.

The exhibition catalog(Bild: UMJ/J. J. Kucek)

Catalog as an atmospheric picture
Almost five years late, the catalog for the exhibition "Pop 1900-2000. Popular Music in Styria" is also being presented in this context. Like the show that was on display in 2019/2020, it is the result of Reumüller's collaboration with Maria Froihofer and Karl Wratschko and paints a wonderful atmospheric picture in which folk music can easily pass for rock 'n' roll.