In celebration of the enduring connection between rock ‘n roll music and the automobile, the Petersen Automotive Museum returns to the stage with Encore! Cars & Guitars of Rock & Roll II. On view from February 4 through July 30, 2006, this dynamic exhibition explores how a unique blending of cars and music has come to represent much of American popular culture.

Beginning with Ike Turner’s Rocket 88, the first ever rock ‘n roll song, which just happened to be about a car, a new music style combining a swing tempo and rhythm-and-blues beat was born. Soon other songs about fast cars and the activities around them emerged. The 1960s were the heyday of California car culture and rock ‘n roll songs helped celebrate the scene on an international level. Throughout the decade, radio stations blared tunes about big mills, burning rubber, crusin’, and the baddest American cars on the street and strip. Among the most memorable were “I Get Around,” “Little Deuce Coupe,” “409,” and “GTO.”

As Southern California centric as automotive rock ‘n roll was, the sound that created it was also born in Southern California. In 1955, the Fender Music Company of Fullerton, California revolutionized music with the introduction of the Telecaster electric guitar and high quality amplifiers. The distinctive “Fender sound” came to be associated with virtually all car songs of the 1950s and 1960s.

Like the Beach Boys sang, cool cars and rock ‘n roll are as natural together a “competition clutch and a four-on-the-floor.” The English language even makes use of expressions that mate the two icons. The terms “garage band,” “driving beat,” or “listen to that engine sing,” are examples of how we combine the automobile and music, especially rock ‘n roll. The intertwining spirit of the two created an enduring association that is enthusiastically embraced both by the public and modern musicians.