Live Music in Cleveland

Rock and roll was named in Cleveland. In the early 1950s, DJ Alan Freed began playing rhythm and blues for white audiences on WJW radio, coined the term "rock and roll," and on March 21, 1952, staged the Moondog Coronation Ball, the world's first rock and roll concert. That history earned Cleveland the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but the city's live music identity runs far deeper than one institution. Nine Inch Nails formed here, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony came up here, and Tracy Chapman and Kid Cudi both called it home. Today, venues like the Agora Theatre, Beachland Ballroom, and Grog Shop sustain a scene spanning industrial, punk, hip-hop, and jazz, while Bop Stop keeps live jazz rooted in Ohio City most nights of the week. Cleveland is a working music city, not a museum piece.