Rock music from the 1980s doesn’t get a lot of respect, with much of the focus going to such dated style elements as big hair and heavy eyeliner. The curators at Grammy Museum Mississippi have decided, in the immortal words of Twisted Sister, “We’re Not Gonna Take It.”

In their new exhibit “’80s Rock: The Wildest Decade in Music,” Grammy Museum Mississippi tells the story of what it calls “one of the most under-appreciated eras in rock history.” The exhibit will explore how hair metal and glam metal became so popular and why their fans remain loyal to this day.

The exhibit will open to the public on Friday, Sept. 26, and will be on display through 2026. It will feature artifacts and memorabilia from bands who made a huge splash during the ’80s, including Mötley Crüe, Poison, Skid Row, Warrant, Ratt, Guns N’ Roses, Cinderella, Def Leppard, Lita Ford and Vixen.

Fans will also have the opportunity to have their photo taken in front of a large backdrop depicting the exterior of the iconic Sunset Strip venue Whisky a Go Go.

“We couldn’t be more excited to debut our new special exhibit ‘’80s Rock: The Wildest Decade in Music’,” Emily Havens, executive director of Grammy Museum Mississippi, said in a statement. “Not only is this genre of music one of my personal favorites, but the bands who were launching their careers on the Sunset Strip during this decade made an impact on young people that has lasted for generations. We’re here to give the bands of hair metal and glam metal their due credit and tell the story of one of the most under-appreciated genres of music in rock history.”

An exclusive pre-opening event will be held Thursday, Sept. 25, at 6 p.m., featuring a reception and program with stories and conversation from members of Twisted Sister. This event is reserved for exhibit sponsors and Grammy Museum Mississippi members. Tickets for members are available at the museum’s website.

The exhibit will feature artifacts, instruments and memorabilia from bands of the ’80s hair and glam metal scene, and bands from the pre-glam ’70s scene, including:

Grammy Museum Mississippi, in Cleveland, Mississippi, is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 3 p.m. The museum is closed on Mondays. Tickets can be purchased in person at the box office, or by visiting the museum’s website.

In October of 1971, Godfather of Soul James Brown clocked another entry in his generational run on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart with “Super Bad Part 1 & 2” — a confidence anthem commonly known simply as “Super Bad,” which hit No. 1 on the chart and ultimately became one of the many defining anthems of Brown’s immeasurably influential catalog.

It was obviously a song you could dance to, but it wasn’t technically a dance song — until now.

Via a collaboration with James Brown’s grandson Jason Brown, Brown estate stakeholders Universal Music and Primary Wave and Dutch legend Laidback Luke, “Super Bad” has gotten an official rework called “I Got Soul (Super Bad)”.

Out today (Aug. 28) via Dim Mak Records, the project finds Luke ramping up the song’s BPM and urgency, outfitting his electro production with Brown’s declarations to, among other things, “watch me!” Done in a style bloghouse fans will know and appreciate, the song bumps along deliciously, although as the producer tells it, putting it together was initially quite daunting.

“When I got those stems and opened them up, I was scared,” Luke tells Billboard. “It’s sacred material; I didn’t want to touch it.” This intimidation factor lead Luke to circle back with Jason, who “just gave me complete freedom that made me feel like I could just run with this.”

Jason Brown, who is himself a Los Angeles-based DJ/producer who’s remixed many of his grandfather’s hits and cites a mission to “revamp my gramps music to the next generation,” initially reached out to Luke via DM earlier this year to gauge his interest in being part of the project. He’d seen Luke play many times back in the day while he was a student at SCAD, a creative college in Washington D.C. and loved his classic Dirty Dutch sound. Luke read the DM and was, at first, incredulous.

“It was a little bit creepy,” says Luke, “because I didn’t know who he was and he just started talking about his granddaddy and that he had all the stems and rights to the music. I was like, ‘Wait James Brown is his granddaddy? Like, is this guy for real?”

He was for real, and after the pair had a conversation, Luke received the “Super Bad” stems from Jason and Universal Music, which owns Brown’s recorded masters. “They just saw the vision,” Jason says of the label. The project — which is being framed as an official collaboration rather than a remix — is also a product of Primary Wave, which acquired a stake in Brown’s publishing, master royalty income, name and likeness rights in a 2021 deal valued at approximately $90 million.

“It’s a bit of a melting pot and a real estate situation when it comes down to the business of it,” Jason Brown says of the project’s multiple stakeholders. “But that’s how you get it all across the board, you put everybody at the table. You get everybody on the email. And then you’ve got to know what sounds good, and the result has got to be good, and the names attached have to be somebody. It’s literally all about relevance.”

Luke says the song has been hitting hard during recent sets, with audience going a bit wilder when they realize who the song features. Having previously done official remixes for artists including Madonna, Depeche Mode, Daft Punk and Donna Summer, Luke still cites this project as “the biggest thing I’ve I’ve ever done in my whole career… Like, the only [bigger you can go] is Elvis or Michael Jackson.”

Knowing how much this project means to his career and how much James Brown means to countless people around the world, Luke was a little shy about playing Jason his finished track. “I actually ghosted him for a little bit because I didn’t know if I wanted him to hear it, because I really did my own thing with it,” Luke says.

But the inevitable listening session eventually took place in person in the Dam Mak office in Los Angeles, where Luke and Jason met for the first time and Luke recognized that “Jason is very much the real deal. He’s one of those American kids of huge legends who are just roaming around and have access to this legacy.”

Luke played Jason the track, and Jason says he while he was surprised by Luke taking an electro approach rather than going Dirty Dutch, the final product achieves what he’d hoped it might. “It kind of puts [my grandfather] into the future,” he says. “And that’s the goal. This supersedes the goal.”

The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week, for the upcoming Billboard 200 dated Sept. 7, we look at the still-rising KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack possibly getting lapped by a BB200 superpower.  

Stray Kids, Karma (JYP/Republic): Despite being fairly prolific over the past two years — especially on the Billboard charts — K-pop superstars Stray Kids hadn’t actually released an official Korean-language studio album since 2023, having instead been on a run of EPs with one Japanese-language album (2024’s Giant) and one mixtape (2024’s Hop) thrown in. The latest set Karma, released last Friday (Aug. 22), is actually just the octet’s fourth such album total, with 2023’s 5-Star being the only one of the first three to reach the Billboard 200.  

That set topped the Billboard 200, and so have the other five Stray Kids projects to reach the chart: 2022’s Stray Kids Mini Album: Oddinary (EP) and Maxident, 2023’s ROCK-STAR and 2024’s ATE (EP) and Hop. It stands to reason, then, that a long-awaited official album like Karma would also have a pretty good shot at reaching the chart’s top as well — and the set’s sales will be boosted by 14 available physical variants: 11 CD variants (all inclusive of randomized collectible paper ephemera) and 3 vinyl variants.  

KPop Demon Hunters Soundtrack (Visva/Republic): If you were wondering whether this was going to be the week that the KPop Demon Hunters rocketship finally started to slow, you probably got your answer when the Netflix movie topped the weekend box office after finally arriving in theaters nationwide for the first time (after a one-week release in just three theaters in June). Fans new and old couldn’t resist coming out to the local multiplex to sing along to now-minted Demon Hunters smashes like “Golden,” “Your Idol,” “Soda Pop” and “How It’s Done,” which collectively make history on the Billboard Hot 100 this week by making the soundtrack the first to claim four simultaneous top 10 Hot 100 hits.  

The songs have gotten a solid streaming boost from the movie’s theatrical run — possibly enough to finally push the soundtrack past Morgan Wallen’s 12-week No. 1 I’m the Problem, which has held it at No. 2 for five non-consecutive weeks at this point. But securing the Billboard 200 No. 1 might have to wait at least one more week for the summer’s most unexpected blockbuster: With CDs not slated for a wide release until Sept. 5, it likely cannot compete with the sparkling sales numbers put up by Stray Kids — whose 5-Star album posted 235,000 in pure album sales in its debut week two years ago, a number likely to be bested by Karma next week.  

IN THE MIX 

Laufey, A Matter of Time (AWAL): Two years after 2023’s Bewitched and its (somehow still viral) breakout hit “From the Start” made traditional pop vocalist Laufey an unlikely Gen Z darling, she returns with the new set A Matter of Time. The album has gotten off to a strong start on streaming, with new single “Lover Girl” still ranking in the top half of Spotify’s Daily Top Songs USA 200, and will undoubtedly be boosted by a wide variety of available variants — including eight vinyl and three CD options (each with one signed edition) and even a cassette. 

Deftones, Private Music (Reprise/Warner): Another act you can expect to sell well this week is veteran alt-metalers the Deftones, who have reached the Billboard 200’s top 10 with six of their last seven albums (2012’s No. 11-peaking Koi No Yokan the lone holdout) over a now-25-year span. It should be seven of eight following last Friday’s release of Private Music, another strong streaming performer with a ton of purchase options: seven vinyl variants, three CDs, a cassette and a box set with a branded piece of a clothing and a vinyl LP inside. 

Tyler, the Creator, Cherry Bomb (Odd Future): Third official album Cherry Bomb holds a curious place in Tyler, the Creator’s catalog, marking perhaps the most lukewarmly received and least-remembered project in his otherwise unanimously acclaimed discography. But the set’s 10th anniversary (celebrated in April) is as good a time as any to revisit and re-evaluate the set — and as of Friday, fans have the ability to do so via three new vinyl variants and three new deluxe boxed sets containing branded merch and a CD, all likely to send the set hurtling back towards the Billboard 200’s top 10 this week (perhaps just short of its original No. 4 peak).