By Stacey Tadlock
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Middle Tennessee State University’s Center for Popular Music, housed within the College of Media and Entertainment, is about to become the epicenter for punk archiving and exploration.
The world’s largest collection of punk records — the iconic Maximum Rocknroll, or MRR, archive — is relocating from the Bay Area in California to Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
The archive includes an estimated 60,000 vinyl records, photos, zines and documents spanning decades of punk rock’s global evolution. Weighing in at around eight tons, the collection is a defining piece of music history — and it will now be part of the Center for Popular Music’s research legacy inside the College of Media and Entertainment Building.
The world’s largest collection of punk records — the iconic Maximum Rocknroll archive — is being packed up to be relocated from its current location in California to its new home at Middle Tennessee State University’s Center for Popular Music located inside the College of Media and Entertainment. (Photo: maximumrocknroll.com)Founded in 1985, the Center for Popular Music is one of the world’s oldest and largest research centers devoted to the study of American folk and popular music. It already houses more than one million items of music memorabilia. With the Maximum Rocknroll archive on the way, Center for Popular Music Director Greg Reish said the new addition “includes a ton of stuff that’s quite rare, if not utterly unique.”
“We want people to realize that in one fell swoop, the Center for Popular Music is going to be the new epicenter of punk-related research,” Reish told California media outlet SFGate.com.
Dr. Greg Reish
Logan DaltonThe MRR archive, once headquartered in San Francisco, California, helped shape the punk underground worldwide. For decades, the magazine was considered the definitive voice of the movement. Its archive reflects the breadth of punk’s social and political reach, with items from over 100 countries and countless subgenres.
For Center for Popular Music librarian Logan Dalton, the collection’s arrival is both personal and professional.
“As an enthusiast of punk, DIY and zine culture and its role in social and political activism, learning about the CPM’s impending acquisition of the Maximum Rocknroll archive was something that drew me to the librarian position when I was interviewing for it back in spring 2024,” Dalton said.
“I think that the MRR collection will open the Center for Popular Music to a whole new audience of researchers and visitors and gives us an opportunity to shine a light on lesser-known voices and scenes that may have otherwise been lost to time or streaming algorithms.”
Dalton is especially excited about exploring horror punk, queercore and regional artists from Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia — genres and geographies that speak to their own roots. But the larger mission is just as vital.
“As (a) librarian, I look forward to connecting with researchers around the world and helping them with projects related to this iconic collection in collaboration with my amazing colleagues in the archive and audio lab,” Dalton continued. “I also look forward to utilizing items from the MRR collection for potential outreach events like listening parties, zine workshops and maybe even a punk gig in the reading room.”
Space has already been cleared in the Center for Popular Music’s expansive facility, with cataloging the collection for online search and access set as a top priority. While an exact arrival date has not been set, MRR anticipates the transfer to be completed some time in June, according to its website.
From public programming to potential panel discussions on punk’s legacy, the Center for Popular Music is gearing up to make this iconic collection resonate far beyond its walls. With the acquisition, MTSU isn’t just preserving punk history — it’s amplifying it for future generations.
— Stacey Tadlock ([email protected])
English (US) ·