Stax Museum of American Soul Music — Attraction in Memphis

The place itself was good and enjoyable.

I am taking off two stars because I was unhappy with how they managed things. Specifically, we arrived from out of town about hour before closing, and basically just after we get in with about 40 min to closing, the staff started telling us we had to go as fast as possible because they had a wedding booked at 5, and I said "we have til 5, we will be out by then", but they multiple times told us we couldn't stay til closing and to go as fast as possible, or once someone even came and ushered us out of the room we were in into the next room to try get us to speed up. My friends felt pressured and ended up rushing through in 30 min and missing a good chunk of it, but I just took my time and took about 45 min and saw most of it at least briefly (though I had to look at exhibits around what they were setting up for the wedding, which was fine). I don't blame the staff since they were only trying to do what the management wanted, but I blame the management for either having bad policies or not conveying them to the staff well. If people pay for a ticket to see the place expecting to have a certain amount of time there, I think it is extremely bad practice to tell them they cannot stay for the full time it is open, or be telling them to go as fast as possible so they can't just relax and enjoy what they are able to see in that time. If anything, kick people out 5 minutes early, or politely let people know of the closing time and warn people they need to be out exactly at 5pm and not after, but don't tell people they need to go as fast as possible basically as soon as they get in. I was fine with them setting up tables and just looking at exhibits around the tables, so there really was no need to rush us because we didn't hinder their setup. Or if they are going to book events and really want guests out of there to set up, they should only book the place starting 30 min after close. The staff member we talked to offered us free passes to come back another day because we got rushed through, but that didn't make up for it, since we live several hours away and I may not be back in Memphis ever, and if I am there are many other places I'd like to visit also so I don't think I'd end up using the pass, and this was the one thing we had made time to do on our trip there today. I would hope the management can learn from this and implement better policies or convey their policies more clearly to the staff, so the staff do not feel like this is how they are supposed to treat paying patrons...

A pleasant and unexpected surprise.

We went on the Sun Records tour the day before we visited Stax and found it to be just OK. Neat- but a little underwhelming.

So, after that visit, we didn't have high hopes for Stax. However, that low expectation was quickly set aside as the opening video sequence welcoming visitors to Stax began to play. Wow. That 18 (approx) minute video sequence really set the ground work for the story that was to unfold once the tour began.

The exhibits were well done and there were many of them. Row after row of soul music history on display in a manner befitting the historical and cultural importance of them.

Even the gift store, while not large by any standard, was well stocked with a great inventory of memorabilia, T-shirts, vinyl records, tapes, CDs, guitar picks, and all other sorted knickknacks.

This is a definite item to include on the list for your Memphis trip. I think we paid $13/each, and it was well worth it. You could stay 1 hour and enjoy this or you could easily spend three hours if you were really studying each item. I don't expect children would enjoy this, but me and my big kid...

Stax is a five-plus. In terms of Memphis, it’s the music equivalent of the National Civil Rights Museum. Visiting here showed me that Stax was far more than Sam and Dave and Booker T. It was a cultural lodestone (the Funky Chicken, Whatcha See is What You Get, Mr Big Stuff, and of course, Shaft!) And it gave me a refresher course on Wattstax, which occurred in my own town. But its coverage of soul music goes well beyond Stax and covered Atlantic and other labels. It is a true museum, more so than the Rock and Soul Museum and had an encyclopedic look at the roots in spirituals, gospel, jazz and pop. You could spend quite some time on the priceless live video segments that abound in this place. The “Soul Train” section is an attempt to get people to dance, and a few people were, but I kept getting drawn back to there after hearing yet another cool tune. Stax also allows you to take video, which is quite rare. The parking is plentiful in back, and the gift shop is cool, especially the Booker T type organ upon which sits the cash register. It’s easily combined with a trip between Graceland and downtown, so there’s no...