South Dakota music fans will soon have a chance to step back in history and relive the early days of rock and roll. The state's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will be moving into the Washington Pavilion next month.  Visitors can check out posters, photos, instruments and other rock relics that have only gotten better with time.

Music from generations past still echoes in the memories of South Dakotans who took their place on the dance floor back in the 1950s and 60s. 

"Things were a lot simpler back then.  You could sing along to the songs.  You could understand the words.  It was just good, easy music to listen to," Terry Tausz of the South Dakota Rock and Roll Music Association said.

The armories and ballrooms that populated the prairie made South Dakota a musical incubator to the new sound of rock and roll.

"They didn't make a lot of money, but the kids loved it and it didn't matter how good they were, everybody came," South Dakota Rock and Roll Music Association Chairman Don Fritz said.

The South Dakota Rock and Roll Music Association honored the accomplishments of those past pioneers last month by inducting them into the state's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

"And South Dakota isn't a big state.  We don't have a lot of people here, but we have a lot of history in music. And a lot of early rockers like Myron Lee, Sherwin Linton and Gary Mule Deer, they set the trend for a lot of people to follow," Fritz said.

These first Hall of Fame inductees now have a place of their very own.  For years, displays commemorating South Dakota's rock and roll past have led a nomadic lifestyle as traveling, temporary exhibits.  Many of the items have been kept in the basement of Fritz's Sioux Falls home. But now, they've got a new gig at the Washington Pavilion. Elvis may have left the building, but the South Dakota Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is looking forward to moving into its building.

"To my wife it will be great, to me, it might be sad, but we'll work through it," Fritz said. 

As a non-profit group, the music association couldn't afford to buy a building of its own. Plus, the Pavilion already has the security and staff available to host a rock and roll museum.

"I think this will grow tremendously.  I think as people see what we have and how we're honoring the rock and rollers and each generation here, it's own groups of performers, I think it's just going to continue to gain in popularity," Fritz said.

And that means reaching out to younger generations. Hall of Fame organizers say kids today are just as in tune with the music as their grandparents were.

"Most of these kids, they can sing the songs, they don't always know the name of the song, or who sang it, but there's a lot of them who can actually sing the songs more so than their own music of today," Tausz said. 

Organizers say the Pavilion is a fitting place for a Hall of Fame museum since many of the early bands were formed by students at the old Washington High. They hope their new digs at the Pavilion will offer fertile soil for South Dakota's rock and roll roots.

The museum will be located on the second floor of the Pavilion. Organizers plan to have rotating displays so the exhibit will always have a fresh look.