rotating axis labels in R

Use par(las=1).

See ?par:

las
numeric in {0,1,2,3}; the style of axis labels.
0: always parallel to the axis [default],
1: always horizontal,
2: always perpendicular to the axis,
3: always vertical.

Not sure if this is what you mean, but try setting las=1. Here's an example:

require(grDevices)
tN <- table(Ni <- stats::rpois(100, lambda=5))
r <- barplot(tN, col=rainbow(20), las=1)

That represents the style of axis labels. (0=parallel, 1=all horizontal, 2=all perpendicular to axis, 3=all vertical)