So another year has passed (yay for getting older…..) which means another class for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has been announced. Yes, a week or two before Christmas, it was announced that 2018 will see The Moody Blues, Bon Jovi, Dire Straits, the Cars, and Nina Simone be inducted as “Performers” in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Sister Rosetta Tharpe will be inducted in the “Early Influences” category. I’m also late in expressing my thoughts on the class, which I’ll touch on briefly in this blog, though this blog is about a much bigger issue for the HOF.
My thoughts on the class is that overall it’s solid, but is also underwhelming and extremely predictable. I was expecting there to be 6 inductees and so I missed on my 6th prediction (which was Radiohead), but other than that mishap, the other 5 artists were the ones I predicted. So besides getting the amount of inductees wrong, I was 5/5 for my predictions for the second year in a row.
Most people on the internet and among the Rock Hall Community are not happy with the class as it continues the trend of classes being dominated by populist 70’s/80’s classic rock bands, and that’s certainly the case here. My feelings on this class, though, are that when you take out the social dynamics and the other acts that were snubbed, all choices are solid and deserve to be inducted, even Bon Jovi who has received the most criticism. The Moody Blues have been in my top 5 snubs for the last 10-15 years, as they were one of the most groundbreaking and innovative bands in the late 60’s, an era where about 60% of the acts that emerged in that time were groundbreaking and innovative. The Moody Blues helped lay the foundation for an entire sub-genre of rock music (Progressive Rock) which to me means they should’ve been inducted decades ago. The Cars were one of the great bands of the 1975-1985 period as they bridged populist classic rock sounds inspired by 60’s rock with the newer, innovative synth-pop style. Dire Straits absolutely define the term “musical excellence” as they weren’t exactly innovators or groundbreakers or extremely influential per se, but their music was very good and memorable regardless. Bon Jovi, who has received the most criticism, are one of the most commercially successful bands in rock history, played a major part in making hard rock a major force on the pop charts, defined the biggest genre of rock music during the 1980’s decade (hair metal, along with Def Leppard and Motley Crue who I do agree should’ve been inducted first), and became the only band of that genre to survive it’s downturn and remain one of the most relevant and successful bands some 25 years after the fact. Nina Simone who was the least “rock” act on the ballot probably was one of the most socially important artists of her time and who’s influence and impact has only grown in ensuing decades. Her music has inspired musicians of all genres and has been heavily sampled in hip hop music. She was a trailblazer when it comes to musicians addressing social issues and of all R&B and jazz artists of that time was far more blunt and straightforward in expressing her views than other R&B and jazz artists of that time. So even though the class was predictable, even underwhelming, there’s no undeserving artists in that bunch. And with the exception of Bon Jovi, I haven’t seen much argument against any of the acts being inducted.
My two biggest criticisms of the class is the fact that the most important and greatest rock band of the last 25 years, Radiohead, was not inducted possibly for political reasons (them deciding to not show up to the HOF ceremony even if they were voted in), and my usual, yearly complaint, the class being way too small. I can’t for the life of me understand why the HOF has increased the amount of nominees each year and yet stubbornly sticks to the philosophy that the “Hall should be exclusive” and only induct 5 or 6 at the most acts per year. This year’s ballot like most in recent years featured virtually all deserving artists (J. Geils Band aside, IMO) and to only induct a handful of those acts again makes the backlog of deserving artists grow for another year, makes the Hall look out of touch and to the most pessimistic, prejudiced. Those are the biggest problems facing the Hall each year, and yet the easiest solution to fixing those problems, by having bigger more diverse groups of inductees, is something the Hall continually refuses to do to appeal to the Robert Hilburns of the world (those who feel only a select few artists should be inducted).
The biggest criticism of the class and maybe now for the Hall overall is the trend over the last 5 years or so of the Hall playing “catch up” on long snubbed populist classic rock acts. Acts the Hall should’ve been inducting 10-20 years ago but were mostly ignored. It’s no secret that these groups mostly consisted of white males either American or British, and every year when the classes are dominated by these type of acts, while black and female artists are snubbed, it only makes the Hall look more prejudiced, sexist, and racist to many people. This class is no exception as 4/5 acts are all white, male rock bands just like the 2016 class.
Which brings us to the subject of this blog. The Hall of Fame has a major problem on their hands. I’m gonna call it the “Classic Rock Dilemma.” To get us to where we’re at today, let’s briefly go over the history of the HOF. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was founded in 1983 by Ahmet Ertegun (one of the heads of Atlantic Records), Jann Wenner (the founder of Rolling Stone magazine), notable attorney Suzan Evans, and other notable figures in the music industry. The first class was inducted in 1986 and featured the majority of the most important founding figures of rock and roll in the 50’s including Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, and James Brown just to name a few.
For about the first 15 years of the Hall, there wasn’t much controversy or questioning and suspicion about the induction process. The classes were inclusive, diverse, big, and right on the money for inductions. I mean when each year you’re having Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, Ike and Tina Turner, Jimi Hendrix, the Doors, John Lennon, Janis Joplin, and Led Zeppelin becoming eligible with each new year, it’s kind of hard to make mistakes really. When it comes to the music scene of 1955-1970 it’s pretty obvious who should be inducted, and most importantly of all, those on the Nominating Committee and Voting Committee were people who grew up on that era of music and were truly experts on it. So they didn’t make many mistakes or bad biased decisions.
Of course there were some exceptions like Chubby Checker, Link Wray, Dick Dale, the Crystals, the Monkees, the Ronettes, and the Moody Blues (the latter two would eventually be inducted in 2007 and 2018 respectively), that were either overlooked or held back due to personal issues with some on the Nominating Committee (one example being Phil Spector who was once married to Ronnie Spector of the Ronettes and who ended up having a nasty divorce, held enough of a grudge against his former group that he held them back from ever being nominated and pretty much no one on the committee argued with him over it, they were probably afraid of being shot). But for the most part things were pretty steady and uncontroversial.
Then you get to the early 2000’s when artists from the mid 70’s started becoming eligible and that’s when things get far more murkier. First off, by the mid 1970’s, the music scene was already starting to become far more diverse and removed from the “glory years” of the first decade and a half of rock and roll. New genres like punk, heavy metal, electronic, disco, reggae, new wave/synth-pop, and hip-hop were coming to fruition, and many of the critics of the time who didn’t want to let go of the rock music of their youth in the 50’s and 60’s pretty much dismissed those genres and the artists of those genres. And the critics and artists that were dismissing these genres at the time were the same people that now ran the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominating Committee and were voters. And thus throughout the 2000’s, classic rock acts in the more hard rock or metal style as well as progressive rock style, which critics always hated, were shunned for 2nd and third tier acts from the 50’s and 60’s. And the 80’s as an entire decade, no matter the genre, were completely ignored with the exception of megastars like Michael Jackson, Prince, U2, R.E.M., Metallica, and Madonna who no one in their right mind could ignore.
At the same time, the Hall decided to go the route of having smaller classes. There were a lot of people on the Nominating Committee who at the time felt the Hall should be exclusive and only induct a select few and by the mid 2000’s they finally got their way. Now while this isn’t confirmed and is solely my speculation and opinion on this, I think the biggest reason that the Hall started going to smaller classes is that many on the HOF Nominating Committee and the HOF itself felt that there were far less worthy artists than the previous decade or two and thus it was time to make the classes smaller. These were the people that felt rock and roll was at it’s peak from 1955-1975. Their view was that they only needed to induct a few punk and rap acts to represent those genres then forget them, progressive rock and metal wasn’t worthy, disco and dance-pop acts were also not worthy outside of Michael Jackson and Madonna and the Bee Gees, R&B music didn’t matter after 1975 once Motown and Stax and Atlantic Records weren’t relevant anymore, with the exception for the aforementioned megastars, and they had inducted most of the major worthy 60’s and 70’s acts already, so it was time to make the classes smaller so they didn’t “ruin the integrity” of the Hall by voting in acts that weren’t worthy in their view. You can imagine people like Dave Marsh are barfing anytime someone brings up the HOF to him over the fact that KISS and Journey are now inductees.
Those two things led us to the problem we’re at today. The Hall for the last 5 years has played catch up on classic rock acts that should’ve been inducted in the 2000’s and early 2010’s (and even a few back in the 90’s like the Moody Blues and Deep Purple) because it took decades for the Hall to get younger, more diverse, and more open minded to music after 1975, and they’re still not nearly enough there. Since 2010, classic rock and pop acts, whose primes were between 1968-1985, such as Genesis, Abba, Alice Cooper, Neil Diamond, Rush, Heart, KISS, Hall & Oates, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Chicago, Deep Purple, Steve Miller, Cheap Trick, Electric Light Orchestra, Yes, Journey, Dire Straits, the Cars, and the Moody Blues have been or will be inducted. With the exception of Dire Straits, the Cars, Cheap Trick and probably Steve Miller, all of those were acts that critics of the 60’s/early 70’s era long hated and were disgusted by. And in the process more modern genres like R&B after 1975, synth-pop/new wave, disco/dance-pop, alternative rock, punk rock, hard rock/heavy metal, reggae, and hip-hop to a lesser extent have had little room to be represented each year. And because of this the Hall of Fame is starting to get the reputation of being a “dad rock” club, or a club for just white male “rawkers” and excludes black artists, and especially female artists, and artists of more modern genres. The Hall is looking more and more out of touch with younger music fans each year.
And to many people it’s only going to get worse because of one of the original guidelines of the Hall of Fame that is in existence to this day. Every living inductee gets to vote each year on the ballot. So every artist inducted into the HOF gets a say in who goes in each year. Now you would think musicians would be the most broad and opened minded people that vote compared to regular people and would appreciate artists from genres or eras that they weren’t necessarily a part of. And this is the case to some degree. Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney and the sadly deceased David Bowie and Prince are/were good examples of artists that aren’t/weren’t just musicians but are/were big, knowledgeable music fans that aren’t afraid to go out of their comfort zones and explore music of genres and eras that don’t necessarily belong to them. But the majority of living inductees are honestly not exactly the most open minded people to vote. Most vote for what they know, meaning artists from their era that they worked together with or toured with or were fans of, aka: their peers. Artists that were long past or before their primes are not likely to get their attention. For example, it’s highly unlikely that Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard know or care to know who Depeche Mode and the Cure are, and in the same token, it’s doubtful that Dave Grohl or Flavor Flav are gonna take a second look at Chubby Checker or the Clovers.
All of us, as music fans, have our particular tastes and biases. For example, if I was a voter, I just can’t imagine myself ever voting for My Chemical Romance, Justin Bieber or Lil’ Wayne 20 years from now when they become eligible. That may not be right and maybe they’ve made enough of an impact on the modern music scene or the music scene to come to deserve induction (admittedly, Lil’ Wayne has for sure), but for me I just can’t bring myself to do it. I’m sure plenty of British rockers feel the exact same way for rap artists or female pop artists. Do you really think Jeff Beck or Gregg Allman, for example, would’ve ever voted for 2Pac or Janet Jackson? I highly doubt it. Heck, they probably didn’t even give Madonna a second look.
And while many artists have their tastes based on genre and style, honestly many probably also have their biases based on gender, country, and even race. No one will admit that of course, but especially for male artists that came of age in the 60’s and 70’s, to them, women were nothing more than sex objects and didn’t belong in the male dominated music scene unless they made “sissy music” (aka: soft singer-songwriter rock, or disco- dance pop), and I’m sure many of those same male artists deep down hold those same views today even though they won’t admit it. And of course there’s the long-held prejudice against rap music by older rock artists and it’s fans. You know, the whole “rap is crap” spiel. That bias will never go away, let’s be honest.
And with the onslaught of male classic rock artists who were born between 1940-1955 being inducted over the last 8 years, this has only brought more of these type of people onto the Voting Committee, which bodes well for their peers of male “classic rock acts” and not so well for artists who came along after 1980. And while the most obvious bias will be against rap, pop, and R&B it’s not strictly racial and gender bias, it’s genre and era-based too. The musicians in Depeche Mode and the Cure and Soundgarden are all white males too, and it’s just as likely that Jeff Beck, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Eric Clapton aren’t going to give them a look either. So while most are looking at this problem as a race issue and gender issue, while those are indeed issues, overall it’s really an era issue. With more and more male rock artists who were born in the baby-boom era it’s gonna get harder and harder for artists that emerged after 1980′, no matter their race, gender, or genre to get enough votes to be inducted.
For the Hall of Fame this is a major problem and dilemma, and for me personally I’m torn on it too. Even though I was born in 1984 on the tail end of the classic rock era, and I’m a Millennial who grew up when alternative rock and hip-hop were the dominant genres in the 90’s and 2000’s, but I’m a classic rock music fan at heart. Like many young music fans I got hooked on “classic rock” of the 60’s and 70’s in my teens thanks to “classic rock radio” and I came to love music because of it. So each year when more of the “classic rock” acts get inducted, on a personal level I’m happy as can be. To me Genesis, Chicago, Alice Cooper, KISS, Deep Purple, Electric Light Orchestra, and the Moody Blues were long overdue by the time they were inducted and extremely deserving. Steve Miller and Cheap Trick aren’t among my absolute favorites, but I think they’re deserving inductees nevertheless. But at the same time I’m in full agreement with everyone that the classes are getting dangerously too close-minded and not diverse enough.
Now many are looking at this from a social issues standpoint and looking at this purely as racial and gender-based. Again, those are worthwhile ways of looking at it, but for me the most important thing about this is musical integrity. I’m liberal as liberal can be, but I take music just as seriously and I also don’t want artists that aren’t worthy to be inducted just so the Hall doesn’t look racist or sexist. Sorry, but I don’t buy Nelly or Jessica Simpson getting inducted in the next decade or so. I’d rather have an all white male class of acts like Radiohead, Beck, Soundgarden, and the Monkees than a class of Master P., Nelly, Jessica Simpson, and the Spice Girls (not meaning to discredit those artists, but to me they’re examples of artists that aren’t HOF worthy though the Spice Girls are borderline as they had a big impact on music in the late 90’s).
For me, the biggest danger here is that the true story of rock and roll is being neglected. Yes it’s great that many of the artists of the classic rock era that should’ve been inducted decades ago are finally getting their due, but at the same time genres like punk rock, alternative rock, disco, dance-pop, reggae, rap, and heavy metal are being ignored. The 1980’s and 1990’s are being completely shafted and that is not a good thing at all. I’m worried that we’re gonna be at the point 10 years from now where acts like Arcade Fire, Kanye West, Lady Gaga, and Beyonce who even at this point are first-ballot HOFer’s are gonna get shafted because the Hall still has to make room for Soundgarden, Jay-Z, Alice in Chains, Mariah Carey, and Daft Punk.
However, I do see light at the end of the tunnel, as long as the Nominating Committee plays their part. The Hall has made an extreme headway in covering classic rock from the 1960’s and 1970’s (still some work for the 1980’s: acts like Def Leppard, Pat Benatar, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Phil Collins, and Motorhead need to be inducted soon), and they’re pretty much at the point where in my view there’s really no one left that are borderline upper second tier classic rock acts left. The only ones that fall in that category to me are the Monkees, Jethro Tull, T. Rex, Bad Company, King Crimson, the Zombies, the Doobie Brothers and maybe Boston, the Guess Who, and Rainbow (mainly just to get Ronnie James Dio in the HOF who should’ve been inducted with Black Sabbath in my view). After that you start getting into notable classic rock acts that are more in the lower second to third-tier level of classic rock groups and can have solid cases made for them but aren’t exactly top-tier acts. Acts like Foreigner, Grand Funk Railroad, Rainbow, UFO, Thin Lizzy, Blue Oyster Cult, Jimmy Buffett, Emerson, Lake, & Palmer, Mountain, Quicksilver Messenger Service (whom I’m a major fan of), Foghat, Badfinger, Steppenwolf, etc. I’m a fan of a lot of those acts, but I’m unbiased enough to acknowledge that they’re not exactly top priority acts for the HOF to get to, especially compared to all of the worthy acts from the 80’s and 90’s now eligible.
Now if all of these acts end up on the ballot, their chances of getting inducted are higher in this day and age than they would’ve been 10 or even 5 years ago. But if the Nominating Committee starts to lessen the amount of classic rock acts on the ballot for the Voting Committee to choose between, and instead puts more modern acts on the ballot, the Voters will have to start voting out of their comfort zone or just not vote at all, thus leaving room for more modern acts to make their way into the Hall. Now the most pessimistic Rock Hall watchers might say we very well could see a ballot with 7-8 of those third tier classic rock acts on the ballot in the next few years, but I don’t think that’s gonna happen. The Nominating Committee is running out of top tier classic rock acts to put on the ballot and sooner or later classic rock from the late 60’s and 70’s is gonna become like music from the first decade of Rock and Roll, only having 1-2 acts at most on the ballot each year.
The Hall has tried to put more younger, modern voices including younger critics and bloggers online on the Voting Committee in the last year or two (Hey Hall, I’d love to vote, just saying! lol), but as long as there continues to be 7-8 highly qualified classic rock acts on the ballot, it’s likely the classes will be made up mostly of those acts, because even younger music fans like myself will still vote for those acts on the ballot (I voted for the Moody Blues every day on the Fan Vote and also voted for the Cars, the Zombies, and Judas Priest quite a bit as well until they didn’t need my votes anymore), so I think it’s gonna take the Nominating Committee to put a stop to this trend and they have a much higher chance of making a difference than the Voting Committee does. The Nominating Committee has been excellent over the last 6 years or so with so many of the older Rolling Stone crowd of people that felt music after 1975 didn’t matter being dismissed from the Committee and more younger, diverse voices being added on. However, the Nominating Committee is not perfect as it is still heavily skewered toward the male viewpoint of music. There is simply not enough females on the Committee. Sure there’s a few, but there isn’t a single female musician/artist on there and that needs to change. Anyone from Sheryl Crow, Melissa Etheridge, Missy Elliott, or Lauryn Hill, or even Carole King who is much older than those other artists but nontheless, would be an absolute breath of fresh air to put on the Committee. It needs more female voices to bring a new viewpoint and perspective on music and what artists mattered and deserve to be in the HOF to the Nominating Committee.
I have more ideas on how I think the Hall can fix this dilemma, which I will discuss in future blogs. But for those that are worried about this trend, I do see light at the end of the tunnel. The Hall is running out of worthy classic rock acts to put on the ballot which is only gonna bode well for acts from the 80’s and 90’s sooner or later.
But I will leave this blog on a “WTF” note. How is it that the HOF inducted Green Day on their first year, but Radiohead were passed over? Don’t get me wrong, I love Green Day, and they deserve to be in the HOF, but over Radiohead? Go home Rock and Roll Hall of Fame voters. You’re drunk! Or old. Or both.
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