Why The Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall Of Fame?

Hello Cleveland!

What would the internet have done if the Hall didn’t exist? My best estimate is that approximately 74% of the bandwidth of the entire World Wide Web consists of complaints about the institution - who should be in/who shouldn’t be, etc. All kidding aside, that is perfectly understandable. Music fans tend to be very passionate. When you add that to the fact that the majority of criteria for entrance is very subjective it creates the perfect atmosphere for arguments.

The nominating committee will meet in the next few weeks and shortly thereafter release a new list of 15-19 nominees so it’s almost time for the cycle to start up all over again. To the committee’s credit they have clearly tried to put together stronger ballots in recent cycles; much more diversity in styles, a much smaller tendency to include 2nd & 3rd tier classic rock artists at the expense of other underrepresented sub genres. My main quibble is that they seem too concerned about “clearing lanes.” They often attempt to nominate only 1 hip hop act or 1 metal act for example, theorizing that too many of either would cause vote splitting and no artists in those genres would get in. The drawback is that means that the backlog of deserving hip hop acts is starting to grow large. Artists are eligible 25 years after their first recording, which makes 1998 the cutoff year. We’re already well into the era where hip hop has become the most vital, most central musical form of the time. The Hall needs to fully reflect the zeitgeist, and it’s well past time to fully acknowledge and celebrate such a crucial movement.

What’s To Come

I’m not going to hazard a guess as to what this year’s ballot will look like. The committee always winds up throwing out a few surprises each year. We frequently see at least one real left field choice that comes out of nowhere and likely has little chance of being voted in by the larger electorate, but the inclusion is at least a nice bit of recognition. And we’re certain to see a handful of nominees who had been eligible for a decade or more but had never made the shortlist until now. Both of those traditions will likely continue.

It’s also worth noting that the powers that be realize that there is a huge backlog of deserving acts. Truth be told it’s so large that there’s no real hope of fully clearing up that bottleneck, but they’re trying their best. The assorted side categories had started to lay fallow, but in the past few cycles they have been deftly used to help induct people whom the larger voting bloc had been overlooking.

I will, however, name 2 artists who I’m confident will get nominated and elected. Both would have almost certainly been part of last year’s class had the timing been slightly different. The first is Kate Bush; she was on the ballot for the 3rd time last year and once again fell short. She of course had an unexpected comeback shortly after the election was held as Running Up That Hill became one of the major hits of the summer. It’s safe to say that if the new season of Stranger Things had dropped a few months earlier while the voting was still going on she would have been in the forefront of the minds of the voters. Additionally, the Super Bowl halftime show was one of the musical highlights of 2022, and Mary J. Blige was the clear standout from that performance. The committee met before that show; if it had taken place prior to the meeting there’s no doubt in my mind that multiple members would have strongly lobbied for her inclusion. It’s clearly her time, she went on to release a successful new album which received multiple Grammy nominations and it’s also no accident that she was prominently seated next to Jimmy Iovine at last year’s induction ceremony.

How Necessary Is the Hall?

There are plenty of people who scoff at the very existence of the institution. The main argument is that rock ‘n’ roll is a music of the moment and that preserving it in a museum goes against its very ideas. Although I understand that point, I can’t get fully behind it. To me the existence of the Hall is proof positive that we were right and they were wrong. I’ve seen all those clips from the first decade or so of the rock and roll era. There were so many grumpy old white men in crew cuts dismissing it as non-musical garbage. Steve Allen would smugly recite lyrics as if they were poetry, conveniently ignoring the fact that many lyrics from 50s pop songs were fairly vapid in their own right. Dean Martin famously rolled his eyes after The Rolling Stones performed on one of his TV specials.

Fast forward and the music has lasted long enough that many of the practitioners became institutions with cultural footprints that have dwarfed those of many of their detractors. If someone wants to make the argument that that’s precisely the problem, figures who were once rebellious or edgy should have never gone on to become “the man,” fair enough. I’d rather look at it as a validation and an ultimate triumph. It’s a straight line from the establishment of the Hall to the likes of Led Zeppelin one day receiving a Kennedy Center honor. Some believe that’s a bad thing, but I obviously disagree.

If nothing else, the annual induction ceremony justifies its existence. Regardless of the quality of any individual induction class, the ceremony itself never fails to impress. It’s always filled with memorable moments, emotional highs, and yes, sometimes entertaining messiness. It’s also a great way to expose lesser known artists. For example, last year Elizabeth Cotten was inducted in the Early Influence. I vaguely knew her name, but after the announcement I dug into her catalog and read up on her interesting back story. I was so impressed with what I listened to, and I never would have tipped my toes in that water without her induction.

Who Really Belongs?

I read an interview with Peter Buck years ago in which the subject of the Hall came up. He talked about the year of Losing My Religion in which REM was up for a bunch of Grammy awards. They went in with a too cool for the room attitude, but changed their minds while sitting through the pre-broadcast portion of the ceremony. As several awards were given out in smaller categories they witnessed multiple veteran musicians who had previously received little recognition get very emotional upon receiving such validation from their peers. It made him realize that this kind of stuff matters. Whomever you are, whether you’re a successful musician or just a regular Joe, it’s a great feeling to receive affirmation from people whose opinion you respect. Sure, in any year there are honorees who simply look at this as yet another trophy to need to find room for, but there are often just as many who look at it as a real symbol of legitimacy, and those moments make it all worthwhile.

Far and away the most dramatic responses come when the nominees and afterwards when the inductees are announced. Everyone has their “where are _____ or ____?” responses ready to go. I’m guilty of this as well, but we all need to remember that it’s the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and not the My Favorite Bands Hall of Fame. Of course I would prefer to see as many of my personal favorites as possible honored, especially if I see a band that I don’t particularly care for get voted in. But why waste so much energy complaining about it? It’s perfectly fine if the Hall doesn’t find a place for one of your personal favs. To choose one artist at random, I absolutely love the band X. They’ve been eligible for almost 20 years, have never been nominated, and are extremely unlikely to. So what? Sure an induction would make me so happy, and I’d love to see them perform on that stage. But I can still listen to any of their albums whenever I choose and can fondly remember having seen them in concert. An induction, or lack thereof, changes nothing.

The other recurring complaint, which I have little patience for, is the standard “that’s not rock!” argument. But there’s a reason it’s named rock & roll and not simply rock. If it was called the Rock Hall of Fame, sure, tune in to a random mid market classic rock station, elect any artist that merits a Perfect Album Side during Rocktober, and call it a day. But you know who doesn’t fall under that category? James Brown. Or Aretha Franklin. Or virtually every Motown act. An institution that calls itself the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame that doesn’t honor those types of artists is worthless. It’s not sensible to draw an arbitrary line at say, 1972 and say that any act that comes into prominence after that date has to fall into the “white guys with guitars” characterization otherwise they don’t belong.

Here’s a good rule of thumb. Rock and roll in its infancy was a conglomeration of several disparate musical elements: blues, country, R&B, gospel, folk, etc. As long as an act can trace its sound to one of those genres, then they merit consideration for the Hall. Now, if you want to say someone doesn’t have a body of work that’s worthy of honor, that’s a different argument. But I can’t get behind an immediate dismissal simply because they someone doesn’t fit within a narrow lane. It’s a big tent, lots of different types of artists should feel welcome. Besides, this is response I heard a couple of years ago when some were complaining about Janet Jackson’s election. When people make the “that’s not rock” argument it‘s almost always about a female artist or an artist of color. I don’t think that’s a hill reasonable people should choose to die upon.

With that in mind, which types of artists should be in play? Looking over the long list of current inductees you can make some educated guesses about voter preferences. In short, the more boxes an artist can check, the more solid of an argument they have.

• Were they objectively great?

• Were they important? Is it difficult to put together a musical history lesson without prominently including them?

• Were they influential? If you draw up a flow chart - A begot B, who begot C, who begot D, etc. where do they lie? If they’re C, and A & B are in and D is likely to be, is it important to include that missing link?

• Do they have multiple songs that have stood the test of time and are part of our collective cultural footprint? For example, immediately recognizable; frequently used as a time signifier in movies; makes a dance floor light up?

• Is there something significant about them - first this, revolutionized that? Can their credentials be summarized with a one or two sentence elevator pitch?

• Are they in an underrepresented sub genre, or conversely, are there already enough similar, better, artists already in so that their addition would be superfluous?

• Who is in the band? Do they have an extraordinarily talented lead singer/charismatic front person? A musician who regularly appears on greatest at their instrument lists, or one who has such a distinctive style that you recognize them from the opening notes?

• Are they extremely popular, with a level of devotion that stands the test of time? One of last year’s inductees, Duran Duran, is a perfect example. Not only were they huge, but seemingly every fan of theirs considered them their favorite band. That level of passion stands for something.

There’s obviously a lot of crossover across the above categories, but I feel that this is a good set of criteria to look out before we all critique the ballot once it comes out, which we’re likely to do. I’ll go out on a limb and say that I’ll have plenty of thoughts to share when the time comes, but for now let’s just hope that the ballot is filled with a batch of defensible choices.

Correa, Correa

The phrase “pending physical” continues to do a lot of heavy lifting. Boy oh boy, the eventual 30 For 30 episode focusing on Carlos Correa’s free agency promises to be a must see. If nothing else, it proves the old axiom that in the future everyone will agree to contract terms with Correa for 15 minutes. As a Mets fan, I’m disappointed by the turn of events but this is another sign of how feelings about the team have changed under Steve Cohen’s ownership. Under the Wilpons losing out on a free agent we thought was ours (setting aside the fact that the Wilpons would never be in the running for a guy that expensive) would have triggered apocalyptic feelings. Under Cohen it’s easier to rationalize the decision. Simply put, the understanding with any long term contract is that you get the bulk of the value in the first few years and not worry too much about the back end. If he remains productive, great. If not, you hope you got enough production in the early years to ease the pain. In Minnesota’s case a 6 year deal is more manageable - hope for 4 great years- but if there really is something scary in his medicals the mega length deals that both San Francisco and New York offered were too risky.

As for Minnesota, good for them. The more teams that are willing to be in play for big deals, the better it is for the sport. When I was in college a sociology professor conducted a small experiment using Monopoly. Each student was assigned to a social class, and depending on which class you belonged to would begin with a different amount of money at the game’s start as well as restrictions on which properties you can purchase. MLB teams, even the small markets, make enough money that they don’t need to be held to such limits. OK, maybe Tampa Bay or Oakland can’t really go for Boardwalk and Park Place, but there’s no reason they can’t go for the green properties.

Sundry

As always, I’m open to feedback of all types. Let me know what you think, and share this post to your heart’s content. I promise I’m usually not as preachy as I was today.