Hear Me Out: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is now culturally redundant
Another year, another slate of inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At this point, induction into the Cleveland Mausoleum of Dinosaurs isn’t the honour that it might have once been. Whereas figures like Mick Jagger and George Harrison actually showed up at their respective bands’ inductions, the recent trend seems to be going in the opposite direction. As for the class of 2023, I can’t imagine any kind of reversal is in order.
The good news is that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame now has a new batch of women, is slightly blacker, and is slightly gayer than it was last year. Considering the importance of figures like Little Richard and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, that’s no small thing. This year’s crew includes country legend Willie Nelson, hip-hop pioneer Missy Elliott, rap rockers Rage Against the Machine, country rocker Sheryl Crow, pop icon George Michael, old-school doo-wop vocal group The Spinners, and art pop queen Kate Bush. It’s a fine selection of worthy artists that seems almost custom-made to make the Hall look silly on induction night.
Do all of these artists deserve to be enshrined in an institution dedicated to preserving the history of popular music? Absolutely. But this is still the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the bloated and confused corpse of a good idea that went astray. The actual museum itself in Cleveland is still a wonderful place to visit. The actual voting body of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is… well, you don’t need me to tell you how much the Hall loves shooting itself in the foot.
In recent years, it’s been less and less cool to accept your Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Award. So here’s how I think it’s going to go: Crow and Elliott will show up and accept their trophies. Representatives for Michael and The Spinners will do the same (actually, The Spinners are still an active group and have an original member, Henry Fambrough, in their ranks. Congrats, Henry: we’ll see you on induction night). Tom Morello will accept Rage’s trophy, but Zack de la Rocha won’t make the trip. Nelson will cite health reasons or touring obligations and skip. Bush will be eternally too cool to leave her house and send a thank you text instead.
More than anything, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is entering an eternal cycle of fucking up induction classes and then trying too hard to check boxes the following year. Rinse and repeat, over and over, until the end of time. All of these artists (with the exception of Crow. Sorry, Sheryl) are worthy of having their work preserved and their influence acknowledged. But now they’re getting caught up in the redundancy of the very Machine that Rage is raging against. Morello likes to say that the best way to infiltrate and take down said Machine is to do it from the inside, so he better have a fiery speech at the ready this time around when he bows down in front of his industry overlords.
Even when they’re being “inclusive”, the Hall of Fame is still othering important artists. Chaka Khan is this year’s victim of the “Award for Musical Excellence” designation, AKA the “You Couldn’t Get Enough Votes So We’re Going To Give You Our Participation Trophy” award. Icons like Nile Rodgers and Ringo Starr have been slighted by this award in the past, and Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford was justifiably “pissed” that his band were inducted with this technicality last year. Figures like producer Al Kooper and Elton John’s longtime songwriting partner Bernie Taupin make sense for the category: they’re mostly behind-the-scenes guys. But Chaka Khan is a living legend that deserves more than a “You Tried” sticker.
Meanwhile, the snubs look particularly egregious this year. Billy Joel’s campaign to get Warren Zevon in the hall came up short. A Tribe Called Quest were probably told that there was only room for one hip-hop artist on this year’s bill, and since none of the members are women, they likely weren’t prioritised. The White Stripes will get in sometime over the next year or two, but that’s an easy slam dunk that was missed. Cyndi Lauper should have been in the Sheryl Crow slot. Joy Division and New Order should get their own separate nominations and both should be in. Iron Maiden is one of the biggest heavy metal acts of all time, but the best they can probably hope for is a “Musical Excellence” award like their peers, Judas Priest. The fact that Soundgarden isn’t in yet is an affront to the entire idea of a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
But I doubt Chris Cornell is rolling in his grave at the lack of appreciation. There is nothing less cool than the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and every artist who has been looked over, both recently and historically, should look at it as a badge of honour. But that’s not the way it works. Right or wrong, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is the most visible music preservation society in America. So when acts like Chic and Bad Brains aren’t included, it’s not just annoying: it’s borderline cultural erasure.
But, of course, the actual institution is happy to display memorabilia from non-inducted artists. Everything about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame stinks of inauthenticity. The fact that they pick and choose which band members get in and who gets left out is a major crime. The fan vote is nice, but it’s simply there to satiate the public: Geroge Michael got in this year because the Hall allowed him entry, not because the fans demanded he be included. After all, the fan vote accounts for just a small portion of an artist’s actual ballot. When Michael won the fan vote, it wasn’t actually guaranteed that he would be inducted. Just look at this year’s second-place finisher, Cyndi Lauper, who only barely came behind Micheal in terms of fan votes but got shown the door.
If you’re happy that one of your favourite artists got inducted this year, then you should celebrate. But the basic truth is that everyone deserves better than what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame currently is: an institution that doesn’t actually care very much about preserving the history of music as it happened. The Hall of Fame is a “museum” because it has a lot of cool items, not because it actually gives a shit about the proper lineage, origins, or narratives of any genre. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame continues to shape music history in its own demented, sanitised way, and people still try to act like it’s a reputable institution. At this point, I have no idea why.
