INVESTIGATION: The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
- Chris Zuver
- Mar 16
- 6 min read
The following is a republication of an article that I wrote back in February of 2017, so the numbers are a tad off but the message is still relevant.
NOTE: All links have been checked and are still active.
I’m going to make a claim that probably won’t put me at any social risk:
"The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame isn’t important."
This is a thought I’ve had for years and I’ve had my reasons for feeling this way. Yet, I never thoroughly investigated these reasons until now.
In what follows, I’ll be exploring a few of my major issues I’ve had with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (RRHF) all of this time and finding out if these issues were rational concerns or if they were just overgeneralized notions.
PART 1: WHO IS RELEVANT?
Since 1986, the RRHF has been inducting musicians and others who work in the music industry every year. They are nominated by a committee and then voted in by a board of judges and those who win the popular vote and/or receive at least 50% of the votes.
According to the RRHF’s website: “inductees will have had a significant impact on the development, evolution and preservation of rock & roll.”
That’s great in theory, but let’s consider a couple of things:
Say I’m a stagehand. Say I’m a member of the most efficient setup company in the world. I work that job for 25 years or more. There will be no red carpet for me at the end of the day. There is no monumental title handed to me or those in my line of work.
Let's assume I’m a session musician, who plays and/or writes parts for popular musicians in the studio. I may get a credit in the album notes, but I’m likely not going to be remembered, though the performer will have a much greater chance, especially if I make them a hit.
Now I’m aware of what I stated earlier about the RRHF inducting not just performers, but others who work in the industry.
Yet, as of the time that I’m writing this, there are 215 inductees who are performers. Of those 215, there are 22 individuals who have been inducted more than once, usually for being in multiple bands who were inducted.
Additionally, there are 32 inductees who are given the title “Early Influence,” meaning that their genre predates rock. However, they are accepted because they were influential to rock performers.
Meanwhile, 42 inductees are non-performers, who receive the “Ahmet Ertegun Award,” while another 29 have been given the “Award for Musical Excellence,” which pays homage to musicians who worked outside of the spotlight.
While I understand that performers are the face of rock music, making them much more likely to absorb the praise, I feel like there are more people who worked behind the scenes that aren’t getting recognized.
So, who’s voting them in? This brings me to my next point:
PART 2: THE JUDGES
As I have a natural inclination to question authority, my primary concern with the RRHF was the induction process.
Most of my life, I went around assuming that those in charge were probably a bunch of out-of-touch suits and snobby journalists.
Well, it turns out that my thoughts were only partially unfounded.
According to the RRHF’s website, artists are chosen by a nominating committee every year and then voted on by more than 900 people including historians, members of the music industry, and artists.
Whom these 900+ voters consist of and what the ratio of their professions are is hard to trace. However, we can easily find records of the people who make up the RRHF’s nominating committee.
As of 2016, the committee consisted of 28 people. Among them are music journalists, music documentarians, radio DJs, record label employees, and, of course, musicians. Currently, musicians make up exactly one quarter of the committee.
Now, a lot of people who bash the RRHF make the argument that there aren’t enough musicians on the committee. The ultimate conclusion of this argument is that there is a type of quality to a musician which makes them favorable in determining who should be nominated versus anyone else in the music industry.
It’s important that I re-state this: before my research, I assumed that the committee consisted of music business corporates and journalists. This is important because while it turned out to be partially true, it forced me to re-evaluate the legitimacy of the non-musician’s opinions and their vantage point within the music industry.
I still maintain a skepticism of their integrity and ability to overcome their own
biases. However, it would be foolish to miss the great likelihood that the musicians have biases and populist agendas themselves. Furthermore, label executives, journalists, documentary makers, etc. are all just as likely to be as informed in the music scene as the musicians themselves.
When you consider the passion that some of rock’s most famous critics like Robert Christgau and Jim DeRogatis have when they discuss music, it is clear that we’re hearing from people who are well-informed and inspired by the art form. When you hear the story of the Chess brothers and the founding of their infamous record label, you can’t help but see two men who were driven and loved every moment of it.
So, essentially, while I may be slightly biased as a musician myself and wouldn’t mind seeing a few more artists on the committee, I don’t think this is a serious issue.
If you ask me, one moderate concern I have for the RRHF is the age range of the committee. Most of these people are at least fifty and we all know how you get when your hair starts to turn white.
Seriously, though, I wouldn’t mind seeing some younger people on the board.
PART 3: THAT’S NOT ROCK
In recent years, a new controversy has arisen regarding the RRHF: the inclusion of hip-hop artists. Acts such as N.W.A. and the Beastie Boys have been inducted and not everyone likes this.
Now, when I was younger, I didn’t really care about rappers coming into the RRHF. I was open-minded and didn't think it really mattered since "Rock & Roll" just meant rebellion to me. Wait - actually, I still think like that. But back then, since I wasn’t aware of any Hall of Fame in the hip-hop world, I didn’t see what the big deal was.
And like I said, I still don’t care after it’s all been said and fleshed out, but I’ll give my two cents on the matter, anyway…
Firstly, if you want to maintain "purity" in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, then you must realize that you’ll be kicking out more than just rappers and DJs. You’ll also be kicking out Al Green, James Brown, B.B. King, Johnny Cash, Bob Marley, Michael Jackson, Miles Davis, and a few others.
Of course, you all agree that none of those aforementioned artists are rock musicians, right? You just put them in the "Early Influence" category and it works out for a board of pre-dominantly elder white men.
Yet, while most people aren’t aware of this (and I was one of them), there are now many alternative Halls of Fame for other genres:
In Memphis, there is the Blues Hall of Fame: https://blues.org/hall-of-fame-museum/
In Dayton, Ohio, there is the Funk Hall of Fame: http://www.thefunkcenter.org/
In Nashville, there is the Country Music Hall of Fame: http://countrymusichalloffame.org/
And yes, coming soon to Manhattan, there will be the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame: http://hiphophof.tv/
Let’s be realistic, though. The RRHF would never kick out those that they have already inducted just because they aren’t rock. It would do too much to damage their reputation and nobody is complaining about it.
My point is that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame may as well be called the “American Popular Music Hall of Fame” by now. There are enough folk, blues, R&B, soul, funk, and even disco artists already in there at this point, you can’t say that the inclusion of hip-hop is really going to dilute their roster of artists, it’s already a hodge-podge of multiple styles. The inclusion of hip hop is merely a small issue that people will continue to complain about and one that the RRHF will continue to ignore.
CONCLUSION
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is simply an organization devised of people who give opinions on music and its cultural relevancy.
Who gives a damn what a board of “elites” think? The RRHF only has power if people give it said power. Besides, how many of you care about the Grammys?
Speaking of which, how about those Oscars?
Commenti