2021 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominees POLL

I had just sort of assumed that Bon Jovi got in bc of the fan poll but if it's one in 1000 idk.

Well, the new guy replaced Jann Wenner is John Sykes, the president of entertainment enterprises for iHeartMedia (fka Clear Channel), and he made it clear he wanted to push for more populist choices - basically the biggest sellers.

Kot and DeRogatis talked about this when Kot was a regular voting member (and may still be). This was before the Stooges finally got in, and Kot said he always voted for them, but DeRogatis didn't believe his vote would matter based on his experience at Rolling Stone. As DeRogatis would re-enact it, "Hey Jann, looks like the Stooges got a lot of votes." "What? No, no, BILLY JOEL should be in! We're inducting him!"

DeRogatis's former co-host and Chicago Reader critic Bill Wyman actually looked into it and incorporated it into his NYMag/Vulture ranking of all of the Hall of Fame inductees. Ranking something like this is obviously ludicrous, but it gets a LOT of readers, and Wyman actually uses these features as an excuse to do some reporting, weaving what he finds into the entries. So even if you disagree with his tastes, it's worth scrolling through just to see how the HOF works. (For example, I never knew how slimey Ahmet Ertegun's Atlantic Records could be.)

https://www.vulture.com/2018/05/rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame-artists-ranked-from-best-to-worst.html

*replacing Jann Wenner

*clicks*

3. Bob Dylan (1988)

*regrets*

Queen fans may want to avoid the end, not unless you enjoy rage.

how do you rank the sex pistols over the rolling stones? (i love the sex pistols)

like, body of work has to count for something

How do you rank 27 artists above Stevie Wonder?

haha yeah as i went down the list i was getting more and more pissed

Who knew U2 were from one of the “most fucked-up cities in the Western world?”

Oddly, the hate assessments don't annoyed me - what did were the quick and barely detailed dismissals of great artists he clearly didn't listen to. Not when he admits to it though - particularly doo wop groups which he calls a blind spot.

*don't annoy me

Small irony: last place Bon Jovi are criticized for being overly concerned with their hair, first place Chuck Berry was a professional hairdresser.

Rush are there bc they're a big name that sells tickets but they also lack a single song you could play for someone to convince them of their import.

The idea of a hall of fame is antithetical to rock and roll but ranking every single inductee from best to worst is a worthwhile endeavour.

I tried doing it just in thought, and it feels like it would be fun for about a third of it, when you're revisiting artists you probably enjoy immensely. But then there's a morass of artists that you kind of like - particularly ones who have done as much bad work as good - and then it turns into a masochist endeavor evaluating the ones you hate, at least if you really want to consider who's worst, this shit artist or that one. It's more tempting to do that first third and then add all the artists you think they've missed, particularly the ones that aren't likely to get in.

it has a lot of weird wrong ones that are side by side, like the Yardbirds directly above Lou Reed (who I like the Yardbirds but they are band whose reputation lies largely in what its members did after they quit the band)

jackson 5 over the temptations

janis joplin is ranked above jackie wilson which is just a travesty if you're talking about soul singing

I remember that list when it came out...I thought the rankings (if not the write-ups themselves) were most interesting for me in the middle. Up at the top and towards the bottom, the artists tend to be so hugely important or so marginal, I find the rankings almost interchangeable. It's in the middle third where I thinking too-high and too-low and all of that.

The rankings are kind of loose - he notes that somewhere in the beginning (i.e. is #62 really better than #63 on any given day?)

But yeah, Jackson 5 over the Temptations? I love the Jackson 5, I'd induct them, but they were at least a cut below the Temptations. I love Janis Joplin, but I wouldn't put her over Jackie Wilson either.

bill wyman is literally the worst living music writer afaict

When Joe Posnanski ranked his 100 greatest baseball players last year, it became apparent at a certain point that at least 10 players were ranked where they were because of their uniform number (e.g., Jackie Robinson was #42). If only pop stars wore numbered uniforms.

bill wyman should stick to playing bass for the rolling stones

XP

https://i.pinimg.com/474x/a6/bd/c4/a6bdc4df454c07343acd6ae13bf10b79.jpg

^^Inducted Twice

Once too often

Oddly, the hate assessments don't annoyed me - what did were the quick and barely detailed dismissals of great artists he clearly didn't listen to.

Depeche Mode: A second-tier ‘80s synth band

Stephen Stills--too low!

in fairness, bill wyman is biased because he almost quit the stones to join stephen still's manassas

“Mama Said Knock You Out” is almost his One Great Song. But I don’t believe a word he says in any other track he’s ever recorded. I was surprised to read that he had actually made the short list several times. The guy on the Grammys wearing the funny hat and nattering on about “Grammy moment” this and “Grammy moment” that — that complete industry tool in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

I like LL Cool J, I think Radio and Mama Said Knock You Out should have given him a spot in the HOF by now, but LMAO, that last point is impossible to defend.

LL Cool J has released many great songs

an industry tool making it into the RRHOF, the very idea chills the marrow

I disagreed with several of his blurbs but enjoyed reading them

lol at Joy Division and The Cure being "electronic bands" in his reckoning though

I have hard time imagining Kate Bush in the context of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Rockin up that hill

she made a deal with God (Eric Clapton) to get in

Small irony: last place Bon Jovi are criticized for being overly concerned with their hair, first place Chuck Berry was a professional hairdresser.

medium irony: one of his four sentences on nwa (212th place) is "I know that Dre is one of music’s most important producers; he’s also a guy who beats up women." first place is chuck berry.

VHS: Do you mean as to the nature of her music, rather than its importance? I'm not the biggest Kate Bush fan--I do love a couple of songs--but I don't know that she makes any less sense than Joni Mitchell. They're singer-songwriters who non-fans dismiss as arty or precious or whatever, while fans are passionately devoted.

Peter Gabriel is in so it seems only right.

Not more right than Iron Maiden or anything, I mean.

lol I just remembered the Red Hot Chili Peppers are in the rock and roll hall of fame

Once too often

― birdistheword, Wednesday, February 17, 2021

twice too often

VHS: Do you mean as to the nature of her music, rather than its importance? I'm not the biggest Kate Bush fan--I do love a couple of songs--but I don't know that she makes any less sense than Joni Mitchell. They're singer-songwriters who non-fans dismiss as arty or precious or whatever, while fans are passionately devoted.

― clemenza, Wednesday, February 17, 2021 7:41 PM (fourteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I love Kate Bush. My confusion is more aesthetic, would be weird to see her plaque next to RHCP or Iron Maiden.

Do non-fans even know what "arty" means, though, and why precious is an insult?

(Not a slam, I just thought this criticism went out with Dave Marsh thirty years ago when cognoscenti, I guess, knew what they meant).

Subjective call, but I have my own interpretations of those words. And sometimes I hate music that fits them, and sometimes I love music that fits them.

I don't think RHCP and Iron Maiden really typify the RRHOF either, though. They haven't been inducting hard rock and metal bands for very long: Black Sabbath didn't get in until 2006, Deep Purple until 2016.

To me, Kate Bush's music is all about defining its own parameters and creating a world apart. Seeing her perform her three or four greatest hits on the same stage as Foo Fighters doesn't fit that profile.

Not what's happening itt but I assume disparaging uses of 'precious' all hark back to this.

^hard to deny that sounds a bit precious xp

Wyman can be ok, but I've rarely seen anyone more wrong than him about, like, fundamental things. Like when he ranked great rock and roll moments years ago and picked the bass line of "Stayin' Alive."

That bass line would rank higher than many Stones efforts.

Watching old stodgy blues rock musicians attempt to comment on classic hip hop is often like watching someone with a Geo Metro trying to win a drag race