2021 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominees POLL

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

Wait, Bill Wyman the journalist wasn't ever a blues-rock musician, was he?

Ah wrong Wyman. Lol @ me

https://d2qpatdq99d39w.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/18161932/rolling-stone.jpg

I have said this before but every rrhof year appears to be trying to do some mixture of the following things

1. Belatedly make up for its history of snubbing genres (rap, metal)

2. Belatedly make up for its history of snubbing whole categories of humans (POCs, women)

3. Belatedly make up for its history of snubbing influencers (vintage blues and soul and R&B)

4. Belatedly make up for its history of snubbing contributors (producers, engineers, session people)

5. Honor acts that were extremely famous and sold lots of records and filled arenas

It's got a long way to go on all those fronts

That said, burn it down

4. Belatedly make up for its history of snubbing contributors (producers, engineers, session people)

They’ve been honoring these folks in side categories for a long time (since 1986 for producers/engineers; since 2000 for session musicians).

I've got an explanation on standby too, which I haul out every year when there's puzzlement as to how x or y fits into a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (e.g., Kate Bush)...It's not a Hall of Fame for people who play what's generally thought of as rock and roll; it's for people who are embraced by what's generally thought of as the rock audience (or at least was when the thing started in the mid-'80s; I haven't a clue what that audience is called now, if it's called anything, after splintering into a thousand sub-audiences). Kate Bush belongs, and Donna Summer belongs, and Leonard Cohen belongs, and Iron Maiden belongs, and Jimmy Reed belongs; Mel Torme doesn't. (John Coltrane would belong too, but for some reason they drew a line there--not sure if there are jazz musicians in the influences wing.)

2. Belatedly make up for its history of snubbing whole categories of humans (POCs, women)

I also don’t agree w/ this claim... scroll through the list of inductees, starting at the beginning. Most were not white in the early years.

Aretha on first ballot, no?

The second, actually.

Scrolling through the entire Performers list of inductees, I would guess (very roughly) that only around half are white.

Maybe they should name it 'Popular Music Hall of Fame'.

I have opinions on this thing.

They absolutely should have. But in 1985, in a project started by Rolling Stone, I guess the name made sense. If it were launched today, I can't imagine them calling it that.

I would guess (very roughly) that only around half are white.

as of a year ago:

The percentage of total people of color in the hall has declined every year from an impressive high of 55.8% in 1989 to the current low of 32.7%.

https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8543758/rock-roll-hall-fame-gender-racial-diversity-guest-opinion-evelyn-mcdonnell