Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Nominees 2023

Final day of fan voting, but it looks like it's pretty much done:

George Michael
Cyndi Lauper
Warren Zevon
Iron Maiden
Soundgarden

(Willie Nelson is in 6th, behind Soundgarden by well over 20,000 votes.)

Ian is woven into New Order’s lore in some similar ways to how Syd was into later Pink Floyd. I think the big one for me is the song and video for “The Perfect Kiss” where they have that shadow in the door watching them.

I'm surprised Cyndi still has such a big fan base. She's So Unusual was the first record I bought with my allowance and she's the first concert I ever went to (with my dad and two friends), but I still think her time was a bit short to make it into the RRHoF.
I guess she's a bit like Alanis Morrissette, who I'm sure will eventually make it on account of one huge era defining record.

If they’re doing Joy Division+New Order, why not Wham+George Michael?

tbf Ian Curtis had more of an impact than Andrew Ridgeley

feel like the number of classic and iconic tracks Wham released would merit consideration, even if their impact was brief it was massive. like cyndi lauper or guns n roses.

but tying them up w/george michael might've been the way to go.

I would argue that Lauper's post-Unusual career has been significant in a way that other artists' aren't.

She has continued to work and make waves despite having a comparative lack of followup chart success. Collaborations, live work, activism, cool covers, just generally being awesome.

Also? Come the fuck ON. Anyone using the allegedly devastating word "only" in reference to that album betrays a failure of imagination. That record is a goddamn transcendent masterpiece. If she'd come from precisely nowhere a week before it was recorded, and then vanished from the face of the earth after releasing it, she would still be a significant artist.

i think to your average voter, New Order/Joy Division made it because of Unknown Pleasures and the classic New Order singles, not a whole lot different than why Cyndi got in

Cyndi Lauper had quite a career following She's So Unusual, but mostly on stage (Kinky Boots) and acting on television. 30 years ago when the standards seemed much higher, I don't think she would have belonged in the Hall of Fame, but I don't think those standards would've been sustainable in the long run even if they recognized overlooked acts like King Crimson or the New York Dolls, not unless they wanted to average a mere one or two inductees a year. At this point, I think She's So Unusual is more than enough.

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band Line is the RnR Hall of Fame's Mendoza Line, she's in by that measure.

LOL, yeah, that works.

If they’re doing Joy Division+New Order, why not Wham+George Michael?

It feels like they deliberately don't want to see Wham! in the HoF, even though George Michael wrote, arranged and produced mostly everything in those days too. Probably too poppy, not "serious" enough. It took them 15 years to even nominate George, despite his megastar status. His past in Wham! probably didn't help.

bird, let me just reiterate that RRHOF has like seven different agendas at once. Recognize chart achievement, redress historical neglect of particular demographics and/or of entire genres, acknowledge influencers, celebrate the excellence of those who were insufficiently appreciated in their prime, make up for initial critical dismissiveness, laud uncontroversial levels of accomplishment, etc.

The game of "why this artist but not THAT one, who is just as worthy" is a fool's errand.

We should all just relax, because eventually Lil Nas X, Pantera, Bananarama, Nickelback, Steel Pulse, Roxette, Milli Vanilli, Cutting Crew, Tears for Fears, Taj Mahal, and the Spice Girls will all be in there. Even if the sequence doesn't make any rational sense.

Yeah, I hear ya - it does make for a weird mishmash, but at minimum, I've always wanted to see the neglected acts like, say, the New York Dolls get an honor. When you look at the Stooges or the Velvet Underground, you can see that it does feel like a validation for them, regardless of the criticisms thrown at the HOF. There's consolation in knowing the critics love them and that they inspired so many great bands, but I think it still stings a bit when they were discarded or ignored by the industry and certain members are still struggling to make ends meet. Institutions like the HOF or the Grammys or the Oscars have a ton of problems, but they still carry a visible prestige and I like the idea of letting those guys share in that rather than have them fade into obscurity after all they've contributed. Just a random example, Henry "Red" Allen is an amazing trumpet player, one of THE greats...but I don't think his catalog was ever treated that way, to the point where the best representation of it came from British boutique labels specializing in public domain recordings. It feels like he faded into complete and undeserved obscurity a long time ago.

https://www.vulture.com/2023/04/rock-hall-of-fame-member-resigns.html

Missy Elliott, George Michael, Kate Bush, and Chaka Khan (different category) are all in, which makes this the best class in recent memory

wow!

And The Spinners! Damn right!

Special shout out to DJ Kool Herc getting in, now among I dunno the 10 most influential people in the HOF?

Better luck next year ATCQ

i guess it's cool willie got in but it's going to be really annoying when a small handful of country artists are plopped in based on how cool they are online or whatever

whereas Buck Owens who you could argue had a much more real influence on the development of country rock (influence on the Beatles even!) won't ever get in because he's Hee-Haw and corny in ppl's minds

Morgan Wallen will never be inducted

i dunno there's some horrible racists with shitty music already in

Sheryl Crow, really

Fine with that. Eminem got in last year; few things could be worse

Link Wray is FINALLY in, under "musical influence." Not "musical excellence," not "early influence," but "musical influence." Is that a new category? Will there be an "early excellence" category next year?

Not even a bad choice but I would have thought she was a long shot behind a few of the other nominees xp

Sheryls be crowin'

Torn between Cyndi Lauper and The White Stripes for who I'm most surprised didn't get in

Kinda weird to me that RATM makes it in before someone like Zevon. To much Gen X voters imo.

Can't wait for the Missy-Kate Bush duet.

idk if there were more Gen X voters Soundgarden would have gotten in (absolutely fuckin' should have before Rage anyway)

xpost don't give up
cos you got ass

Just read that Missy is the first Black woman to be inducted in her first year of eligibility.

Not Aretha?

Nope -- she was eligible the first year (Little Richard, James Brown, Elvis, etc.), but wasn't inducted until the next year.

Similarly, the Supremes were eligible the same year the Beatles got in -- 1988 -- but weren't inducted until 1990 (third year of eligibility, second nomination).

I find that a bit confusing to the extent that the Beatles predate Aretha's Atlantic albums, but I guess she was recording for Columbia before they ever recorded?

Her first release, "Never Grow Old," was in 1956. Her first album, Aretha, came out on Columbia in 1961.

By the way, her Columbia records are FAR better than they're often made out to be. Some are inconsistent, and have a bit of a grab-bag feel (shoehorning in a few whimsical show tunes here and there), but the performances themselves are all wonderful. Listening to the (now sadly out-of-print) Columbia albums box, one thinks, "You know...I would like to hear her sing the phone book."

Also, re: the Supremes, the criterion is that an artist is eligible 25 years after their first commercial recording. The first Supremes single came out in 1961, which means they were eligible for the first (1986) class. So while they were inducted in their third year of eligibility, they were inducted in 1988, not 1990.

'56?! Had no idea. I didn't even realize the Columbia albums went that far back.

They don't; "Never Grow Old" was a single.

I meant '61 for the albums...Anyway, needless to say, if both the Beatles and Aretha were eligible for the first group, I think they both should have gone in.

my love for bernie taupin has been well chronicled elsewhere on this board but him going in for musical excellence is a magnificent LOL.

Yeah, I honestly don't understand what the rationale was (if any) for not inducting Aretha in 1986.

xp

Wow next you will tell be that RRHoF is both sexist and racist.

In any case, let me say again that the hall is _not_ going to induct acts in the order in which they got famous, their socioeconomic statuses, their proportional levels of fame, their skills, the degree to which they "deserve" induction. Nor is going to indict an act we just heard of a week or a month or a year ago.

I want to get in there with the first "indict" joke, but my mind doesn't work that fast.

idk if there were more Gen X voters Soundgarden would have gotten in (absolutely fuckin' should have before Rage anyway)

― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, May 3, 2023 9:27 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah it really sucks, i'm not saying a big brand name 90s alt rock band needed to get in but Soundgarden is a better band than Rage on so many levels if you were going to induct one

RATM was inevitable probably, once Foo Fighters got in the bar was pretty low for the alt-rock bigtimers. but it's insane to me they're in this soon, i don't see one area where they're not surpassed by Soundgarden, even at the most basic shallow levels HOF voters might gravitate towards.

i don't see one area where they're not surpassed by Soundgarden, even at the most basic shallow levels HOF voters might gravitate towards

rage surpasses soundgarden in the most important area of all: number of band members on the rock hall's nominating committee!

(and also, not at all coincidentally, in number of band members relentlessly making themselves visible and accessible to the music-media industrial complex.)