Rock Hall Nominations: Same Circus, Different Year
Well… release the “I don’t give a fuck about the Hall of Shame” rock fans. It’s nomination time. Every year the same ritual begins. The list drops, and the average rock fan looks at it and says some version of: “What the hell is this garbage?”
Round and round what goes around don’t come around in the Hall
And if that’s your reaction? Congratulations. You’re not wrong. But you’re also not entirely right.
First, let’s look at this year’s nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:
Billy Idol
The Black Crowes
INXS
Iron Maiden
Jeff Buckley
Joy Division / New Order
Lauryn Hill
Luther Vandross
Mariah Carey
Melissa Etheridge
New Edition
Oasis
Phil Collins
P!nk
Sade
Shakira
Wu-Tang Clan
Now here’s where the torches and pitchforks come out; Lauryn Hill, Luther, Mariah, New Edition, P!nk, Sade, Shakira, and Wu-Tang Clan; cue the outrage.
“That’s not rock!”
And look, I’ve got no problem with that reaction. Because technically… you’re right. But here’s the inconvenient little detail that always seems to get skipped in the screaming. This isn’t the Rock Hall of Fame; it’s the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Rock and roll was never a single genre.
Originally, the phrase “rock and roll” was just a marketing term—used to sell electrified dance music, mostly by Black artists, to a teenage white audience in the 1950s. Within about five years the phrase had already started morphing. Blues became rock, R&B evolved, soul exploded; Pop, funk, hip-hop, punk, metal, new wave, every one of those branches grew from the same messy, electric family tree. So no, the problem isn’t that those artists fall outside the rock and roll umbrella; they absolutely don’t.
The problem isn’t that these artists don’t fall under the rock‑and‑roll umbrella — they do. “Rock and roll” was originally a marketing term to sell electrified dance music, made mostly by Black artists, to white teenagers. And within the first five years of its existence, the term morphed as fast as the genres it spawned.
Normally I’d say, “don’t hate the player, hate the game,” but in this case the player deserves some shit. Since the Hall’s inception, it’s been run by suits and, basically, Rolling Stone Magazine — i.e., Darth Wenner — gatekeeping from day one.
So even with the Evil Emperor ousted, the structural problem hasn’t changed much. The nominating committee is “diverse,” sure, but it’s still packed with label executives, media figures, and industry insiders. What it lacks are enough actual rock historians and specialists who understand the full history of the music. Which is why the Hall’s blind spots are enormous.
Just look at the artists who were dismissed for decades by Rolling Stone and its cultural gatekeepers. The so-called “faceless bands”, the “corporate rock” bands, the “hair metal” bands.
Entire genres were written off as disposable commerce. Meanwhile those same bands were selling millions of records, filling stadiums, and defining eras of music. But because they didn’t fit the aesthetic tastes of the tastemakers, they got slapped with what I call the Scarlet Wenner Letter.
Look at the early stadium monsters still sitting on the bench; Three Dog Night, Grand Funk Railroad, Humble Pie, The Guess Who, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Black Oak Arkansas. Not even in the conversation.
Then you move into the 70s giants, for instance, Jethro Tull, King Crimson, Scorpions, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Styx, Kansas, REO Speedwagon. Millions of records sold. Massive influence. Cultural impact; all still waiting outside the door.
Punk gets acknowledged occasionally, but even there the Hall skips the bands that actually lit the fuse. Punk didn’t start with The Pistols, The Clash or Ramones, where are; The Pretty Things, The Fugs, Television, The Jam, Buzzcocks, The Damned, or The Germs? Yet somehow, Green Day jumps the line. Deserving? Sure. But you don’t triple-jump the pioneers who built the damn road.
And then there’s the Hall’s favorite buzzword in which to manipulate the gatekeeping, influence. In cast of emergency, break glass and apply it when convenient. If influence actually mattered consistently, you’d see names like; Lightnin’ Hopkins, Dick Dale, The Shadows, Little Milton, Lesley Gore, The Searchers, Betty Davis, Long John Baldry, Love, The Seeds, 13th Floor Elevators, Scott Walker, artists who shaped entire generations of musicians. Because they didn’t sell arena-level album numbers, they get quietly erased from the conversation. Complete absurdity, because the Hall has inducted plenty of artists based on influence alone when it suited them.
Don’t even get me started on the Hall’s allergic reaction to “hair metal”. That scene not only lasted longer than grunge, that genre sold exponentially more records, and filled arenas around the world. But because it wasn’t cool with the critics, it was treated like it never happened. They basically cancelled an entire decade of music, with the exception of inducting Bon Jovi and Def Leppard.
All of those I noted, more than anything, is the real problem. These artists aren’t just missing from the Hall, they’re barely even mentioned by the committee. Unless it’s when those artists get brought up at the roundtable and they’re dismissed.
So when people get angry at the nominees each year, they’re aiming at the wrong target. The issue isn’t that certain nominees aren’t rock, the issue is that the Hall keeps skipping entire chapters of rock history and instead focuses on spectacle.
Because let’s be honest, this whole thing is about the Hall’s pomp and circumstance of the televised event and milking fans to buy tickets to said spectacle.
Another argument pops up every year too, “Is the Hall American-centric or global”? Well let’s ask the obvious question to begin to answer in a relatively intelligent way, where did rock and roll start?
Right here in the United States. The term was coined here, the electrified blues came from here, the early rock pioneers came from here. Then the music spread across the world.
The British Invasion happened because British bands absorbed American blues and rock, reinvented it, and then came back to America chasing the same dream; success in the birthplace of the genre. That’s just history.
And yes, many of those bands sparked entirely new genres overseas, Metal, Punk, New wave, etc., but those genres didn’t become global until American audiences picked them up and ran with them. Rock and roll has always been a global conversation, but it began and ends in the same spot in the world, America.
So when podcasters and radio hosts start pounding the pulpit yelling that the Hall “doesn’t pick rock,” I only partially agree. The bigger problem is historical illiteracy. Maybe the absurdly long time consuming book I’m apparently writing about this nonsense will help clear a few things up someday.
Until then…
Relax, buttercups. If you truly don’t give a fuck about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, you probably wouldn’t feel the need to announce it every five minutes like a badge of honor. Yelling about how much you don’t care… usually means you care a lot.
In the next episode in an exercise in futility, I’ll break down each nominee and give my predictions for who actually gets in. My official categories will be, “Who gives a fat fart?” and “They’re probably getting in anyway.”
Much love, psychos.
Stay off your rockers!
