I had to laugh when he complained about Kiss not being inducted. Not because they don't deserve it (I LOVE them), but they were never critic's favorites.

The RRHOF doesn't induct everybody at once. And there's no way they can make everyone happy. Just because someone hasn't been inducted yet, doesn't mean they won't be inducted at all.

As for the order in which people are inducted, that can be debated till the cows come home...

Tom said:

Ha, KISS will NEVER get into the Hall of Fame for the reasons you said. I think Hall & Oates, Diana Ross and some others are also on some critics' bad side. You know if KISS even gets a nomination, not everybody will be like "it's about time."

Like Rick Nelson said, "you can't please everybody, might as well please yourself."

The guy who wrote this article is an old,bitter prick who seems to be dismissing dance music Like it or not,dance/disco music is a part of rock and roll history.

"Chic,however,is not rock"

wtf?? Not every artist that's been inducted is purely rock and roll! Chic deserves to be in the Hall of Fame strictly for their 1979 hit "Good Times" alone.That bassline has been sampled,re-made,and stolen by many other artists,including some rock acts.

"Summer was a disco act"

Uh...so? I could argue that many of Donna's recordings ("I Feel Love","Love To Love You Baby","MacArthur Park") were more edgy and groundbreaking than many of the rock hits from the same era.And let's not forget that some of Donna's songs ("Hot Stuff",for example) boldly ventured into pop/rock territory with ease.

Madonna's not a rocker,she has a thin voice,and she doesn't write all of her material"

So,in order to be inducted,you must be a pure rock and roll artist,with a strong voice and songs that you solely wrote yourself? That criteria certainly didn't apply to many of the artists who have already been inducted

I think most people who love Rock & Roll stopped paying much attention to that magazine years ago.

And no matter where you draw the line in the sand, there will always be many that surround it.

That’s just a simple fact and can never be avoided.

If you really want to talk about poor judgment, Frank Zappa, Joni Mitchell and Parliament/Funkadelic did not easily make it on their first ballot.

Hard to overlook them, unless you’re not paying much attention to the world around you.

But, in general, I’ve liked this institution far better than almost any other, as the cream of the crop ALWAYS makes it sooner or later; and most of the real giants make it on their first ballot.

We can argue until we’re blue in face about the periphery, the lower end of the list (just above that line they've drawn in the sand) which is always challenging and fun to fill.

But the cream of the crop is there and they are very colorful, just like they should be.

This is one of the few strange places where black people actually have, if anything, a slight advantage.

If you really want to feel slighted, try being an progressive rocker, art rocker or playing the role of a punk.

Of course, like the author suggests is happening already, they might wreck the place in the future for all I know. But the past has been mostly solid, saving for the inevitable bumps in the road.

And “Rock & Roll” has thankfully never stood as a literal title. The Hall is for all sounds that have evolved since about 1950. That’s why it’s hasn’t turned into the house that white built, but rather the sound of great music in the latter half of the 20th century.

“Worthless 80’s”, for that comment alone I hold that this writer is just as biased, if not more so, then those he proclaims to rail against.

And The Stooges and Randy Newman will be in, because they should be in, just like The Clash and Sex Pistols got in eventually. Too much worry about what will happen anyway.

A lot of these other so-called automatics are not that automatic. They’re extremely good in most cases, that’s for sure, but they are not obvious legends that should take no real thought.

And the ones that should make it in will almost all make it in eventually. The Dells eventually made it after dozens of tries, because they deserved to. But they shouldn’t have just waltzed right in. They were very good, but they weren’t James Brown.

There are many very difficult choices that sit right around that line in the sand, which we all churn and burn about. It’s just not that serious. That’s how life works.

Now if a the cream of the crop is not making it in, I'll want to hear about that.

And Al Green is already in. He’s a legend and he’s been in for 12 years.

And John Fogerty, Lou Reed, Peter Gabriel, and Steve Winwood are all in. What’s you’re proposing is that they should also be in based solely on their solo work. That should be made much clearer.

And Ringo Star? Unbelievable.

SoulAlive said:

Apparently the guy has totally missed the concept. If dance music ain't part of the rock & roll lexicon, then what about Motown, what about soul, what about blues? This guy ain't making complete sense either in spite of what he feels should be inducted.

I saw the Beastie Boys get booed off the stage in 1983.

It was great. I booed my butt off, then I laughed until my sides hurt.

BTW, they were opening for Madonna.

RodeoSchro said:

This is when they were doing punk music, right?

Most rock critics are Misgonsytic, homophobic and maybe a bit racist.

RodeoSchro said:

Freddy DeMann and Madonna picked the Beastie Boys because they thought if they were bad enough it would make the fans want to see Madonna even more and make tham that more excited when she finally hit the stage.

ehuffnsd said:

I'm not shocked.

Raze said:

Yeah, I never watch it, even for acts that were inducted that I love, including the aforementioned Al Green, The Police and Steely Dan.

Timmy84 said:

a read a great article in Vanity Fair several years ago about that and that is why Disco/Dance never gets the credit it is due and why it caused the Disco Backlash. And also why two artists in particular Donna Summer and Madonna will never get the credit they deserve.

ehuffnsd said:

I also think the argument that there is a rockist bias amongst music critics is correct. R&B and dance artists are not nearly as acknowledged as rock artists such as Oasis, U2, etc. And I was under the impression that the rock and roll hall of fame should acknowledge artist of modern popular music not just rock.
[Edited 10/4/07 9:49am]

Rodya24 said:

It is, people are just totally biased as to how they perceive the genre as if people like Madonna, Chic and Donna need to be put in one particular box when their whole attitude is rock & roll. Their classic music was edgy to a fault, they just called it "disco/dance music" when they forget that these acts had as much influence on popular music as the premier rocker, etc. And Donna actually had some songs that were rock-oriented tunes (as does Madonna in SOME degree).

Timmy84 said:

Hear, hear!

I think the hall of fame should be renamed "Modern Popular Music Hall of Fame" to prevent confusion.
[Edited 10/4/07 9:55am]

Timmy84 said:

Madonna brought the Punk Rock attitude with her into Disco/Dance. Donna was asked by Rod Stewart to write a song for him.

Since I was little I've always thought RocknRoll was the general term for the type of music I listened to, and stuff like Dance/RnB/Rap/Rock/whatever were the subgenres.

Rodya24 said:

I know, right? And rock & roll isn't just a name of a genre where artists play guitars in bands and shit. Rock & roll also meant "having sex". It was a black slang in the days before the mainstream decided rock & roll was a "genre". In that respect, I don't see why Donna Summer and Madonna SHOULDN'T be in the Hall of Fame because their music was sexually oriented and that's what made the modern music of the past fifty years so general. Also rock & roll could also mean different genres that PLAYED a development into modern music which can explain why jazz, folk, blues and hip-hop acts get inducted.

ehuffnsd said:

Yep.

Plus do we forget that Donna also worked with Bruce Springsteen? She covered his "Protection" and he played guitar on it. Brian Eno called her "the future" after hearing "I Feel Love". "Hot Stuff" paved the way for "Beat It" and other rock-dance fused tracks. And Madonna had a rebellious attitude - which is the epitome of rock & roll to me: rebellion.

Timmy84 said:

if they want to exclude certain sub genres they should call it the Rock Music Hall of Fame and not the RocknRoll Hall of Fame.

ehuffnsd said:

Exactly. I agree with those who argue that there is rockism among a number of music critics.

Rodya24 said:

i don't think it's just rockism. there are underlying isms that cause that.

ehuffnsd said:

Such as racism, sexism, and homophobia.

Well there are a few good points but the article for most is nothing new about the Hall of Fame. The writer seems biased towards a certain decade, as for Dave Clark Five, they are good but i wouldnt put them in, or at least i wouldnt be complaining if they werent in. The Hall as discussed before is very flawed, to me The Ronnettes didnt deserve it, nor did Percy Sledge, nor did the Dixie Cups. The Hall seems almost like a "mafia family" that inducts artists from a certain generation just because they were from that generation, which i dont buy at all. I also dont accept that the Hall should be automatically by desing nominating an act from genres and time periods as a RULE, this is why they have missed tons of people that should be in. Also the articles comments about Mellencamp are just ignorant, calling him a wannabe Springsteen? For the record, to all critics, Springsteen did not invent ROCK, and every male that does ROCK is not trying to be Bruce, the same reaction that every Black Guy who plays guitar is trying to be Hendrix. To me the Hall is like the Grammys, sometimes they get it right, alot of times the dont, but they need to re-think the way they nominate, vote and induct. As for boycotting RS magazine, i think we all already know that magazine is worthless at this point.

Rodya24 said:

That's a whole 'nother discussion.

Yeah, the committee is confused as to who to please too. If they induct one person but they forget to induct another, they catch hell. In many ways they should and in many ways they shouldn't. It comes to how they wanna decide how to vote.

namepeace said:

Yep, let's keep it ON TOPIC. As IF!

namepeace said:

ehuffnsd said:

They were right. The Beastie Boys sucked big ones.

Timmy84 said:

To call it "music" is not accurate. They had no band, just some dork on a turntable. The funny thing was, the whole thing started because every time the Beastie Boys would jump around the stage, their record would skip and it would mess them up.

We started laughing at them, and the Beastie Boys got pissed and started cursing. That's when the booing started, and they didn't last three minutes after that.

That was the only time I have ever seen anyone booed off a stage, and boy! Did it feel good!

Timmy84 said:

Exactly.There's no escaping the importance of dance music in rock n roll history.Hell,disco practically dominated the late 70s.The 'Saturday Night Fever' soundtrack sold 22 million copies.The guy who wrote this article is trying to downplay it's impact.