N.W.A., Chic, Nine Inch Nails, and other ALOTT5MA favorites on this year's ballot remain on the outside.
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
SOMETHING WHOLLY PREDICTABLE, AND IN THE END THAT'S WRONG: The Non-Country Popular Music of the 1950s and Beyond Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will induct six performers in 2015: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Green Day, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, Lou Reed, Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble and Bill Withers. Ringo Starr will be admitted through the former "side men" side door, and 1950s R&B vocal group The "5'' Royales are added as "early influencers."
N.W.A., Chic, Nine Inch Nails, and other ALOTT5MA favorites on this year's ballot remain on the outside.
N.W.A., Chic, Nine Inch Nails, and other ALOTT5MA favorites on this year's ballot remain on the outside.
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I get the argument for 5/6 inductees, but Paul Butterfield Blues Band? Can you name a single track by them?
ReplyDeleteI don't want to sound critical, because I really really like all the inductees, and they are all well-represented in my personal music collection. But with the exception of Lou Reed, who seems obvious to me, the rest strike me as candidates for The Hall of The Very Good. I can't name offhand all the Keltner requirements, but isn't one that you're supposed to be dominant in your era? As much as I love their music, I can't say that Green Day, Joan Jett, Stevie Ray, or Bill Withers were either among the most popular or the most influential in their heyday. And Paul Butterfield, as Matt says, just seems an off-the-wall choice.
ReplyDeleteGreen Day--revived punk for a new generation in the 90s and paved the way for the big commercial success of pop punk in the 90s/00s (much of it terrible, but also VERY commercially successful). American Idiot is also a big important album and Dookie a Diamomd album.
ReplyDeleteStevie Ray--Pretty much universally regarded as one of the top 10 blues guitarists of all time. Niche-y, but near the top of the niche.
Joan Jett--There primarily as a trailblazer, one of the first women to front a big successful rock band.
I cannot justify Butterfield or Withers getting in over NIN and Chic/Nile Rodgers. This really was the right year for Rodgers in particular to be recognized, and I admit I'm late on this one.
ReplyDeleteAll in all, a solid slate, not especially exciting. (The fan vote is depressing, by the way, where it was pretty evident very few of the voters knew who The Marvelettes were.)
ReplyDeleteI'd have voted for 4 of the 6 (and did, in the Doodle poll a few months ago): GD, JJ, LR, SRV. I get Withers - some really great singles, a great voice in his heyday - but don't know enough about his whole career to have a well reasoned opinion. I do not have any kind of grasp on the work of PBBB, though I know that PBBB was a thing, and perhaps inducting them with SRV might be a nice thematic touch.
ReplyDeleteYawn...hard to argue with Green Day, but I like the suggestion (and I cannot recall where I saw it, so sorry for the lack of attribution) that an artist not be eligible 25 years from their first release but 25 years from their first success (critical, commercial, in retrospect). How many have heard or were aware of Green Day's 1989 EP vs. Dookie? Also with careers the way they are nowadays it might make sense to make the number 30 years.
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