Rock and Rap Hall of Fame?

Music critic Tris McCall of the Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger is not happy with the virtual snub of hip-hop performers among the latest choices for inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and he insists that the hall needs to acknowledge hip-hop if it wants to continue to stay relevant. Arguing that the only way for the hall to remain relevant is to tell the story of the popular music of the most recent decades, McCall argues, "that can't be done without inducting deejays and rappers into the ranks of immortals."

The reasoning behind McCall's argument is clear enough. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has focused primarily on electric guitar groups, and in the past twenty years or so - at least since the release of Nirvana's Nevermind - fewer such acts have been a part of the popular music scene. While hip-hop won't stop, traditional rock and roll has been stopped virtually dead in its tracks. It's not that there aren't a lot of rock bands from the past two decades. I can name several of them at the drop of a hat - Pearl Jam, Collective Soul, the Cranberries, Pulp, Oasis, the White Stripes, Band of Horses, Iron and Wine, the New Pornographers, Belle and Sebastian, Son Volt, 3 Doors Down, Nada Surf, Florence and the Machine, and so on. It's that there aren't a lot of rock bands from the past two decades that have sold as many records as hip-hop performers like Jay-Z and Eminem. If I start editing out those bands who haven't done so out of the cursory list I've just offered, there won't be many left.

And when you consider that one of the biggest-selling bands of the past twenty years is Hootie and the Blowfish, you can understand why rock has been in serious decline.

McCall's argument is not without its merits - rock has lost so much of its audience and influence to rap that any institution attempting to provide an accurate history of popular music can't ignore rap - but should that even be the hall's objective? It's the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, not the Popular Music Hall Of Fame. The Hall of Fame, to its credit, has tried to acknowledge rock-related styles to present a history of rock more inclusive than the kind you'd find on classic rock radio or traditional AOR, but whenever it makes such an attempt, the results have been disastrous more often than not. Sure, Motown acts and early R&B performers who influenced the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were a lead-pipe cinch for induction, as were some of the folk musicians that inspired rock lyricists like Bob Dylan, who started out as a folkie himself.  Ditto the Stax-Volt acts of the sixties and many of the funk bands of the seventies. But when the Hall of Fame began inducting the acts like the Bee Gees, Billy Joel, and James Taylor - veering into straight pop that has nothing to do with rock and roll - it lost its way. Then it inducted Madonna and lost its credibility.

As for rappers, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has inducted groups like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and Run-DMC, but it has largely avoided other rap performers on the basis that rap is really not rock (and Madge is??). The hall will induct the Beastie Boys in 2012 in an attempt to appear more broadminded, but choosing this white trio ahead of the black rappers who influenced them makes the hall look rather foolish. McCall has also suggested that the voters on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame board would sooner induct Kiss or Bon Jovi, bands known for heavy metal and light weight, than confront the hip-hop question in any meaningful way. They could even sidestep the issue by focusing on honoring rock bands known for their progressive, artistic leanings, such as Rush or Kraftwerk, McCall says, or even induct Yes. Right - that is so not going to happen. The rock critics on the Hall of Fame board all detested Yes in the seventies, and they spit on the ground at the mention on Jon Anderson's name; they're not about to turn around and suggest that they were wrong about Yes's artistic worth. Of course, they could do what I have suggested and start inducting British bands that never made it in America, such as Status Quo, Lindisfarne, or, I don't know, Family. Right. Kiss is likely to be inducted first.

Look. Honoring rock and roll performers based on record sales, in tandem with artistic merit as defined by the critics (classicism-based rock bands like Yes don't fall in that definition), is a tricky proposition that has already turned the institution into a parody of itself, so here's what I propose. Start a hip-hop hall separate from the rock hall - put it in the South Bronx, where hip-hop was started - and rename the rock hall in Cleveland the Rock and Roll Hall of Recognition, so less successful bands from yesterday's cult British bands to today's indie rockers can get in more on artistic merit than on their notoriety. Clean house at the rock hall - expel Madonna, for a start.

And for Pete's sake, honor Roger Chapman already.

Oh yeah, in addition to the Beastie Boys, the 2012 nominees are Guns 'n' Roses, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Donovan, Laura Nyro, the Faces and the Small Faces (to be inducted as the same band rather than the two separate bands they were), and bluesman Freddie King, as well as impresario Don Kirshner (as a nonperformer) and producers and engineers Glyn Johns, Tom Dowd, and Cosimo Matassa. I'll comment on these choices in a later post, I've gone too long here already.