Okay, boys and girls, here are the nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2021!
Some of the names on this list, such as Foo Fighters, Chaka Khan, Carole King, the New York Dolls, Rage Against the Machine, Todd Rundgren, Tina Turner and the Go-Go's (the female Beatles) make sense. Others, like Devo and Iron Maiden, are more questionable. And there are names like Jay-Z and Dionne Warwick, which scream, "We'll nominate anyone to avoid inducting Jethro Tull."
Jay-Z is an obviously cringe-worthy nod to political correctness, because pop critics have waxed rhapsodic about what a Great and Significant Artist he is; that's as may be, he's still a hip-hop performer, and hip-hop isn't rock. It isn't even music. (Any comments left here offering an excoriating dissent will be deleted.) Dionne Warwick? Hey, I love the woman. She's one of my people. (By that, I mean that she's from Essex County, New Jersey.) But she's a crooner. And you could bet that when Aretha Franklin did a Bacharach-David song Dionne Warwick had already done, Aretha did it better. I could go on. But I won't. I believe I've made my point.
Some of the nominees for this year have expressed indifference to the whole damn thing. Todd Rundgren doesn't care if he's inducted or not, saying that his fans matter more to him than a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. Which makes sense when you consider that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has actually honored Madonna but will not even nominate Joe Cocker. And why hasn't the Hall still nominated Warren Zevon, for Pete's sake?
My Rock and Roll Hall of Fame T-shirt is getting faded and frayed. Maybe I should dump it, and maybe it's a sign I should stop caring about the Hall itself, as well. They're not going to nominate any artistes whom I feel should be nominated anytime soon, like Jethro Tull, and even though there are artistes nominated this year whose nominations I agree with, I suppose the folks who run the Hall really won't mind if I sit this one out.
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