Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Dog & Pony Show: Madonna, Mellencamp, Beastie Boys
It’s that time of year again. It’s time for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to trot out their nominees for induction, and they managed to outdo themselves. I’m used to them trotting out a mixture of shoe-ins, has-beens, and obvious misfits. I didn’t expect them to go boring, and that is exactly what they did this time. What the fuck happened to this world? The most exciting name on the list is Madonna and while boring is not a tag generally associated with her, neither is rock and roll.
She is more famous for being Madonna than for being a songwriter, artist, musician, or vocalist of any note. I guess there are some people who think she’s something of a singer. I’m mystified by that. She thinks she’s an ambassador for Judaism. A friend – I’m not identifying him – thought she was white trash from Michigan with a nice rack. Neither of us thought of her as a singer. What exactly is her contribution to music again? Oh, I know she’s managed to shock some people and sell a metric buttload of records but her nomination and inevitable induction is one more example of notoriety being confused with merit, talent, skill, or contribution. Madonna will be remembered –with or without this induction – but will her music?
Did I mention she’s the most interesting name of the bunch?
The rest of the nominees? There’s John Mellencamp. He’s pleasant. I have a greatest hits compilation of his on my iPod. I like some of his songs. I’m not going to dismiss him as a Springsteen knockoff as other critics have done, but I’m hard pressed to point to a lasting legacy or contribution he’s made to rock and roll. He’s got some good songs, I’ll give you that. Hall of Fame? That’s lowering the bar just a little too much for me.
The Beastie Boys? They had an interesting evolution from frat boy rap to sonic adventurers and I respect that, but do they have the songs? They have seven albums in 25 years. I don’t think there is a minimum output required; Jimi Hendrix recorded three studio albums in his lifetime. Hendrix was a trail blazer with a number of instantly recognizable and classic songs. The Beastie Boys embarked on interesting sonic excursions. Trail blazers? Barely, if at all. Instantly recognizable songs? Maybe. Classics? No way.
Leonard Cohen is a first-rate poet and songwriter and belongs in the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, perhaps, but I don’t think rock and roll when I think Leonard Cohen.
Disco queen Donna Summer is on the list this year. Disco gets a bad rap with a lot of critics and deservedly so. You can’t tell the story of rock and roll without talking about disco but mostly because so much great music was made as a direct protest to how awful most disco was and is. I suppose there are some disco bands that have enough rock and roll cred to make the Hall. Does Donna Summer? Probably not, but that may not stop her from being enshrined anyway. Pitiful.
The rest of the list gets even less distinguished. The Dave Clark Five was a major player in the British Invasion for about five minutes, not even lasting the full fifteen. You’ll list a lot of great bands and great songs before anyone remembers Chic or The Ventures. I bet you can’t find 500 people who have heard of Afrika Bambaataa so I can’t begin to understand how he got this close to achieving what was once considered an honor.
Filed under: Tags: Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
i tried to find some sort of “mission statement” on the hall of fame website but couldn’t find anything less vague than “celebrating the history…blah, ”
still, obviously a lot of the inductees (though not all, as far as i can figure) are there because of their influence. The Ventures (kings of surf music), Chic (maybe not as influential as James Brown and/or James Jamerson, but they layed down piles of snappin’ funk-ass guitar bass), Afrika Bambaataa (Red Hot Chili Peppers).
Dave Clark Five? that was before my time too. i have no idea.
Mellencamp was huge (even though initially i had no iterest in him), and critics dismiss him as a Bruce clone, which is just being lazy. including him in no way lowers the bar.
Like I said, I have a Mellencamp comp in my collection. He’s good, not special. I want the HoF to be special. It isn’t, but that’s what I’d want. He’s Hall of Good, not Hall of Fame. He’s John Olerud, a good player on some good teams but not one of the best 1B ever.
Did you know that when you (not “you” literally, but someone we know and love has) write an article promoting Madonna and Donna Summer to be inducted in the RRHOF, Google will choose this ad?
http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/imgad?id=CKj7tbXf_6Kx9QEQrAIY7wEyCIt3YLruEUg6
How is it possible that Madonna and the freakin’ Beastie Boys get nominations, and Ann & Nancy Wilson don’t? What a sham the RRHoF has become!
No KISS, no Yes, no AC/DC, no Black Sabbath?
What a pathetic joke! The RRHOF is a total sham.
My bad! AC/DC and Sabbath are in! But Yes and KISS are not. My criticism stands, the RRHOF is truly pathetic!
Donna Summer has numerous rock oriented recordings. Just because her popularity really started in disco does not mean that’s the only kind of music she does. It would seem someone has not purchased many Donna Summer cds throughout the years (smile). Donna is more rock than Madonna. Granted, Madonna is more popular, but Madonna has few if any rock songs to boast. Donna Summer can sing any genre of music and for some reason, that is not looked upon so nicely in the music world it seems. You almost have to choose one style and stick with it. I love Donna Summer because she’s so versatile. I don’t know about the other nominess, but Donna has won music awards in rock categories. Hello!!!!
Not sure how the nomination process works, but if any artist nominated does not have any rock songs on their roster then why nominate them? Chic? Admittedly, I only know one or two Chic songs, but werent’ they strictly disco/r&b? Rock? Hmmmm.
[...] mayor of Jena, La. is unhappy with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominee John Mellencamp for his song about the so-called Jena [...]
A little education. The Ventures, although charting 14 singles in the 1960s, were among the first rock acts able to sell albums on the strength of a style and sound without needing hit singles. From 1960 to 1972, they charted 37 albums on the Billboard chart, plus a top 10 Christmas album. They rank 6th among album performers for the 1960s decade (Joel Whitburn’s Top Pop Albums), 4th among rock genre performers for that period. The only rockers ranking ahead of them for the decade are Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and Ray Charles.
They were the first group to chart five albums simultaneously (1963).
Among their chart albums was 1965’s “Play Guitar with The Ventures”, the first musical instrument instruction album ever to hit the Billboard chart. That’s influence.
Encyclopedia Brittanica on-line says that the Ventures served as the prototype for all the guitar bands which followed.
They were the first act to go ‘Top 10′ with 2 different versions of the same song; Walk Don’t Run (2) and Walk Don’t Run ‘64 (8).
Their 1962 “2,000 Pound Bee” was the first single ever to chart using the fuzz tone (distortion box) on the electric guitar, more than 2 years before the Stones “Satisfaction”. Fuzz/distortion was used in many subsequent 1960’s rock hits and became the basis for all classic rock, power rock and grunge. While the Ventures are known for a clean reverbed sound, they used a variety of effects and pedals very early. They used them selectively, while maintaining their basic sound, so they’ve received little credit for early use.
Their influence on “surf rock” is undeniable, having played that style, among other styles (ballads, power guitar rock), two years before the Beach Boys first national hit and a full year before Dick Dale’s first regional hit. ‘Guitar Player’ magazine said the Walk Don’t Run album presaged the coming surf trend which was still a couple of years away. If the Ventures didn’t pioneer “surf rock”, they were certainly a key building block.
Among artists listing the Ventures as a favorite or an influence are George Harrison (Beatles), Joe Walsh (James Gang, Eagles), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), Stephen Stills, Peter Frampton, Roger Fisher (Heart), Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits). Blondie, the GoGos, and the B52s are groups that list the Ventures in their roots. More recently, Joe Perry and Tom Hamilton of Aerosmith have added their names to the list. Keith Moon (the Who), Max Weinberg, and Allen White (Yes) have identified the Ventures as a percussion influence. Even Elton John, in his Starbucks Christmas collection, pays homage to the Ventures.