Hall of Fame Decides Who Rocks, Officially
By LARRY ROHTER, NYT
APRIL 9, 2014
In the beginning, it was obvious who should be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Little Richard, James Brown, Bob Dylan: All were giants whose selection no one could quarrel with.
But after 30 years of pop music splintering into ever more genres, the choices are no longer so evident, a situation that has led to an increasingly intense generational and stylistic debate about the selections and the process. At the same time, a longstanding aesthetic argument about the relative weight of popularity versus musical excellence also seems to be deepening. In both cases, the issue is basically this: Is there a canon, and if so, who belongs to it, and who gets to decide?
This year’s class, which is to be inducted at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Thursday, embodies all of those controversies. After years of rejection, the 1970s glam rock band Kiss, derided by its many critics as schlockmeisters but with a large and passionate fan base known as the Kiss Army, is finally getting in. So are Nirvana — on its first try — as well as Peter Gabriel, Linda Ronstadt, Cat Stevens and Hall & Oates.
(More here.)
APRIL 9, 2014
In the beginning, it was obvious who should be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Little Richard, James Brown, Bob Dylan: All were giants whose selection no one could quarrel with.
But after 30 years of pop music splintering into ever more genres, the choices are no longer so evident, a situation that has led to an increasingly intense generational and stylistic debate about the selections and the process. At the same time, a longstanding aesthetic argument about the relative weight of popularity versus musical excellence also seems to be deepening. In both cases, the issue is basically this: Is there a canon, and if so, who belongs to it, and who gets to decide?
This year’s class, which is to be inducted at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Thursday, embodies all of those controversies. After years of rejection, the 1970s glam rock band Kiss, derided by its many critics as schlockmeisters but with a large and passionate fan base known as the Kiss Army, is finally getting in. So are Nirvana — on its first try — as well as Peter Gabriel, Linda Ronstadt, Cat Stevens and Hall & Oates.
(More here.)
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