INTRODUCTION:
Let’s bring back a Hidden Under Headphones classic! Every year, I used to compile an extensive list of Rock & Roll Hall of Fame “snubs,” but this go-around I’m gonna try something a little less…adversarial. Forget the “s” word altogether, I’m just here to make some polite suggestions. 200 of them, in fact!
So before we get into this, I don’t want to talk about the “Hall of Fame,” I want to talk about the “Rock & Roll.” This particular nomenclature has frustratingly been a major point of contention, and it’s time to deprogram our minds. White guys with guitars absolutely count, but there is more. Let’s start with a concept: all rock music is rock & roll, but not all rock & roll is rock music. What ultimately became this cosmic, big-bang genre was an amalgamation of many kinds of music already floating around in the ether – gospel, blues, country western, jazz, swing, and so on. And once it was born, it was a live animal that never stopped evolving. Everything from hip hop to house to reggae to every song you’ve ever heard on the radio is a progression of rock & roll – you can literally trace all of it back to the same exact origins. Music from every corner of the world has been introduced into it, and rock & roll has been incorporated right back. If you start trying to come up with rules and drawing lines in the sand, you’ve already failed.
More importantly, though – and what I think the RRHOF is truly trying to capture – it’s not the genre that even matters, but the movement. Rock & roll is, was, and forever shall be a phenomenon that changed the world, and is still very much driving pop culture today. Rock’s inception meant kids could finally listen to music their parents didn’t approve of right in front of their faces; it was inherently a rebellion! A spirit that has captured the genius of incredible musicians in ways that have informed virtually everything we know – politics, religion, economics, love, sex, life, and death. It’s all been rock & roll. So what gets you into the Hall of Fame has nothing to do with meeting a narrow list of musical qualifications. Concisely, it’s a space to immortalize the individuals that evolved the genre, fostered the culture, and expanded the limitless boundaries of rock & roll. That means people who make country music, play synthesizers, rap, sing in languages other than English, and maybe even don’t directly make music at all (as examples) belong in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Here’s how this is going down, Rock Hall. I’ve teed up 200 (!!!) acts that I humbly…ish think you should consider nominating, and subsequently inducting. I’ve got recs across all the categories, so no need to do any heavy lifting! I’m not pitching any first-year eligibles – the blacklog is just too big.
This is in no-way an exhaustive list of every act that deserves to be inducted – this is majorly pared down, but I wanted to reboot this in a much more focused manner (even if the institution itself is anything but.) I did my best to work within the “confines” (lol) of the categories laid out by the RRHOF, but just for clarification sake:
- PERFORMER – This is straightforward, right? If you were an important, influential, groundbreaking, and/or successful performing artist of the Rock & Roll Era (yes, that’s a proper noun) – as determined by the voting committee, of course – this is where you should get in.
- MUSICAL EXCELLENCE – I hate what this category has become. Originally referred to as “Sidemen” – terrible name, great category – this was supposed to be for the artists that weren’t on the front lines, but whose work mattered just as much. Session musicians, backing bands, and the like. (See: King Curtis, Little Walter.) Then it expanded to producers, engineers, and artists that just teetered the line between being a full-blown performer vs. an influential collaborator. (See: Tom Dowd, Leon Russell.) Everything was going just fine until the dark day Nile Rodgers was inducted (without Chic.) And not that he didn’t deserve a separate honor in addition to getting in as a performer (with Chic!) It’s the way this began a new function for the category: the manner by which you get inducted if you just can’t seem to get off the ballot. A backdoor induction, if you will. LL Cool J? Chaka Khan? Judas Priest? Are you kidding me?! They’re not Performer-worthy?!?!?! I will never support it.
- INFLUENCE – For a long while this was referred to as “Early Influence,” meant for artists who’s most influential work pre-dated the Rock & Roll Era, yet had a direct influence on its formation. (See: Bessie Smith, Pete Seeger, Louis Armstrong.) But that – true to form – has all gone out the window considering Wanda Jackson, Kraftwerk, and Gil Scott-Heron have been inducted into this category. But fine, we can roll with that. So we’re nixing the “early” and sticking with the “influence.” Should those 3 aforementioned artists have been inducted as performers? Maybe a bigger conversation (not really, it’s yes.) But I will be working within these new parameters.
- NON-PERFORMER – This is also known as the Ahmet Ertegun/Lifetime Achievement Award, but Non-Performer really makes the point. Executives, managers, radio DJs, TV hosts, journalists, songwriters, etc. that have a place in history amongst the legends of rock & roll. (See: Alan Freed, Clive Davis, Don Cornelius.) Historically, this hasn’t been perfect – Quincy Jones deserved the Award for Musical Excellence – but I’ll be pitching pretty straightforward options.
And so, with all of that in mind, here are 200 acts that I think should be considered for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame!
HIDDEN UNDER HEADPHONES 
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