The unending passage of time is going to mean two things for those hoping to get into the Rock Hall. One is that some will die before they get in, which is a damn shame. Many older Inductees have remarked that they were glad to be receiving their laurels before they were pushing up daisies. But for some, even those who beat the “live fast, die young” rock paradigm, inductions came posthumously.
Better late than never, sure. But earlier is even better still.
The other thing that will happen is that even if they die, so too will anyone who remembers them. Members of the generation who grew up in the earliest days of rock— who actually used the terms “sock hop” and “soda jerk” and “getting pinned” when they were new coinages— are fast becoming memories themselves.
A rock star who was just 20 in 1950, would be 90 in 2020. If you were their 15-year-old fan, you’d be 85 yourself.
What it comes down to is this: any act from the 1950s and early 1960s (alive or not) has a handful of years left to be inducted while alive… and not that many more years after that to even be inducted posthumously-- before no one who was around when they were is around now to induct them.
I grew up watching Happy Days, American Graffiti, and Grease. But some grew up living the experiences I only saw onscreen. They have to hurry up and induct as many of these early greats as possible while someone still knows who they were, or even that they were.
Another group of artists who are very under-represented in
the Hall are 1980s acts-- especially those synth-based, New Wave acts who “sound
like the ’80s”-- but also arena rock.
We'll discuss the Hall’s dislike for synth-based acts in
another post (this bias also affects prog rock). But as far as that decade of
music getting in, the aforementioned steady march of time will remedy that.
To define our terms, acts whose debut album came as late as 1989 have been
eligible since 2014, while those who debuted at the outset of the decade, in 1980, have been eligible since
2005 (15 years now!).
Not to be cold, but eventually, the Boomers will have to leave the Hall in the hands of Generation X. When a critical mass of Xers gets into the Hall, expect a tidal wave of ’80s acts to be ushered in, synths and all.
Already, some of the standard-bearers of ’80s music are in their 60s. And so part of me wants them to be inducted now.
But another part of me knows they will be, soon enough. Meanwhile,
for the remaining deserving '50s acts,
“soon enough” might not be, well, soon enough. For them, the Hall has got to get on the stick.
That's a reference to stick-shift cars, and if you're too young to know what those are... well, that's kinda my point.
I can't seem to find a list of 1950s acts that anyone thinks as been unfairly omitted... but a fan listed these in 2016-- and some have in fact been inducted since: his picks for 1980s acts that have been snubbed:
Update: I wrote this in 2020. In 2021, some '80s acts got in: LL Cool J and The Go-Gos, and even the 1990s Foo Fighters, and Jay-Z. 2022 saw even more '80s acts inducted: Pat Benatar. Duran Duran, and the Eurythmics, as well as the 1990's Eminem.
2023 saw the Induction of Link Wray as an Early Influence. He had been nominated several times.
'80s acts that are in now are Kate Bush (also after several tries), and George Michael (of WHAM!). Chaka Khan finally got in also, sort of, with a Musical Excellence Induction.
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