Small Words, Big Difference (a Question of Backing Bands)

What words? The words “and the.”

Some acts are just considered solo acts; One Person. Some are considered a band, a bunch of people, a Group.

And then there the halfway-between acts, the ones with “and the” in the names. They have names like One Person and the Group.

For a while there, the Hall seemed to divide the “and the” groups into two further categories. If the backing people also sang, but only sang (and maybe danced), then they were ushered right in along with the lead. But if they played instruments? Well, then-- maybe yes, maybe no.

In 2012, six backing bands got full inductions. All of them were “and the” acts. Their leads had already been induced, as One Person-type solo acts, despite (or because of) the “and the”in the band's name.

Yet, there are still bands out there languishing in “and the”-land. In one famous case, they did get inducted… but in the Sidemen/Musical Excellence category. Even thought they had been together— as a band with the frontman (who got full induction as One Person)— for 40 years, and made all but two or three of their 20 or so albums together.

What almost makes this worse— and what definitely makes it more confusing— is that more than 15 acts with “and the” did get in as such-- both the One Person, as well as the “and the” Group-- in one fell swoop of an induction. And that other six “and the” groups who got separate induction from their frontman, but are still fully inducted as Performers.

All we’re looking for, here, is a little consistency. And for the Rock Hall to stop even caring about the “and the” thing. That they have cared at all has caused— still causes!— nothing but consternation and indignation from the fans, the critics, and the musicians themselves.

New Rule: From now on, and retroactively, a band called “One Person and the Group” is just as much a unit fit to be inducted all at once as a band simply called “The Group,” “The Adjective Group” or even just “Group.

And the “and the” should not mean so much. As far as Inductions are concerned, those words should mean nothing at all.

Also, if a One Person act has had the same backing personnel for 40+ years? That’s a band.

Here are the members that did not get in with the rest of their bands:
https://www.futurerocklegends.com/Snubbed_Members.php 

Update: In 2022, Pat Benatar got in... but so did Neil Giraldo, her longtime musical partner, along with her. My sources tell me she stuck to her guns so he would get in, too. Are you listening, Mr. Springsteen? 

The Sin of Synth

Can you play rock on a guitar? Uh, yeah. Especially if it’s electric, but even if it’s acoustic.

What about a piano? Well, sure. Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard have to be in the Rock Hall, and they rocked plenty hard on their pianos. So did Elton John, Billy Joel… we talked about this already.

But for some reason, electrifying a piano makes it rock… less? And once you add a computer chip to it, and turn it into a synthesizer? Well, now you have almost completely turned off the Rock Hall.

There have been some ’80s acts— ones that debuted or peaked in that decade— in the Hall. But it feels like ’80s acts haven’t gotten in, because the ones that we identify as “’80s acts”— the New Wave ones, the ones that “sound like the ’80s”— aren’t in, as a rule.

Similarly, prog rock fans have been long lamenting the Hall’s shunning of their pet subgenre. Starting from a whole 'nother decade.

These two subgenres— New Wave and prog— have little in common from a compositional standpoint. But what they do have in common is the use of synthesizers. And their general exclusion from the Hall.

For some reason, the Hall does not consider synthesizer music worthy of inclusion. Sure, if your band has one, that’s fine. But if a synthesizer is the band’s lead instrument, don’t bother selling— the Hall ain’t buying.

But why? Again, it doesn’t matter to the Hall if a guitar is electrified or not. But it seems to matter way more than it should if you plug in your piano.

https://digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best_keyboard.html

Update: It seems the stigma has been lifted! Glory be! In 2021, the Hall inducted Billy Preston (Musical Excellence), Kraftwerk (Early Influence), and Todd Rundgren (Performer). 

Then in 2022, they inducted Duran Duran and the Eurythmics (Performers) and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis (Ertegun Award). Also, Devo got their third nomination. 

Synth is no longer a sin, it seems, and synthesizers can be synonymous with rock. 

In 2023, Al Kooper-- who mostly played electric piano and organ-- was inducted with an Award for Musical Excellence. 

Piano Rolls (and Rocks)

Let’s face it— the primary instrument of rock music is, and has been for a while now, the electric guitar. 

It’s not the only music you can play on that instrument, and other instruments can play rock… but few things are as associated with each other as rock is with the electric guitar. If you were cataloging recordings by genre, using universally recognized icons and symbols, you’d use an electric guitar-shaped label for the rock albums.

But yes, pianos have been used to make rock music— and make music rock— from the get-go. Plenty of rockstars, including Rock Hall inductees, use it as their primary instrument. And plenty of others, whose main instrument is the electric guitar, will “bring it down a bit” in concert by plinking out a plaintive ballad on the ol’ ivories.

I’m not saying that the Rock Hall needs to induct more piano players, or start prioritizing them. Well, I am implying that. And I do think it would be nice to acknowledge just how much rock music has been made on these instruments.

It just might induce the Hall to take another look at synth-led bands… in my dreams…

Perhaps, the next time the Hall looks for a “special exhibit” topic, it can spotlight the piano and all of the Inductees-- and Early Influences-- who have rocked the house with, well, the instrument that uses as much lumber as the house.

Seriously, wouldn’t you like to see, and hear, a history of rock ’n’ roll piano? I’d watch that documentary and buy its box set.

https://digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best_keyboard.html

Update: Billy Preston was inducted with an Award for Musical Excellence in 2021, and also that year keyboard-based band Kraftwerk was inducted as an Early Influence (in a later genre: electronic music).

Then in 2022, Duran Duran was Inducted, as was Lionel Richie, who plays piano when he plays something, and composes on piano regardless.

In 2023, keyboardist Al Kooper was inducted for Musical Excellence, which is good because he belongs in, and that's how he belongs in. 

Can Rock be… Smart?

Rock ’n’ is party music, and the Rock Hall is totally fine with that. And as long as the party keeps going, it kind of doesn’t matter what the lyrics are. They can even address a political issue, make a point, or “send a message.”

And, as long as— and the kid in American Bandstand says— “it’s got a good beat and you can dance to it,” it’s all well and good.

But then there are the acts that prize brain over beat. And for those acts, the Rock Hall, well, takes a beat.

No doubt, there is tremendous literature-type brainpower among the Hall’s inductees as they stand. Some have been compared to, and even are, published poets. One has won the Nobel Prize for Literature!

But there are an equal number of such acts who have not gotten in… yet.

Again, nothing against straightforward lyrics. Sometimes a simple lyric is very powerful, and surprisingly hard to craft.

Also, nothing against nonsense lyrics. I have a dream to collect all the nonsense lyrics in one book; it could even spin off into a game in which players had to guess which na-na-na-na or sh-boom or shang-a-lang came from which song.

But it seems that only one, or maybe zero, poetic— OK, fine: “nerdy”— lyricist gets in a year. Meanwhile, many more wait to get picked. As nerds are used to doing.

Out of the 100 greatest songwriters in rock history, many (while eligible) are not yet in the Rock Hall:
https://www.rollingstone.com/interactive/lists-100-greatest-songwriters/

Update: Thinky performers Kraftwerk and Gil Scott-Heron were inducted as Early Influences in 2021.