The Case (Study) of KISS

While this blog is not about the merit of this or that act, the reasons KISS was Inducted are worth discussing, because they could help other bands (and genres) under the same situation. 

KISS was one of the most contentious inductions to the Rock Hall. The Hall seemed dead set on keeping them out… and yet, they did get inducted. Eligible since 2000, they did not get in until 2014, with only one other nomination along the way, in 2010— a decade after they were first eligible. 

I feel that there are two factors at work here, neither of which have to do with the quality of KISS’s music. They both have to do with the fact that the Hall is also a Museum. It’s right there in the full name of the place: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

The Museum set itself up, from the get-go, to embody a huge oxymoron; they want you to come see what you ordinarily only hear: music. So they have to have some things, some physical objects, to put in the displays, right?

And, say what you will about their musicality, few bands are a visually arresting as KISS. What are you going to display about, say, Nirvana? A flannel shirt? A notebook? With KISS, you have a guitar shaped like an executioner’s axe, and sky-high boots with skulls on the toes. Those, my friend, are some museum-quality artifacts worth selling tickets for.

Further, as a Museum, they need to sell tickets to stay open. And when tens of thousands of people— who call themselves an “army,” no less—  say they will not buy a ticket until you do a thing, but they will when you do do the thing, well… after a few years, you start to wonder if doing that thing just might be worth it.

TIME magazine once asked Spinal Tap to explain their longevity. They responded, and I’m paraphrasing: “We weren’t the strongest. We weren’t the smartest. But we were the loudest.” 

So there’s your lesson from KISS. You want your favorite band or genre in? Get organized, get stubborn... and get loud.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/tom-morello-salutes-kiss-army-in-rock-hall-induction-speech-244529/

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. 

Oh My (Guitar) Gods

Even though we call them “gods,” there is a group of musicians not enshrined in the Rock Hall.

On the one hand, those who play guitars in bands get inducted as part of those bands, as Performers. On the other, those who play behind the bands, in the studio and on tour, can get in with the Award for Musical Excellence, formerly the “Sidemen” induction.

But on the, um, third hand, if you play guitar as a lead, but don’t sing? Then, even if you are a “guitar god,” you aren’t getting in.

Instrumentalists Miles Davis (trumpet) and Booker T. (keyboards) of the MGs are in. And many of those “guitar gods” who do sing... well, they do get in.

And Jeff Beck is in, yes, but he’s the lone exception (well... Carlos Santana doesn't sing much). None of the other “guitar gods” who are best known as, or are purely, instrumentalists have gotten in.

They have legions of fans (and tons of record and ticket sales). Their music, free from language, transcends borders and nationalities. And their musicianship is not simply unquestioned-- it is unparalleled.

Influence is a big part of eligibility, and these are the pioneers of the sounds that get picked up by the players in bands. They are “the guitarists’ guitarists.”

I remember a viewer’s poll about rock musicians in the ‘80s. Phil Collins was voted best drummer. Steve Winwood was voted best keyboard player. Mark Knopfler was voted best guitarist. 

Now, these guys are great, I thought— but are they the absolute very “best”? No, not really. Then I realized that they all sing. They were not the best, but they fronted their groups and so were the most familiar to fans.

The public can be forgiven for such biases. But the experts who run the Hall are supposed to know better.

This is an easy one. The list of universally acclaimed, non-signing “guitar gods” is small. While there may be valid disagreement on some individuals, a handful are absolute shoo-ins. They just need someone to, you know, actually shoo them in. It would only take a few rounds of inductions to right this wrong.

The Rock Hall is symbolized by a pyramid not unlike a mountain. The “guitar gods” should be elevated to its Olympus.

These are the greatest guitarists-- so why aren't so many of them in?https://www.guitarworld.com/features/the-100-greatest-guitarists-of-all-time

Update: Randy Rhoads got in with an Award for Musical Excellence in 2021. So maybe some who led bands with only a guitar and no vocals are next?

In 2023, Link Wray got in. He's not a guitar god per se, but he's in as an Early Influence and I think it's fair to say that the guitar gods are among the ones he influenced. 

In the Arena… Not in the Hall

OK, fine— so New Wave acts are going to have to wait for Rock Hall induction until Gen X takes over nominations.

But New Wave was hardly the only thing on the radio in the 1980s. There was also plenty of rock. Some of these bands were so popular, it took something bigger than a concert hall to hold their fans (and their huge sound).

It took a sports stadium. And for some reason, the Hall looks favorably on 1970s acts that adapted to fill stadiums (stadia?)… but not acts that were formulated for those venues on purpose.

Yes, there are several acts in the Hall that became arena rock acts, but only a handful that were born into, and crested in, the heyday of that subgenre.

Look at any online list of the best, most popular, most successful arena-rock acts, and contrast those lists with the roster of Inductees. Only half of the entries on any such list is in, if that.

But why? Aside from the decade in which they debuted, there is not much that separates arena rock bands who are in with those who are not. They were loud and fast, popular and successful, talented and even influential… what else would they need to be?

The few New Wave bands who are in tend to be the ones that favor guitars over synths. So what about rock bands with little or zero reliance on synths?

Of all of the acts that peaked in the 1980s, you’d think the one that did get in would be the one with “rock” in their subgenre’s name.

But the overarching decade-based bias is just too much for the nominators. For them, rock died in 1979. So, ironically, non-rock acts from after that date are OK… but not rock ones. This "newer" version of rock is somehow not good, or pure, enough.

It’s like a surgeon with two kids. The one who didn’t apply to med school and became a teacher is accepted. But the one who finished med school and is “only” a general practitioner? That one is the disappointment...?

Nice try, kid… but no cigar.

This article does not list arena rock acts that are in, but it does imply that they are finally getting in at all... in 2017.
https://www.centerline.news/single-post/2017/05/01/Rock-and-Roll-Hall-of-Fame-embraces-the-arena-rock-era

Update: If you count Pat Benatar as an arena-rock act, then one got Induction in 2022.

The 1950s and the 1980s

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:

https://rateyourmusic.com/list/dd23beatlesfan1/30_artists_of_the_1980s_that_deserve_to_be_in_the_rock_and_roll_hall_of_fame/

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.