The One That Rankles the Most (Updated: She got in!)

[I originally published this post before its subject was inducted, which she was in 2021.]

I promised myself that I would not discuss specific or individual acts, but keep this blog about genres and subgenres which are unfairly (if they are) excluded from the Rock Hall.

But there is one person I really feel I need to talk about: Tina Turner.

Yes, she is inducted, but as part of a doubles act—  with Ike.

And I feel that she more than deserves an individual induction for her much-longer solo career. Now, that’s true of several other acts who are also in only as part of a band, and not as solo artists.

What is specifically upsetting in Turner’s case is her well-known mistreatment by Ike. And it is beyond upsetting to me that she had to work as hard as she did to be free of him… only to find her name linked to his, for eternity, in the annals of the Hall.

Inducting Tina Turner as a solo artist would send a very clear message that the Hall recognizes her as a person, as an artist with boatloads of talent and sterling integrity.

The Hall already has received a lot of criticism for not including more women. Tina Turner is a shoo-in. She is universally beloved. She had a bio-pic movie way before some of the other Inductees. And she lives in Europe, so her induction would be worldwide news. She's already in her 80s, so the clock is ticking loudly here.

If you want ratings for your Induction broadcasts, I bet you could get Oprah, an avowed fan, to induct her. In case you needed more incentive to right this wrong, or to induce Turner to fly from Switzerland to the States for a statuette.

Update: Turner has been nominated for solo induction for 2021. 

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/tina-turner-should-be-in-the-rock-hall/

Update: She got Inducted in 2021! At least she was alive to know about it.

This documentary was released prior to her Induction, and no doubt helped that Induction happen: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8399720/

Also, she won the Fan Vote. I will have to see how much this, historically, has helped acts get Inducted, but I doubt it could hurt: https://www.vulture.com/2021/05/tina-turner-wins-2021-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame-fan-vote.html

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. 

The Non-Heavy Side of Soul

While there seem to be rock acts that rock too hard for the Rock Hall to induct, soul does not have that problem. Lots of heavy R&B, soul, and funk acts are in. More could be, and should be, inducted— but the objection does not seem to be that they are too heavy.

No, for soul, the problem is the opposite. If a R&B, soul, or funk act is not heavy enough, that’s a problem for the Hall.

Thing is, lots of acts on the lighter side of R&B and/or soul are hugely popular. Their hits have remained the mainstays of party-DJ set lists for fifty years in some cases.

To say they were not influential is also ridiculous. Much of today’s music owes its existence to those acts. They have been covered and sampled endlessly.

Lighter rock, disco, and pop are in. So the idea that there needs to be some sort of heaviness to achieve worthiness or authenticity? Nah.

Think of the concerts during the induction ceremony once these bands start getting in... Getting asses in seats is only going to be hard because they will all be up boogie-ing.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-the-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame-snubs-randb-legends-like-janet-jackson

Update: Tina Turner got Inducted in 2021, as did Billy Preston, with an Award for Musical Excellence. And then Lionel Richie got Inducted, in 2022.

Disco? Duck!

I’m going to do something semi-suicidal here. I’m going to go to bat for disco.  

Now, a couple of disco acts are in the Rock Hall, including some of the biggest of this short-lived genre. But several more still deserve to get in, and there feels like maybe there is a pushback, a sense of, “OK, that’s enough; we’re done, here.”

Uh, no. Disco, despite active attempts to kill it (including public burnings of its LPs!), will not die.

Disco has “remained a key influence in the development of EDM, house, hip hop… the style has had several revivals since the 1990s, and the influence of disco remains strong across American and European pop music,” and I almost never quote Wikipedia like that, but if I didn’t, you wouldn’t believe me.

Disco has changed, morphed, and evolved, but it has never really gone away. Think of it like sugar. No matter how many substitutes they come up with, nothing has the addictive quality of the real thing. If even a few molecules of the authentic stuff are in the mix, your body will react intensely and start craving more.

As I said, disco lasted maybe ten years— from the late ‘60s to the late ‘70s— so there aren’t an infinite number of acts worth inducting which have not gotten in. But let’s not slam the door on them yet.

My fear is that the Boomers won’t induct them because they are focused on the rest of the classic rock acts that still need induction (and they should also turn their eye to the last of the early and pre-rock pioneers). The Xers, once we take over, will want to get the New Wave and other ’80s acts in, and maybe recognize punk’s influence on New Wave but not be aware of disco’s.

And after that, the generation that will want to induct the Britney Spears, et al and boy band acts of the 1990s will be too far removed to really know how much disco influenced that whole decade’s pop music and everything that came after.

The upbeat cheerfulness, the neon color palette, the freeform dancing, the loose and comfy clothes… it goes from sock-hop (’50s) to bubblegum (’60s) to disco (’70s) to New Wave (’80s) to boy bands (’90s) to electronica (’00s). And it spread worldwide, from bands like Menudo in Puerto Rico to the Sugarcubes in Iceland, from Europop to J-Pop and K-Pop.

It’s the music of young fun (as opposed to young angst), and it’s infectious. Disco is also a time-capsule of an era in which, finally, no repression could contain the explosive fabulousness of millions of marginalized people. 

So, the next four or five years are really crucial for getting any last deserving disco acts in. Otherwise, how will our grandkids know what those mirror-covered balls are for?

https://www.quora.com/Should-disco-be-part-of-the-Rock-and-Roll-Hall-of-Fame

Update: Billy Preston was inducted in 2021 with a Musical Excellence induction and, if all of his music was not disco, some of it was. Same with Lionel Richie, Inducted in 2022.

2023 saw the Induction of George Michael. His music was post-disco, but (to me) clearly influenced by it.