In Sticky Fingers, the biography of Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner, Joe Hagan writes of the Hall’s conception by Bruce Brandwen, who first envisioned it as a pay-per-view television event. The music industry’s history is, in no small part, one of backroom exploitation, and the Hall is no exception. In considering the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, its nominees and the wider importance of both, it might be useful to look at its roots. Speaking to the Huffington Post in 2015, singer Joe Elliot said that his band would decline induction if it ever came to it and that the recognition of a platinum record is far more meaningful to him, “because it’s a representation of one million people who’ve bought your album, and those million mean a lot more to me than some people that decide whether you fit for the Hall of Fame.” Speaking to Billboard Tuesday after the Hall’s announcement, though, Elliot pivoted a bit, telling the trade publication that he is “definitely not Groucho Marx, ‘Any club that would have me as a member I don’t want to join.’ When you think that every band that means anything in the world, starting from the Beatles and the Stones and any artist that influenced them - your Chuck Berrys, your Little Richards, etc. It’s a win-win, with no “real” losers.Įxcept, that is, for those who put little stock in the whole shebang - even they are nominees, as Def Leppard became today. It generates a lot of publicity (for example, the piece you’re reading right now) and it allows its voting members to take the public’s temperature on its possible inductees before casting their deciding ballots, giving it a measure of control over its public reputation. The Hall’s nominations-first, inductees-second announcement strategy is of course a purposeful one, for at least two reasons.
Three notable premier nominations are Roxy Music, Def Leppard and John Prine - the latter of whom could be considered a shoo-in, given his advancing age, prolific output and the high esteem in which he is held by many of his peers. This year’s list includes just three women, one of whom, Stevie Nicks, was already inducted as a part of Fleetwood Mac. Each year’s inductees are decided by “more than 1,000 inductees, historians and members of the music industry, as well as the aggregate results of the Rock Hall’s online fan vote,” the Rock Hall explains on its website. To be nominated, groups or artists must have released their first commercial recording 25 years or more prior.
In alphabetical order, this year’s nominees for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame are:
One nominee has already been inducted, two are receiving their fifth nominations, and one previously said it would decline the honor before changing its, ahem, tune on Tuesday morning. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced its 2019 nominees on Tuesday, and in what has become an annual tradition, the list came with the Hall’s usual heap of opacity and a dash of acrimony. CREDIT: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for iHeartMedia PHOTO: Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac performs onstage during the 2018 iHeartRadio Music Festival.
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