Let the arguments begin! The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has announced the nominees for induction in 2016, and it’s the usual mix of significant performers and outliers likely included primarily for their commercial appeal.
The list includes the Cars, Chaka Khan, Chicago, Cheap Trick, Chic, Deep Purple, the J.B.s, Janet Jackson, Los Lobos, Steve Miller, Nine Inch Nails (pictured, at Blossom Music Center in 1991), N.W.A., the Smiths, the Spinners and Yes.
Some — like Nine Inch Nails, the Smiths, N.W.A., Yes and Deep Purple — should (but probably won’t) be shoo-ins for induction (and Yes and Deep Purple both should have been in two decades ago). In fact, those five represent primary influences/popularizers in five different major genres: industrial, college/alternative, gangster rap, prog rock and metal. While none was an originator — those tend to be obscure, such as Schoolly D, commonly held to be the first gangster rapper — each added to the genre and was a key factor in its wider acceptance.
But other nominees, like the Spinners, Janet Jackson or Chicago, are questionable at best unless the Rock Hall admits it’s more about selling records than being groundbreaking or influential.
And the continued inclusion of the disco project Chic — a basically nonexistent group — continues to irritate me. Induct Nile Rodgers and the late Bernie Edwards, the “group’s” producers/creators, if you like. They certainly had a major influence on the sound of music in the late ’70s and ’80s. But Chic itself was nothing more than a revolving group of session players and hired touring musicians — WikiPedia lists more than 50. So who gets to go onstage if they are inducted?
Fans can cast their ballots here.
The inductees will be announced in December and inducted at the annual ceremony in New York in April 2016.