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IF I HAD A BALLOT FOR THE 2015 ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME NOMINATIONS

IF I HAD A BALLOT FOR THE 2015 ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME NOMINATIONS
04 Nov
2014
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In the words of Baseball Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra, it's déjà vu all over again because it seems as if I was doing this exercise only a year ago. That exercise is evaluating the fifteen nominees for the 2015 class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced on October 9, 2014. (And just to clarify, the inductees will be announced later in 2014 for the induction ceremony in Cleveland, Ohio, on April 18, 2015.)

As I did for the 2013 ballot and again for the 2014 ballot, I profile these fifteen nominees and indicate whether I think the Hall voters will vote for them, and whether I would vote for them were I issued that precious ballot as a voting member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Ballot Overview

The fifteen nominees are the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Chic, Green Day, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Kraftwerk, the Marvelettes, Nine Inch Nails, N.W.A., Lou Reed, the Smiths, the Spinners, Sting, Stevie Ray Vaughan, War, and Bill Withers. Six artists are on the ballot for the first time while nine have been nominated previously:

  • Two artists are eligible for the ballot for the first time this year: Green Day and Nine Inch Nails.
  • Four artists have been eligible for the ballot in previous years and are on the ballot for the first time: The Smiths, Sting, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Bill Withers.
  • Three artists are returning to this year's ballot from the 2014 ballot: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Chic, and N.W.A.
  • Six artists have been on previous ballots but were not on the 2014 ballot: Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Kraftwerk, the Marvelettes, Lou Reed, the Spinners, and War.
The table below includes all fifteen nominees and indicates whether the nominee has been nominated previously, how many times nominated previously, and the last time nominated. ("NA" means "not applicable.")

2015 Nominee

Nominated Previously

Number of Times Nominated Previously

Last Time Nominated

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band

Yes

3

2014

Chic

Yes

8

2014

Green Day

No

NA

NA

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

Yes

2

2013

Kraftwerk

Yes

2

2013

The Marvelettes

Yes

1

2013

Nine Inch Nails

No

NA

NA

N.W.A.

Yes

2

2014

Lou Reed

Yes

2

2001

The Smiths

No

NA

NA

The Spinners

Yes

1

2012

Sting

No

NA

NA

Stevie Ray Vaughan

No

NA

NA

War

Yes

2

2009

Bill Withers

No

NA

NA


With a total of nine chances for the bouquet, Chic has been a bridesmaid longer than anyone on this ballot. Bill Withers has been eligible since 1996, the longest eligibility period of any artist on the ballot who has never been nominated. However, the Spinners and the Marvelettes have both been eligible since the first year that the Hall began inducting artists, 1986, with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, first eligible in 1988, not far behind them. Meanwhile Lou Reed has waited longer than any previously-nominated artist for his current nomination, since 2001, and should Reed be elected, it would be a posthumous induction.

Overall, the ballot reflects an emphasis on the 1970s and 1980s, with a handful of 1960s acts (the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, the Marvelettes, the Spinners) acting as the deep historical choices, although the Spinners sustained front-line visibility into the Disco Era. Chic, Kraftwerk, Lou Reed, War, and Bill Withers all had their heydays in the 1970s, with Reed and to a lesser extent Chic and Kraftwerk soldiering on into the 1980s, and for Reed, beyond that. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, the Smiths, Sting, and Stevie Ray Vaughan established their presences in the 1980s, while Green Day, Nine Inch Nails, and N.W.A. used the tail-end of that decade as their springboard into the 1990s and beyond, although N.W.A. was a short-lived act.

Ballot Criteria: Theirs, Yours, and Mine

Last year, I examined the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's primary criterion for defining what composes a Hall of Fame-caliber musical act, "musical excellence," and I noted that the Hall does not actually define just what it means by "musical excellence." Inquiring readers are encouraged to read further from last year's article, but for our purposes here I will simply repeat the entire statement of eligibility from the Hall of Fame's own website, which is as follows:

To be eligible for induction as an artist (as a performer, composer, or musician) into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the artist must have released a record, in the generally accepted sense of that phrase, at least 25 years prior to the year of induction; and have demonstrated unquestionable musical excellence.

We shall consider factors such as an artist's musical influence on other artists, length and depth of career and the body of work, innovation and superiority in style and technique, but musical excellence shall be the essential qualification of induction. [Emphases added.]

The Hall does emphasize aesthetic reflection and aesthetic judgment as important concepts in helping to determine "musical excellence" (they are also listed in the glossary of terms). Those definitions of aesthetic reflection and aesthetic judgment are key concepts worth examining; from the Hall's glossary:

Aesthetic reflection: The act of becoming aware of one's own process of understanding and responding to the arts, and of examining how others respond to artistic expression.

Aesthetic judgment: The ability to form and articulate a critical argument based on aesthetic criteria.

Everyone who expresses an opinion on whether an artist belongs in the Hall of Fame follows those two concepts to arrive at that opinion. How well we formulate that opinion is a function of individual bias and limitations, with the correspondingly wide variance both in the range and in the quality of that opinion.

In essence, though, this is a two-stage operation. First, with aesthetic reflection, we sort out why it is that we respond favorably or unfavorably toward a certain form, style, or genre of music, and toward individual artists within those forms, styles, and genres. Developing a conscious understanding of why we like or dislike different types of music and different artists helps toward the next step of then being able to evaluate those types of music and those artists.

However, that is a big next step because that requires us to not only recognize why we like or dislike a musical type or musical artist, but to recognize why someone else may like or dislike a musical type or musical artist—and, more importantly, why that musical type or artist may be significant regardless of how we feel about it. Music appreciation is an intensely emotional experience, and it is overwhelmingly subjective, but it is possible to put our individual judgments into perspective, into a picture of the overall body of music of the Rock and Soul Era, to try to determine the significance of a musical type and a musical artist within that overall picture as the basis for evaluation.

None of which helps with defining what exactly the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame means by "musical excellence," particularly as it regards "musical excellence" as the overriding factor in whether an artist is worthy of the Hall of Fame. In political statecraft, the term "national security" serves the same function: It is never defined but it is used to justify war-making capabilities, invading other countries, enacting potentially oppressive laws, and spying on everyone including the state's own citizens. That ranges a bit far afield for our purposes here, but it illustrates how a broad, vague term lacking clear definition enables any and every kind of action, with the corresponding consequences.

Regardless of what "musical excellence" may actually mean, I have developed what I call Defining Factors to assess whether an artist is worthy of inclusion into the Hall of Fame. These five Defining Factors are:

Innovation. The artist has invented or refined one or more aspects of the music.

Influence. The artist has made a demonstrable impact on the music of either contemporaries or succeeding artists.

Popularity. The artist has achieved an appreciable measure of commercial or critical success.

Crossover appeal. The artist is recognized and appreciated outside the artist's primary arena.

Legacy. The artist's accomplishments have lasting impact and appeal.

To be considered a Hall of Fame act, I think that an artist must rate as highly as possible in as many Defining Factors as possible. I developed these Defining Factors during my series of "audits" of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's selections from 1986 to 2013 (the sixth and latest installment contains links to the previous five installments).

Unlike the Hall of Fame, though, I maintain that the "essential qualification of induction" is not "musical excellence"—again, whatever that might mean—but rather legacy. This is implied in the Hall's one unequivocal criterion for eligibility, which is that an artist is not eligible until twenty-five years have elapsed from the release of the artist's first recording. This enables historical perspective, to put the artist into context within the overall continuum of the Rock and Soul Era to assess whether the artist really has had an impact on the music and, to a greater extent, on the culture that fostered the music.

In essence and in fact, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is a museum, an institution designed to evaluate and recognize how the past has shaped our present and how it may suggest our future. Simply put, seeing an artist in the Hall of Fame means that the artist had some significant bearing on the music. The term "significant" is a notoriously subjective one, one that becomes an ill-defined and -placed boundary separating those artists who are worthy from those who are not. Perhaps this is the elusive "musical excellence" of the Hall's statement?

Nevertheless, as I have done for my assessment of the 2013 and 2014 ballots and for my six "audits" of the artists already in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I have used my Defining Factors to assess the fifteen nominees for the 2015 ballot. And no matter how much aesthetic reflection and aesthetic judgment I use, these assessments cannot help but reflect my own biases and limitations.

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Last modified on Saturday, 13 June 2015 13:39

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