Friday, March 18, 2011

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: those who haven't made it into Jann Wenner's lifetime-achievement club.

http://www.telegram.com/article/20110317/COLUMN09/103170664/

And, from Wikipedia's article about the Hall:
The main criticism of the Hall of Fame is that the nomination process is controlled by a few individuals who are not musicians, such as founder Jann Wenner (who has filled the position of managing editor for Rolling Stone magazine), former foundation director Suzan Evans, and writer Dave Marsh, reflecting their tastes rather than the views of the rock world as a whole. A former member of the nominations board once commented that "At one point Suzan Evans lamented the choices being made because there weren't enough big names that would sell tickets to the dinner. That was quickly remedied by dropping one of the doo-wop groups being considered in favor of a 'name' artist...I saw how certain pioneering artists of the '50s and early '60s were shunned because there needed to be more name power on the list, resulting in '70s superstars getting in before the people who made it possible for them. Some of those pioneers still aren't in today."[19] According to Fox News, petitions with tens of thousands of signatures were also being ignored, and some groups that were signed with certain labels or companies or were affiliated with various committee members have even been put up for nomination with no discussion at all.[19] The committee has also been accused of largely ignoring certain genres.[20] According to author Brett Milano, "entire genres get passed over, particularly progressive rock, '60s Top 40, New Orleans funk and a whole lot of black music."[21]

Regarding the above paragraph from the Wikipedia article: It could be safe to say that Neil Diamond received his Hall pass at least due to his contributions to 60s Top 40--the new collection of his 66-68 Bang Records period (in Mono) is worth buying/downloading

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