posted 2007/10/03 at 20:34
Madonna nominated for Rock Hall of Fame (AP via Yahoo! News)
Given that an artist/group has to wait twenty-five years after his/her/their first album to be nominated, this kind of reminds me of just how old I am. (Did I mention the laugh I got out of my students when I mentioned pagers a couple of weeks ago?) I can still remember back when we first got MTV and they started to do their first bit of "regular" programming, playing a new video from a hot artist at the top of every hour. When MTV started doing this, it seemed like they'd cycle through the same three artists every three hours: Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, and Madonna. I was a bigger fan of Michael and Cyndi when I was younger, but as I grew older and Madonna went through her S&M phase I gravitated towards her for most of my teenage years. I haven't followed Madonna seriously for over a decade now, and given what I've heard of her recent music this is probably a good thing, but to realize that it's been about twenty-five years now since "Holiday" first hit the airwaves makes me feel older than dirt.
Looking at the article, I'm kind of dismayed that only five of the nine nominees can make it in, given that incredibly strong cases could be made for all of them to be inducted. Like Madonna or not, her influence and her ability to reinvent herself successfully, over and over again, kind of makes her a given. Likewise, the Beastie Boys (I actually have their pre-Licensed to Ill albums on cassette somewhere) have been one of the most enduring acts in modern music history, and I don't think their influence on several generations of artists can be overstated. Leonard Cohen ... yeah, why wasn't he inducted, like, ages ago? Ditto for Afrika Bambaataa, John Mellencamp, and the Dave Clark Five. I'm a bit less certain about the Ventures, and I admit that my love of disco may be influencing my opinions on Donna Summer and Chic, but still and all, I don't know how you don't induct all of them. I realize a hall of fame is supposed to be "best of the best," but all of the nominees certainly qualify for that.
This news is also making me think about the likelihood of my favourite artists ever making the hall. Technically Björk could be nominated any year since she did release a self-titled album in Iceland back in 1977 that went Platinum there, and if her Y Kant Tori Read album counts then Tori Amos will be eligible fairly soon. I don't think either of them would ever get in, though, which is a crying shame. I think Sarah McLachlan would stand a good chance just because she broke through to the mainstream a bit more, plus she'll have the whole Lilith Fair thing going for her. As much as I know I shouldn't take the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame seriously (it's in Cleveland, for crying out loud), I still can't help but feel a bit sad and a bit angry that the artists I love the most probably won't be inducted while other acts I don't like will probably get in after their first year of eligibility (Guns n Roses and Green Day just to name two).
copyright © 2008 Sean Shannon