Rock Hall's name is a shame
The moniker should reflect the ever-broadening musical scope of its inductees.
Mar 11, 2007
By Ann Powers, Times Staff Writer
calendarlive.com
TEARDROPS will fall Monday night at New York's Waldorf-Astoria, as the countercultural power players who run the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame mourn their great elder, Ahmet Ertegun, who died in December.
The loss of Ertegun, a founder of the Rock Hall as well as the Atlantic label and an open-minded record man whose broad taste helped define the term "rock and roll," signals a shift for the controversial institution. With only Ertegun's colleague Jerry Wexler remaining in the emeritus chair, the baby boomers who run the joint will soon have to take on that role and make way for the next generation to determine how its legacy is preserved.
In the aftermath of Ertegun, this year's inductions, topped by the first hip-hop crew to be included Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five should mark a new era for popular music's history-making machine. But before that can happen, something basic may need to change: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's inadequate name.
"Rock 'n' roll" was an ill-conceived term from the start, lifted out of the church and the bawdy house and onto the airwaves to name a postwar dance-music trend. But its original double meaning to "rock and roll" means to feel God's rapture and/or to get your sexy on imbued the phrase with a certain flexibility. Though critics started arguing about its usefulness years ago, rock 'n' roll endured as an official umbrella term, used in beer commercials and college course titles, growing more amorphous as popular music's innovations piled up beneath it.
For many people, however, "rock 'n' roll" means one thing guitar-centered, blues-based, heroic noise made by rough-hewn auteurs. As time went on, the term stood in opposition to new pop styles. The anti-disco movement of the late 1970s mobilized rockers against the perceived corruption of the genre by impure hedonists (read: women, people of color, gays). Punk emerged as a purifying force, returning rock to its primal state, though others saw it as a strike against the virtuosity that had elevated 1960s rock.
Meanwhile, hip-hop grew into its own the first American musical movement in 50 years to assert a different paradigm than the one embodied by Chuck Berry, Elvis and the Beatles. Preservers of the term "rock 'n' roll," either as an umbrella term or as a touchstone of "real" music amid the onslaught of bogus space invaders, had to deal with the fact that, for a new generation, it was becoming irrelevant. (In the 1990s, longtime Rock Hall insider Dave Marsh changed the name of his influential newsletter from "Rock & Roll Confidential" to "Rock and Rap Confidential.") The space invaders either bent the phrase to their needs (Run-DMC declaring themselves the "Kings of Rock") or condemned it (Chuck D of Public Enemy denouncing Elvis in "Fight the Power").
This year, the Rock Hall is finally acknowledging hip-hop by inducting pioneering Bronx rap group Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Instead of occasioning self-congratulation, this event should mark the start of a deconstruction. It's time to find a new metaphor as flexible as "rock 'n' roll" once was.
In their own ways, each of this year's inductees challenges classic-rock values. The annual popular debate over who's included usually focuses on one or two "unworthies"; this year, every inductee raised hackles. Patti Smith, say some, is too cultish and obscure; the Ronettes didn't write or produce their own material; Van Halen, despite Eddie's inarguable genius, remains entrapped within the joke of hair metal. Even R.E.M., the most conventional of the bunch, has inspired criticism for being inducted too early, the same year it became eligible.
R.E.M.'s quick leap actually reinforces the need for the Hall to lose the "rock 'n' roll" stone around its neck. If it's this easy for a rock band to get in now, the pickings must be getting leaner. As the likes of Madonna, N.W.A and George Michael become eligible, fewer inductees will be primarily defined as "rock." Weighed down by that mantle, the hall will feel more and more like an antiquarian society letting the cool kids in, in hopes of rejuvenating its relevance.
It's time to shake things up. Today's most compelling stars Shakira, Timbaland, the Dixie Chicks, the ever-evolving Kelly Clarkson are natural cross-pollinators who rock without necessarily being "rock." The underground is alive with mongrels and mutations, because its denizens grew up with samplers and guitars. "Rock 'n' roll" is dead; long live whatever's next. And let's hope our Hall of Fame finds a way to name it.
10th March 2007 01:44 PM
lotsajizz
rap sucks and Grandmaster and that reporter's so-called "cool kids" can fuckoff
10th March 2007 01:46 PM
Ten Thousand Motels
>The moniker should reflect the ever-broadening musical scope of its inductees.<
No. Just quit broadening the scope of the inductees.
10th March 2007 01:48 PM
lotsajizz
damn straight my Stonesian brother!
10th March 2007 01:56 PM
glencar
FROM ABOVE: "It's time to shake things up. Today's most compelling stars Shakira, Timbaland, the Dixie Chicks, the ever-evolving Kelly Clarkson are natural cross-pollinators who rock without necessarily being "rock." The underground is alive with mongrels and mutations, because its denizens grew up with samplers and guitars. "Rock 'n' roll" is dead; long live whatever's next. And let's hope our Hall of Fame finds a way to name it..."
She has taste up her ass. I don't know this Timbaland fella's music but the other 3 acts are pretty mediocre.
[Edited by glencar]
10th March 2007 02:12 PM
Gazza
quote:glencar wrote:
FROM ABOVE: "It's time to shake things up. Today's most compelling stars Shakira, Timbaland, the Dixie Chicks, the ever-evolving Kelly Clarkson are natural cross-pollinators who rock without necessarily being "rock."
do they, bollocks
10th March 2007 02:13 PM
glencar
Shakira is horrid! So are those Dixie Chix. Kelly Clarkson is aight but nuttin specshuil.
10th March 2007 02:19 PM
Ten Thousand Motels
quote:glencar wrote:
Shakira is horrid! So are those Dixie Chix. Kelly Clarkson is aight but nuttin specshuil.
I'd rather listen to Rockabilly than that shit. In fact isn't Rockabilly "rock n roll in it's purest form?" Rockabilly has their own Hall of Fame....why can't rappers do their own?
10th March 2007 02:24 PM
Ten Thousand Motels
"Rock 'n' roll" was an ill-conceived term from the start.."
10th March 2007 02:57 PM
Paranoid_Android
quote:lotsajizz wrote:
rap sucks and Grandmaster and that reporter's so-called "cool kids" can fuckoff
You may not like Rap or, it's younger cousin, Hip-Hop...but groups like Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, Kutis Blow, and N.W.A. ...firmly, though uknowingly, set the course for what would quickly turn into the next indiginous music of the USA...right along w/ Jazz, Bluegrass, and the Blues.
Maybe the solution would be for someone to cough up the dough to build a Rap/Hip-Hop Hall of fame...an Electronica Hall of Fame...a Pop Hall of fame...a Punk Hall of Fame...etc...and keep the gendres segragated.
I don't mean that to sound mean or anything...but it would keep the purist at bay...and the "pity/token nominations" to a minimum in the future...as todays stars become eligable...they should withstand the test of time and remain relevent in their areas of music.
10th March 2007 03:09 PM
Bitch
ROCK & ROLL is a wonderfly descriptive term for the music it represents. Just as the name suggests, a rock keeps rolling, and as it rolls it morphs and changes, and little pieces break off the original rock to make smaller rocks, like hip-hop, punk, and rockabilly. All part of the original rock and roll.
12th March 2007 02:23 AM
TampabayStone
quote:lotsajizz wrote:
damn straight my Stonesian brother!
Easy Jizzy.....The Beasties Rule!!!
Note> They are also white boys.
12th March 2007 09:12 AM
TALK IS CHEAP
Rock n roll hall of shame.....Sordid, ingenuine, back-slapping rubbish that demands inductees having to wear suits & bow-ties while receiving awards from faceless corporation fat-cats who've never bought an album or a concert ticket in their lives.
12th March 2007 09:52 AM
Olompali
The only change that needs to be made at The Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame is shutting it down
It is and always was an embarrassing concept.
The Experience Music center in Seattle got it right.
Go there for history.
12th March 2007 10:41 AM
Joey
quote:lotsajizz wrote:
rap sucks and Grandmaster and that reporter's so-called "cool kids" can fuckoff
Amen Jizzy .
RUN PMS
12th March 2007 11:00 AM
fireontheplatter
i can't wait to see keith richards on tv tonight.
i love this awards show.
a good enough reason to have wine.
12th March 2007 11:23 AM
Saint Sway
if you read between the lines of this story its easy to see that they are hinting about Roth performing some Van Halen bluegrass songs tonite
heres the master at work...
[Edited by Saint Sway]
12th March 2007 11:24 AM
Mel Belli
I'm all for a "big tent" approach to rock, but that piece was critical thumbsucking, nothing more.
12th March 2007 11:27 AM
rollmops
Change the name "Rock and Roll"???? Who is that guy? That is bullshit!! Him and Dave March are assholes. Long live ROCK AND ROLL, you fuckers
Rock and Roll
Mops
12th March 2007 06:23 PM
Gazza
The show appears to be available online for those of us who arent getting it on TV
http://spinner.aol.com/rockhall
13th March 2007 03:25 AM
TampabayStone
quote:TALK IS CHEAP wrote:
Rock n roll hall of shame.....Sordid, ingenuine, back-slapping rubbish that demands inductees having to wear suits & bow-ties while receiving awards from faceless corporation fat-cats who've never bought an album or a concert ticket in their lives.
Right on, brother!!!
Joe Redner Baby! P-dogg, you still a Libertarian?? I think I'm with you'all.
-Cracker
http://www.votejoeredner.com/
13th March 2007 03:27 AM
TampabayStone
quote:Saint Sway wrote:
if you read between the lines of this story its easy to see that they are hinting about Roth performing some Van Halen bluegrass songs tonite
heres the master at work...
[Edited by Saint Sway]
NICE!
You been bringin' that heat the whole time I been gone??
13th March 2007 08:04 PM
Prodigal Son
Boy am I sick of "critics" who bash the old school rockers and think the true legends are a bunch of hip-hoppers and tarts from the 80s. Gimme a break. In their world, the Stones and Dylan and Neil Young and the Clash are all fossils while we should be bending over to kiss ass at the altar of Run DMC, Madonna, Kool Mo Dee and Janet Jackson. And then we should also acknowledge the best acts today as wannabes like Timberlake and Coldplay or bland tone-deaf electro dance crap like Nelly Furtado, Timberland, Gwen Stefani etc. Not everyone wants to, mmkay? Many are happier re-living true rock/pop excellence.
14th March 2007 07:44 AM
glencar
Well stated. That stuff ain't music, Shirley!
14th March 2007 03:06 PM
gimmekeef
Close the doors on The R&R Hall and as Dandy Don used to croon..."turn out the lights the parties over"
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