It's some weird Illuminati thing and nobody understands how it works. | | | | Whitney Houston in New York, 1984. Vote for her.
(Michael Ochs Archives) | | | | |  | “It's some weird Illuminati thing and nobody understands how it works.”
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| | rantnrave:// There are plenty of reasons why you might take issue with the choices the ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME's sort-of-secretive nominating committee puts forth every year. Until this year, for example, the name MOTÖRHEAD was nowhere to be found among any list of nominees, even though the greatest band to ever wield an umlaut has been eligible for the better part of two decades. You could sit at the RAINBOW BAR for 18 years and drink nothing but Jack and Cokes and that still wouldn't make sense. That oversight has now been officially corrected. Also, for example, the committee has a chronically difficult time finding women worthy of nominating even though women have been making rock and roll for—checking my notes—a very very long time. Two, including the goddess I just linked to, made it all the way into the Hall in 2018 and two more in 2019; at this pace, there will finally be enough women on the walls of the museum basically never. This year, three are nominated. There are 16 nominees altogether. Do the math. Also also, these dudes (that pianist sitting in with them looks vaguely familiar) have never been on a ballot. What?!? (Maybe the pianist can put in a word for them.) On the other hand, you can hardly accuse the committee of nominating unworthy artists. By my count, every artist who's ever appeared on a Hall of Fame ballot deserves to be in the Hall. Every single one. The nominating process is famously long and argumentative, and scrubs do not get past the committee. If every nominated artist was immediately inducted into the Hall, instead of having to survive a second process where about 1,000 voters whittle the list down to five winners, the Hall wouldn't be the worse for it. It might even be better. Does oft-nominated KRAFTWERK belong inside? Are you kidding? Yes. What about TODD RUNDGREN, who's been to this rodeo before and has a tiny chance, at best, of getting in? Yes. What about the sure-to-be-controversial first-time nominee WHITNEY HOUSTON, the massively popular, gifted and influential singer who will be collecting demerits over the next couple months for not being "rock and roll"—from fans of a museum whose honorees include MILES DAVIS, WOODY GUTHRIE and ROBERT JOHNSON. I guarantee there are way more people making rock right now who grew up with and were inspired and influenced by Whitney than by any of those men, and, yes, she should be a shoo-in. What about this entire Satanic platoon of metal and metal-adjacent bands competing for a slot in a Hall that historically has been hostile to the genre? Yes to all of them. So why not bypass the voters? Clear out a little extra room this year and make space for a DOOBIE BROTHERS plaque (that riff, come on), a PAT BENATAR plaque (read this, yo) and 14 others. And then do it again next year. And the year after that. If the Hall had done this in years past, it wouldn't have to accept 16 newcomers this year. There are nine first-time nominees this time around, so that's who you'd have had to induct. It would still be super exclusive. And deeper, more diverse, louder, better... Also, wow this list of first-time eligibles whom the nominating committee snubbed. OUTKAST??? JEFF BUCKLEY??? What's the story, morning glory?!?... DOLLY PARTON remains a long-time Rock Hall nonentity, but there's now a podcast called DOLLY PARTON's AMERICA, and based on the fantastic first episode, you're going to want to vote her into the WHITE HOUSE by the time it's over... In other Hall of Fame news, the NASHVILLE SONGWRITERS HALL OF FAME says hello to DWIGHT YOAKAM, LARRY GATLIN, RIVERS RUTHERFORD, SHARON VAUGHN, MARCUS HUMMON and KOSTAS... RIP STEVE CASH. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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| | | you're a real tough cookie |
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 | SPIN |
| At first glance, the 2020 nominees are a wildly mixed-up bunch. (You’d be hard-pressed to find to popular artists of the last few decades more different than Motörhead and Whitney Houston.) Still, with a closer look, some trends emerge. | | |
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| "They should create a Billboard top merch chart." | | |
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 | Los Angeles Times |
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| | | i've been hearing your heartbeat |
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 | WNYC Studios |
| We begin with a simple question: How did the queen of the boob joke become a feminist icon? We dive into Dolly’s discography, starting with the early period of what Dolly calls “sad ass songs” to find remarkably prescient words of female pain, slut-shaming, domestic violence, and women being locked away in asylums by cheating husbands. | | |
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 | DJ Mag |
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 | Variety |
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 | Vulture |
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 | The Moment with Brian Koppelman |
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 | Slate |
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| Rolling Stone |
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| Billboard |
| If we're talking about hip-hop artists who deserve a nomination but haven't yet seen one, well, you could spend hours debating who should get in, but obvious choices abound who have been eligible for some time. | | |
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 | Consequence of Sound |
| ... and one of the most gifted musicians on the planet. | | |
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 | YouTube |
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