Zack Zoll wrote:
Something else just occurred to me ...

Trent Reznor/NIN are up for voting this year. Bowie's band Tin Machine ran a LOT or parallels there - Reznor has even said that Bowie's album Low was his biggest influence. Both bands put out their first record in 1989, so both are eligible.

So both bands have an equal pedigree is what I'm saying, aside from longevity. And since they wrote and toured together, they were basically all one big band in the 90s.

Tin Machine isn't in the running, even though it is an actual band, and Bowie took the same pay as everybody else, and and they all wrote together. Wings was Paul McCartney's backing band, and they got inducted as a band.

I guess I just shot my own theory to hell about dumping acclaim on people.

No one fucking knows who Tin Machine is. That's why. Everyone sucks Paul McCartney's dick. He could have started a children's band or a band with cats meowing and they would be nominated.

NIN will get in.

Model Sarah wrote:
No one fucking knows who Tin Machine is.

i know the sales brothers from way back when, when they were todd rundgren's backing band. and they are soupy's sons, too.

and the r&rhof is nothing more than a caricature of its intentions. how many times does ringo have to be inducted? nothing about that institution passes the smell test. unless you're sniffing for shit.

no need to look further than if they finally induct yes this year. really, you asswipes? it took the death of one of the two original founding members for you to finally get that right? and especially now, when they are a completely dysfunctional outfit?

DOUGLASFOTOS wrote:
Where is Lawrence Welk? Arthur Fiedler?

why not? hey, if madonna gets in, why not old bubble brains, or af? full disclosure...i saw a concert in like '71 (a family outing, when i was a kid), at the old foxboro stadium, featuring the pops, with fiedler at the baton. it was--surprisingly--pretty good.

Model Sarah wrote:

No one fucking knows who Tin Machine is. That's why. Everyone sucks Paul McCartney's dick. He could have started a children's band or a band with cats meowing and they would be nominated.

NIN will get in.

It doesn't matter. My point was that David Bowie is a massive player, and they've gone out of their way to induct those guys repeatedly, even to the point of inducting backing bands - which is really like inducting a solo artist twice for the same body of work.

Here is an opportunity to induct a big player yet again, for an actual send band this time, and they passed. Ringo has been inducted how many times? And how many people under 50 can actually remember the name of his non-Beatles band?

Like I said, I literally have no idea what the voting is based on anymore.

Zack Zoll wrote:
It doesn't matter. My point was that David Bowie is a massive player, and they've gone out of their way to induct those guys repeatedly, even to the point of inducting backing bands - which is really like inducting a solo artist twice for the same body of work.

Here is an opportunity to induct a big player yet again, for an actual send band this time, and they passed. Ringo has been inducted how many times? And how many people under 50 can actually remember the name of his non-Beatles band?

Like I said, I literally have no idea what the voting is based on anymore.

Tin Machine was really just Bowie taking a break and doing something slightly different and less accessible. NIN on the other hand was THE major project of Trent Reznor's life and career, the result of years trying different things with different people and deciding finally that he was going to try out his own ideas and banged it out of the park at least two times with those two first albums (at the very least... some would say more). Meanwhile, Tin Machine has less popularity than the Thompson Twins (I'm just going backwards alphabetically) which had no less than 3 hit songs of the '80s. Not a smart comparison.

martin b wrote:
No one else cheering for NWA?  For me they really changed music and influenced many artists.  I think I was lucky I grew up in the 80s when music was being made by musicians more than corporations.

I am.

Model Sarah wrote:
Tin Machine was really just Bowie taking a break and doing something slightly different and less accessible. NIN on the other hand was THE major project of Trent Reznor's life and career, the result of years trying different things with different people and deciding finally that he was going to try out his own ideas and banged it out of the park at least two times with those two first albums (at the very least... some would say more). Meanwhile, Tin Machine has less popularity than the Thompson Twins (I'm just going backwards alphabetically) which had no less than 3 hit songs of the '80s. Not a smart comparison.

Fair enough. But if you re-read my previous post, you see I don't need convincing

Bowie, McCartney, Dylan, and Springsteen are the only 'rock royalty' that are still recording off the top on my head. Sure the Stones and Clapton do, but none of those guys put out an album that people cared about since the mid-90s. All I'm saying is that if it were a popularity contest, like so many bands bitch that it is, wouldn't they jump to give Bowie another award? He's one of the biggest artists with Old Guy Cred that is still making records that people buy.

I do agree that in a perfect world, NIN would be a shoe-in. Reznor was directly responsible for almost all of the loud bands from the 90s that weren't grunge or grunge wannabees. If your band formed after 1993, and you own more than one distortion pedal, it's pretty much a guarantee that you owned NIN records. Half of those bands were even on his label.

Someone said earlier that they thought voting was based on who would show up, and that's the only reason I can think of why they wouldn't get the vote. That and the aforementioned random voting. I doubt a guy that encourages people to pirate his music gives a crap about winning awards.

Which is why we love him

Vintagevista wrote:
In all my life - this is the very first time I have heard of NWA being referred to as a "Rock and Roll" group.

Can you image the "lame-o-meter" response you would have gotten - if you had called them that in the SOC days?

"And entering the top 40 in the 38th slot is the new California rock and roll group "NWA" with their climbing hit - "Fuck the Police" - - I'm Casey Kasem  - and this, is the top 40 countdown for the week of August 5th 1988...."

*chortle*

It would seem that the Rock n Roll Hall o' Fame lacks clarity in their mission statement and selection criteria.

Didn't they induct Kermie the Frog a few decades ago for that rainbow song? I like that rainbow song!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSFLZ-MzIhM

Vintagevista wrote:
In all my life - this is the very first time I have heard of NWA being referred to as a "Rock and Roll" group.

Can you image the "lame-o-meter" response you would have gotten - if you had called them that in the SOC days?

"And entering the top 40 in the 38th slot is the new California rock and roll group "NWA" with their climbing hit - "Fuck the Police" - - I'm Casey Kasem  - and this, is the top 40 countdown for the week of August 5th 1988...."

*chortle*

That's pretty weird but I don't think of the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame as just rock and roll.  Many are just groups or people that influenced music.  Some are just awesome people.  I think NWA falls under awesome.  So does Steve Miller, he is awesome even without the band.  Did he do any songs without his band?

I used to work with Casey Kasem's son out here in Asia on Asia's top 20.  Casey was a legend here in Asia but his wife is crazy.

ernst tischler wrote:
Here is how voting is going so far:

The Top 5
1 - Chicago 16.48% (6211128 votes)
2 - Yes 16.24% (6118729 votes)
3 - The Cars 16.19% (6101089 votes)
4 - Deep Purple 16.09% (6063995 votes)
5 - Steve Miller 16.02% (6036981 votes)

Janet Jackson 12.12% (4567204 votes)
Chaka Khan 1.22% (459912 votes)

Cheap Trick 1.00% (375302 votes)
N.W.A 0.94% (354561 votes)
The Spinners 0.94% (354380 votes)
Chic 0.87% (329198 votes)
The Smiths 0.60% (226008 votes)
The J.B.'s 0.49% (182861 votes)
Los Lobos 0.48% (179736 votes)
Nine Inch Nails 0.31% (116761 votes)

To me, this is absolutely bizarre.

Deep Purple and Yes should have been in a long-time ago. Two of the most influential bands of the 70s. Chicago should have also been in a long time ago. Not as influential, but they definitely were popular and effectively represented a genre within rock.

The Cars, Cheap Trick and Steve Miller are all roughly the same in my eyes in terms of their popularity and their influence. Moderate on both accounts.

I could see the Smiths or NIN or the Spinners getting inducted. The way the R&R HOF is, it wouldn't surprise me. It also wouldn't surprise me if Yes or Deep Purple didn't make it. More likely is that Janet Jackson will be inducted. Makes no sense, so they'll do it.

And where is Grand Funk Railroad?

And where is Grand Funk Railroad?

On the sleeper car taking a well deserved nap that has apparently run into it's 40th year