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Rock Hall Scandal as One Third of Nominating Committee Dismissed

by Roger Friedman - June 20, 2015

http://www.showbiz411.com/2015/06/20/ro ... -dismissed

Thanks to Billboard for reporting this story first: 16 of the 42 members of the nominating committee have been dismissed. Most or all of them have been there a long time and represent the bloc of voters who still lobby for early rock and R&B pioneers who’ve been overlooked or purposely dismissed out of hand for induction.

Among those artists would be people like Chubby Checker and the late Billy Preston, as well as Rufus Thomas and Carla Thomas and many artists from Stax Records.

I’m hearing that among those gone are famed publicist Bob Merlis, record exec and soul music specialist Joe McEwen, former Rolling Stone editor Joe Levy, etc.

I reported in January 2010 that Jann Wenner, who runs the Rock Hall, wanted to cut the eligibility time down from 25 to 20 years. The reason was that to sell the Rock Hall induction ceremony as a TV show to HBO, Wenner needed stars, not old or dead actual founders of rock.

Replacing nominators with younger people who have no attachment or feel for rock origins, and moving up the eligibility means Wenner can continue to skip over acts he doesn’t like and move on to more recent stars.

But there are plenty of artists not in the Rock Hall with lots to gripe about. J. Geils Band and Peter Wolf are an example. So are Chicago, the Moody Blues, Carly Simon all glaring omissions. And there are problems with Bon Jovi, whom Wenner has kept out, and Sting, whose solo career is now five times as long as the one he had with the Police. Nile Rodgers and Chic still aren’t in, neither are The Cars. Motown’s Marvellettes, and Mary Wells, Todd Rundgren, and many others.

The Rock Hall already is jeered by real rock fans. I’ve written about their financial situation for years– millions in the bank, no help to indigent musicians. The CEO gets $400,000 a year, etc.

Wenner may urge his new nominators to make the five year jump now simply because the crop of acts that are eligible in the next round aren’t that interesting. Smashing Pumpkins? A Tribe Called Quest? I don’t see it. You have to go to the next year to get Pearl Jam and Alannis Morissette. If he moves the full years up, Radiohead and Beck are actually eligible. And out the window would go the long list of real rock pioneers and influencers.

There’s also a theory that Wenner will now try to force in groups like Journey or Kansas so that the HBO show turns into 80s nostalgia.

Stay tuned…

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Dismisses At Least 16 Nominating Members

By Ed Christman | June 19, 2015

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/ ... ng-members

The move wiped out more than half of the Hall's Early Rock and R&B Influencers subcommittee.

Is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame cutting ties with its roots? Or is the Hall looking for a new approach in appreciating the founders of rock 'n' roll? Industry pundits fear the worst but hope for the best.

On Thursday, Jon Landau -- the head of the nominating committee for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame -- emailed an undisclosed number of committee members telling them their services are no longer needed. Sources suggest that as many as 16 of the 42 nominating committee have been given their walking papers. But what's got some worried is that the move has wiped out more than half of the Hall's Early Rock and R&B Influencers subcommittee, as at least four of the seven subcommittee members were among those given the heave-ho. They are veteran A&R executive Joe McEwen, a blues and R&B expert; Greg Geller, a label executive specializing in reissues; Arthur Levy, a senior writer at a number of major record labels; and Bob Merlis, one of the industry's most renowned publicists who is now independent but was at Warner Bros. Records from the early 1970s through the 1990s.

"They just got rid of the guys who have all the histories of thousands of artists in their heads," says one longtime music industry participant. "That's like letting go the intent of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame."

The Influencers subcommittee -- which still includes Q-Prime principal Cliff Bernstein, Sire Records chairman Seymour Stein and Roots drummer Questlove -- are a panel of knowledgeable people who come up with nominees to be considered by the wider nominating committee.

"I just hope that the musicians whose contributions in the past made rock 'n' roll the thing that it became are not forgotten," says one member of the nominating committee who didn't want to be identified but confirmed he was thanked for his services.

Changing the committee members isn't unprecedented: In the past, members were let go to make way for new members, say Hall of Fame insiders. But some Hall of Fame watchers worry that this latest move by Landau and Jann Wenner -- widely seen as the dominating figures in the Hall -- is meant to reduce the focus on the pioneers so that going forward the Hall can focus on artists who came to the fore in the 1980s and soon the 1990s, who might still have more cache with mainstream music fans and HBO, which broadcasts the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's show. "There are still a lot of worthy artists from the 1950s and the 1960s that deserve to be in, but now it looks like their chances are reduced further," says one industry participant.

The members of the subcommittee either refused to comment or didn't respond to request for comment. Landau said to call his office Monday and he and Wenner didn't immediately respond to an e-mail request for comment.

I don't know who appointed this hall of fame the Rock and Roll hall of fame, but it would be nice if a legitimate hall of fame got created at some point.

We have a free preview of HBO this week (I am much too cheap to pay for movie channels,) and I stumbled across the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame ceremony while Green Day was performing. Only stayed on the channel for a few minutes, but I have to say, it's the biggest joke of a Hall of Fame! I understand that they are trying to build it up as a huge event, and to do that, you need to induct "younger" eligible bands and artists rather than the old folkies that this generation is much disconnected from. Still, if you're going to do it right, you need to induct those who have earned it.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer had an article in the Sunday paper yesterday that made it sound like the new changes to the R&RHOF committee will only make it less likely that bands like Journey will get in, and that we will only see more of the whole American Idol type crap getting in. As they are trying to bring in younger audiences.

I don't get the Rock and Roll HOF. Sure they have let in some deserving ROCK acts.
But they also let in Rap, Country, Pop, Hip Hop, and other R&B.

But for some reason late 70's 80's rockers (Branded by Corporate Rock) are not "cool" enough for the HOF.

Bands like Boston, Styx, Survivor, Asia, ELO, Kansas, Toto, Chicago, Pat Bentar, Cheap Trick, REO and Journey defined a generation and still played to death on FM radio, and deserving so. Boston should have been in the first year of eligibility for really popularizing this sound.

Bands like the Beatles, The Who, Led Zeppelin, the Stones ect did the same thing but somehow they arent cool enough.

Now 90's rappers and grungers are getting in left and right.


Truth be told, I could care less if any get in, save Journey, for the only chance in a million for Perry to actually sing a song with Schon. I know I can dream.

Journey getting into the R&RHOF might actually be an embarrassment to the band at this point.

steveo777 wrote:Journey getting into the R&RHOF might actually be an embarrassment to the band at this point.

I think so!

The rock n roll hall of fame makes no sense. Too many RnR greats excluded and too many acts that have nothing to do with RnR at all included. What is rock and roll about Madonna? the Beasty Boys? Totally BS institution in my opinion.

If Journey did get in, they would have to do Don't Stop Believin' and Just The Same Way so Gregg Rolie could sing a song, too.