It’s official. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced its Class of 2024 inductees. And how did they do it? No, it wasn’t on a live feed on YouTube, Facebook, X or some other 21st century technology. Nope, since the Hall is totally in touch with the tastes of the world, they had the audacity to announce their newest class on a television show that hasn’t been relevant in two decades, American Idol.
I kind of get it since Disney/ABC have the broadcasting rights to the induction ceremony. I mean, couldn’t they have done the announcement during an episode of Abbott Elementary or even Jimmy Kimmel Live! No, in an effort to tie in this class with a music television show that stars an actual Hall inductee in Lionel Richie in the hopes of boosting the ratings, the powers-that-be choose this manner in which to announce the Hall’s latest class in order to get the whole thing out to a broader audience.
No doubt about it, it’s worth a try. There’s a big reason: The Baby Boomers are now seniors just as Gen X-ers are beginning to join AARP. That means that it will be a scant twenty years in which the Hall will become even more insignificant as rock music currently seems to be. But, by attempting to appeal to the Millennials, Gen Z-ers and Gen Alpha members, the Hall is attempting to turn the institution into a living, breathing organism in which Jann Wenner initially envisioned. Unfortunately, his insistence on turning the Hall into some jazz museum only for the elite is what separated the people from the Hall. I honestly believe the current leaders of the Hall recognize this issue and are attempting to induct many of the important acts of the past sixty years before the current artists are eligible. Who besides me sees a problem with Wanda Jackson awaiting induction until AFTER Olivia Rodrigo’s induction in 2046, or something like that.
While I admire the Hall’s sudden 180 on induction class numbers, it is definitely twenty years too late. I believe that ten performers should be inducted each year for a decade to alleviate this major logjam of important artists for their proper place in rock and roll immortality.
In all honesty, I am not going to touch the induction of any honoree of the Ahmet Ertegun Award. This year, the award goes to a huge influence on the whole industry, Suzanne de Passe. That award is a great one for the insiders. I am more concerned about the performers, be it for Musical Excellence, Musical Influence or the traditional manner. I have been quite pleased over the past couple of years’ worth of inductees within Musical Excellence and Musical Influence.
This year we are inducting Jimmy Buffett, the MC5, Dionne Warwick and soul songwriter Norman Whitfield (he wrote many of the Temptations’ biggest songs of the late-Sixties and early-Seventies). With Buffett, we get a man who was a HUGE concert draw despite in relatively low record sales. But, he was savvy enough to take his one big hit, 1977’s “Margaritaville” and cashed it in for all it was worth with restaurants and the such. He also took a minor hit song, “Cheeseburger in Paradise” and franchised the hell out of it for burger joints across the country.
With the MC5, the Hall finally got the purveyors of political rhetoric and fiery music that influenced punks such as The Clash, Dead Kennedys and Rage Against the Machine. On the other hand, Dionne Warwick was also finding it a hard way to get into the Hall as a performer. But her smooth soul paved the way for acts like the 5th Dimension and eventually a whole homogenized genre affectionately known as Yacht Rock.
On the Musical Influence side, the very vocal contingency crying for Big Mama Thornton to FINALLY be inducted will now have to turn their attention to another deserving pre-rock & roll artist, maybe like Johnny Burnette’s Rock and Roll Trio or the aforementioned Wanda Jackson or Patsy Cline? Then, if you read the liner notes of albums like I do, especially of albums created in the Sixties and Seventies, you will have read the other two names often: Alexis Korner and John Mayall. These two gentlemen have had a large shadow cast over the music of those two decades and are much deserving.
Finally, this year the Hall is inducting EIGHT acts! They have been slowly inching upwards since Wenner’s 2020 ouster as president. First, they went to six, then seven and now eight inductees. I really believe they are working their way toward having big classes once again, like in the beginning before Wenner gave in to his elitist side. This year’s inductees, as announced by Lionel Richie and Ryan Seacrest are hip hop/R&B soul sister Mary J. Blige, the age-defying Cher, Nineties jamband Dave Matthews Band, Seventies and Eighties arena rock force Foreigner, guitarist and vocalist Peter Frampton, funk band-turned-R&B crooners Kool & the Gang, the legendary Ozzy Osbourne (FINALLY!) and innovative rap group A Tribe Called Quest.
Overall, I am satisfied with the class. Did we honestly need to induct Mary J. Blige or Dave Matthews Band before Mariah Carey or Soundgarden, The Smashing Pumpkins, Alice in Chains, Jane’s Addiction, The Smiths, Styx, etc.? Not at all! Yet, I understand why. Ratings for the induction ceremony to be streamed live on Disney+, then edited (you still can’t say the seven words on television George Carlin) and rebroadcast later on ABC. I do want to attend an induction ceremony, even if I have to sit in the “shitty seats.” But, I am waiting for Paul Weller to be inducted in one form or another, be it with The Jam, The Style Council, solo or all three! Or, if a class has more than two alternative acts from the Eighties and Nineties in order to celebrate my youth.
If My Records Could Talk 
I am happy they went with a large class and I don’t have any real complaints about who they put in. I do think Oasis was worthy but I can kind of see why they don’t get in due to issues on them getting along. I hope you’re right about them seeing the writing on the wall about everyone getting on in age and they keep up the larger classes to get everyone in who deserves it, there is far too big of a list.
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