2018 Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame Nominees

This could've been the year to bring the Hall Of Fame into the present. After years of seeing the nominating committee - whose average age is in their mid-60's, meaning their interest in music when current ended around 1975! - pulling out dusty third tier names from the late 60's and early 70's to stick on the ballot at the expense of the recently eligible late 80's and early 90's acts they collectively disdain, all while claiming that era was lacking clear-cut nominees, this was the year they'd no longer be able to credibly make such a ludicrous statement.

For now we're entering into the golden age of the 90's rock scene when hip-hop, alternative and vocal harmony styles all moved firmly into the mainstream while retaining their artistic credibility. Artists who debuted in 1992 became eligible for the Class Of 2018 and with the ballot's recent expansion of artists (nineteen this year) they could've easily stocked it with practically all first time eligible candidates - Dr. Dre, Radiohead, Arrested Development, Stone Temple Pilots, Beck, Common, TLC, R. Kelly, Rage Against The Machine (although with Tom Morello on the nominating committee would this be ethical?), Tool, Sublime, The Verve, Suede, No Doubt. That's fourteen names right there, all worthy of a nomination and at least half of which are deserving of an induction!

Now simply fill out the rest of the ballot with recently eligible artists who've either yet to be inducted, or in some cases yet to even be nominated, such as Janet Jackson (by far the most deserving name not yet in and one whose failure to make it last year caused the most outrage), De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Soundgarden, Eric B. & Rakim, LL Cool J and Jane's Addiction. Viola, a perfect ballot for the 21st century. No aging white dinosaur bands from the 70's, no Summer Of Love refugees, no artists who died long before most of us were around!

Now to be fair, there are still some from way back who ARE deserving of induction but their absence from The Hall is due to the institution's own homogeneous voting body through the years and so even if you included the likes of Kool & The Gang, Toots & The Maytals, Rufus, The Chi-Lites, Johnny Ace, Iron Maiden, Chuck Willis, The Monkees, or The Pointer Sisters on the ballot it's doubtful any of them would get the needed support from voters to correct those injustices.

So this would have been the perfect year to force those voters into facing the fact that music did in fact progress past the Carter administration, let alone the Reagan and first Bush administration, and by giving them a ballot with only names who starred in the years 1986-2000 or so, offering no Classic Rock radio retreads to give them an easy out to take, then maybe, just maybe, the Hall Of Fame would start to see the tide start to change. The younger inductees it'd result in would further shift the voting body (which is largely made up of inducted artists) towards the present as older members die off. It's a natural progression that should be expected and welcomed by everyone.

But no, this is the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame we're talking about. An institution designed to validate the tastes of those whose first girlfriend is now somebody's great-grandmother. So of course we're stuck once again looking back.

Nothing ever changes within the Hall, so nothing ever changes in the advice given here. No Hall Of Fame, particularly one honoring something as provincial as music, can afford to have the same small, demographically homogenous group making the most important decisions on whom to nominate, which then leads to the same types of artist getting in. Breaking down the year by year ballots and inductees only shows how much more historically one-sided this process has become and since more recent names become eligible each year the committee and voting body needs to reflect this by purging the rolls to include those who actually came of age and were most invested in the current era being considered. Instead they keep the same dinosaurs who naturally prefer the music of their own era, one which has already been thoroughly exhausted by previous decades of inductees from the same period. On top of that the overwhelming racial and gender based advantages for white male tastes has completely distorted, even re-written, rock's diverse history.

The solutions to all of these problems remain almost too simple not to enact. Start by having constant turnover in the nominating committee, allowing each person only one year to sit on the board so that different voices are heard. Make sure their demographics are reflective of rock as a whole meaning at least 50% black, 33% female and an average age of 40-45 ensuring the most recently eligible era has those who actually were fans of music at that time debating which artists are deserving. Finally change the rules to ensure The Hall keeps moving forward by allowing just ten years of eligibility for Main Performers, then following a three to five year hiatus from consideration have the older acts be considered for separate Veteran Committee votes that are limited to specific eras every few years with stylistic oversight to ensure neglected fields of rock are included on those side ballots rather than the areas that have dominated the proceedings for so long.

The expansion to a larger ballot in recent years has been welcome, but when the same people are making the same taste-based choices and seem oblivious to their own collective prejudices the added names don't wind up making much difference in the final results. The Rock ‘n' Roll Hall Of Fame doesn't need to remain the joke it's widely viewed as being if they simply introduced some oversight mechanisms to address the issues that have plagued it for decades, but until they feel the need to do so they're unlikely to ever consider anything that would remove from power those who've gotten to re-write rock history to suit their own views for far too long.