While it was announced earlier today that 2019's list of inductees into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame will include Radiohead, Stevie Nicks, the Cure, Roxy Music, Def Leppard, the Zombies and Janet Jackson, the Rock Hall still has much to atone for in their glaring omissions of noteworthy artists and seemingly scattershot decision-making process.
Like some bloated government bureaucracy too big and slow to respond to public demand in any respectful or timely manner, instead, the Hall has fallen into the habit of trying to correct previous injustices long after the fact (the Zombies, for example) while continuing to ignore others indefinitely (where are the Eurythmics?) while Janet Jackson makes it in on the first ballot.
Sure, Control and Rhythm Nation were huge albums, but anyone with ears knows that most of the heavy lifting was handled by her new producers, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Also, despite what the writing credits might say, Jackson had little to do with the songwriting process.
In fact, if Jackson is an innovator at anything, it is the process of demanding writing credits in order for songs to appear on her albums - a process that was later utilized by Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, and Avril Lavigne and is now a common practice to this day. Keep in mind that the Control album was already finished before Jackson ever heard a note of its music and was actually meant for a completely different artist, who turned it down.
Jackson's induction is a slap in the face to any female artist who actually writes her own songs, but, on the "bright side", does open the door to Samantha Fox and Tiffany being inducted next year.
Since it appears the Rock Hall needs our help yet again, here is our short list of artists who actually deserve to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Sparks
"Ha ha, good one, Darren." No, seriously.
While the band truly deserves to gain entry into the RRHOF based solely on their longevity (first album: 1969) and for pushing the boundaries of what a rock band can be, brothers Russell and Ronald Mael have been a consistent source of humor, innovation, and artistic rule-breaking for FIVE decades.
While their U.S. popularity never quite caught up to the success the duo achieved in the UK, where Queen once opened for them, those who experienced the band's breakout success firsthand with the smash hit singles "This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us", "Amateur Hour", can attest to the band's massive popularity. Add to that their ten other UK Top 40 singles and you have to agree that Sparks deserve their moment in the sun.
Or is the Rock Hall just for bands that were popular in the States?
An Actual Metal Band, Maybe!!
While Def Leppard will be inducted in 2019, the Rock Hall is still refusing to induct any truly noteworthy metal band. Those who consider Def Lep metal may wish to revisit the band's Songs From The Sparkle Lounge. Make special note of their collaboration with country singer Tim McGraw that went on to be certified aluminum.
Where are the REAL metal bands who paved the way for Def Leppard's meteoric '80s rise, like Judas Priest, Rainbow, Motorhead or the Scorpions?
Without the Scorps' "No One Like You" and Priest's "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" blazing the metal trail at rock and Top 40 radio, there would have been no mainstream audience to greet the arrival of Def Lep's Pyromania in '83.
The Go-Go's
How novel, a band that can actually write and perform their own songs.
Joan Jett getting into the Hall was cool, but the Go-Go's deserve just as much consideration, if not more for penning their own tunes, and they sure as hell better get in before the Bangles. After all, Beauty & The Beat - like Jett's I Love Rock & Roll - proved that you didn't actually need the major labels, or to be a virtuoso musician, to rocket to the top of the charts.
Like the Pistols, the success of the Go-Go's was a DIY rags-to-riches story that inspired a lot of kids (both girls and boys) to pick up musical instruments who might not have done so otherwise, thereby grabbing rock music out of the hands of Steely Dan and the Doobies.
Dead Kennedys
Why has there been no meaningful discussion of the DK's being considered for inclusion in the Rock Hall?
Keep in mind that while the U.S. capably fended off the first wave of UK punk, it could not compete with the tenacity of the Dead Kennedys Of course, I was the kid in Bumfuck who wore his "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" arm band with pride (mail order from the band directly, bitches). Made for one hell of a Hall Monitor outfit.
If you think the success of the Go-Go's and Joan Jett without a major label is impressive, how about the consistent major label sales numbers put up by the Dead Kennedys when you also consider a) just how incendiary their music was, and b) that Alternative Tentacles was THEIR LABEL?
For a private label, the fact that their records were always well-stocked in the shops, superbly-promoted with posters and swag, and backed up by heavy touring and at least one controversy per album that threatened to land Jello Biafra in prison is quite impressive.
Where I come from, that's what we call rock & roll.
Alan Parsons Project
You couldn't turn on a radio station in the '80s without hearing an Alan Parsons Project tune. Of course, anyone who watched a Michael Jordan-era Bulls game soon became quite familiar with
Mind you, I'm not complaining. In fact, one of the things I like about the band is that you never knew what they were going to do next. Could most people recognize a member of the band? Hell no.
Parsons alone deserves his own wing at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for his engineering work on Abbey Road and Dark Side Of The Moon alone. After all, only a consummate bad-ass would have said 'No" to Pink Floyd's offer to produce their follow-up to what was then the biggest rock album ever made in order to start the Alan Parsons Project.
It was a ballsy move that ultimately paid off, resulting in smash hits "Games People Play", "Time", "Prime Time", "Don't Answer Me", and "Eye In The Sky".