Jethro Tull was one of the first bands to play behind the Iron Curtain, they have played live in more countries than just about any other band, they are one of the only bands to play, record and tour consistently through the entire past four decades. JT played the first ever live transatlantic concert. The number of bands who list them as an influence would fill this page.

Without Madonna, there would be no Britney Spears. Is that a contribution to the world of rock?

Friggin’ John Cougar Mellencamp gets in before these bands? The F-n Pretenders? They rock about as hard as my left nut… The whole thing is a load of crap as long as bands that aren’t “cool” continue to be excluded, but are a hell of a lot more influential than a lot of the bands that get in…

The essay itself, though long, is interesting and worth-reading. Note: Sarostin is not some kind of prog-nut, but is in fact very critical of the genre, whose typical defenders tend to be overzealous because of the almost constant barrage of unhelpful criticism. Allmusic also provides reviews of progessive rock music refreshingly free of the righteous axe-grinding usually found in such discussion. Sarostin evidently has his own axe to grind, but at least he has a thesis supported by arguments.

The punk-critic notion of what “true” rock music is supposed to sound like is biased and unhelpful. It is high time that it be dumped in the trash. The Hall along with it.

And we know the whole process is corrupt, there are bands that will never get a nomination to get in. This was leaked a long time ago, I think it’s even on the Wikipedia page.

To the other dude, The Pretenders are influential and were a great Rock n Roll band. They belong in there, but not before The Stooges, Black Sabbath, New York Dolls, or The Ventures.

I would strongly suggest the B-52’s be on the list next year. Their comtempories like Blondie, and the Talking Heads have already been inducted, and no other band that has broken through to the mainstream has looked or sounded quite like them. The unique mark that their late ’70s and early ’80s work has left is undisputable. And then to make a come back with an album like Cosmic Thing should have firmed up their entry a long time ago.

The Dave Clark Five? I’m a really big fan of their hits, but dig any deeper and you’ll find a marginal band at best. Who next? God forbid the day either Gary Lewis & The Playboys or Engelbert Humperdinck get in. At the rate they are going and the choices they make, just wait and see. They’ll eventually make it in.

IMO, they are overlooking a lot of influential Disc Jockeys. Many DJ’s from Chicago’s WLS (Dick Biondi for instance) and New York’s WABC (Dan Ingram) should be in. Not so much for their influence on rock in and of itself, but rather influential for continuing it’s exposure on the public. These DJ’s (along with their stations)had CHARACTER & PERSONALITY. Much more so than Dave Clark Five.

Use your noodles, people. There were always more than seven great artists emerging each year, so RRHOF will never catch up to all your pet faves.

HOLY GEEZ JOE JACKSON’S NOT IN?!?!?! I’ve just lost all faith in the Induction process… I’m pretty sure he’s old enough (first album in ‘79… 28 years…) and he rocks harder than any o’ the bloody inductees!

Aw Bubba, you are so, so wrong. What rock have you been living under? The a vast amount of rock and culture, post-1973, including punk, post-punk, new wave, Bowie, hardcore, indie rock, AND mainstream rock, was influenced by The Stooges. You have been living under the rock house that Iggy built and didn’t even realize it. Ask Chrissie, she’ll tell you. She worshipped The Stooges as a American ex-pat writing for NME in the mid seventies, participating in the punk scene before forming The Pretenders.

You can’t say the same for Joel, Mellencamp, etc. Sure, they sold more albums. But if you want to use that criteria, might as well just induct the top 7 sellers on the Billboard charts from each year and be done with it.

Aw Bubba, you are so, so wrong. What rock have you been living under? The a vast amount of rock and culture, post-1973, including punk, post-punk, new wave, Bowie, hardcore, indie rock, AND mainstream rock, was influenced by The Stooges. You have been living under the rock house that Iggy built and didn’t even realize it. Ask Chrissie, she’ll tell you. She worshipped The Stooges as a American ex-pat writing for NME in the mid seventies, participating in the punk scene before forming The Pretenders.

You can’t say the same for Joel, Mellencamp, etc. Sure, they sold more albums. But if you want to use that criteria, might as well just induct the top 7 sellers on the Billboard charts from each year and be done with it.

I live in the real world of music, not in the imagiginary punk rock revolutionized everything music world. Punk rock was a small, over glamorized musical ripple. While there were a number of great punk acts (you will note that I said the stooges DO deserve induction, just not at the cost of mellencamp, joel, ect) thier reach and influence have been greatly over stated by rock critics and writers who seem to think that attitide is more important than apptitude. That writting a song about ragging against an imaginary machine is more important that writting a song that people will still be listening to 30 years later.
Each type of music that falls under the Rock & Roll umbrella (as opposed to just rock) should be judged on its own merrits for what it is, not against other styles that dont relate to it.

I wonder what you imagine what the “real world” of music entails. If people don’t listen to The Stooges in your world, it must be pretty sucky. In my world, I attended a sold out Stooges show at Chicago’s Congress Theatre last spring, and again at a sold-out Lollapalooza, where I saw a sea of minds get blown. They were decidedly not lacking in “aptitude.”

But perhaps you’re confusingly trying to talk about bands other than the Stooges? Sure, the original punk scenes in NYC and the UK were small, and hardly glamorized at the time. But just like, the Velvet Underground, its scope and influence has grown exponentially. If you don’t hear the influence in today’s music because you associate it only with the Ramones’ two-chord simplicity, you’ve totally missed the point.

One of the points was you didn’t have to start out as an accomplished craftsman to become a great artist, songwriter and musician. However, there were plenty of bands did have talent, and developed enough skills to become not only great bands, but made music that was original and influential. Pere Ubu, Television, Wire, The Voidoids, The Clash, The Damned, The Jam, The Saints, The Stranglers, The Adverts, X-Ray Spex, The Buzzcocks, Magazine, The Only Ones, Joy Division, Gang Of Four, Talking Heads, XTC, The Slits, The Ruts, The Specials, The Pop Group, Essential Logic, The Fall, The Feelies, X, Killing Joke, The Sound, The Soft Boys, Comsat Angels, Bad Brains, Black Flag, The Minutemen, Husker Du and many, many more had aptitude to spare. Some are already honored in the Hall of Fame, and more may still be nominated.

No one said punk should dominate the HOF. I think some were just questioning what exactly did Joel and Mellancamp contribute to music aside from a handful of catchy songs? They were hardly pioneers of anything new or fresh. There’s plenty of others more deserving. Wanda Jackson, Johnny Burnette Trio, Sonny Burgess, Warren Smith, Billy Lee Riley, Charlie Rich, George Jones, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Larry Williams, Willie Mitchell, Bar-Kays, the Meters, Lee Dorsey, The Pretty Things, The Creation, The Small Faces, The Zombies, Os Mutantes, Captain Beefheart, Gram Parsons, Tim Buckley, Nick Drake, Robert Wyatt, Todd Rundgren, Tom Waits, Ry Cooder, Fairport Convention, Roy Harper, Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman, War, Tower Of Power, Shuggie Otis, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return To Forever, Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters, Henry Cow, Free, Humble Pie, King Crimson, Alice Cooper, MC5, Modern Lovers, Big Star, New York Dolls, The Dictators, Suicide, Cheap Trick, The Cars, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Max Romeo, The Heptones, Junior Murvin, Jimmy Cliff, Junior Byles, Burning Spear, Toots & The Maytals, Tangerine Dream, Can, Neu!, Faust, Roxy Music, T. Rex, Brian Eno, Graham Parker, Nick Lowe, Hawkwind, Motorhead, The Replacements, The Pogues, The Smiths, Metallica, and Slayer!

Taste and reactions to music is personal, but we’re talking about the HOF, which is the opposite. It’s voted by a committee of industry insiders and critics. Generally they’ve done fairly well in picking good artists. I just think the current year’s crop is pretty poor. A lot of critics are not snobs. Everyone has favorites that others would consider questionable taste!

Your sales argument is misguided at best. What’s your scale? Does an artist have to sell more than 100,000 copies of each album? That would disqualify Patti Smith and probably two dozen other Hall of Famers. Sorry Patti, you’re not famous enough. Please mail your award back.

I’m looking at the sales figures for 2007. Looks like, according to your criteria, future Hall of Famers should be Josh Groban, Daughtry, Linkin Park, Fergie, Taylor Swift, Alicia Keys and the cast of High School Musical!

I was simply picking on Billy Joel. I fully support the induction of most of the mainstream inductees, like Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson and Prince. And AC/DC! Lynyrd Skynyrd! They had hits, but also had a big impact on culture in their heyday. In fact, looking at the list I take exception to very, very few inductees. I just think this year in particular, aside from Leonard Cohen, the group is pretty artistically insignificant. The awards show is going to be boring compared to recent years. If members of the Ventures play, that’ll be fun, but I just think there’s many more deserving 60s bands than them still left off. I’m on the fence with Madonna. Her brand of dance pop has very little to do with Rock ‘n’ Roll. There are roots in disco and soul of course, and if Chic qualify, it’s not a big stretch to include Madonna. I’d personally place her near the bottom of a very long list of other more qualified candidates.

I’m sure the voting committee is rarely unanimous. Some vote for the “pretentious” choices, others populist, and a couple in the middle go back and forth.

I love how people make up these imaginary pseudo-hipster critics. I doubt very much that you know any professional critics well enough to know what they listen to in the car or at home. I have a few acquaintances who make a living at it, and though I don’t hang out with them on that level, I’d bet a year’s salary they don’t listen to Hootie for pleasure. Any critic who listens to a few hundred albums a year for their job will certainly have some guilty pleasures as palate-cleansers, but Hootie? Naw. Even Jim DeRogatis, who’s taste I think has been taking a downward spiral, disliked them enough to get fired from Rolling Stone for writing a negative review. I really don’t think he’d have relocated his family back to Chicago over a band he secretly loved.

I review music non-professionally and certainly do not lie about what I like. That’s just too lame. Of the 500+ critics that participate in the Pazz & Jop Poll, there may be a few hacks who work at daily papers who barely listen to more than 20 new albums a year, who might tweak their top ten a bit dishonestly. But I think it’s much more rare than people imagine.