2024 Rock & Roll HOF screechfest

Can somebody explain the difference between “performer” and “musical excellence”?

 

Its odd putting Buffett in in the different category - he was an incredible performer - great songwriter - but musical excellence? Seems like a way to get people in, similar to Goodell's special class of HOF inductees to get Tagliabue in a few years back.

 

From what I can tell, "musical excellence" is normally reserved for session players and other outside-the-spotlight folks in the industry. But, for Buffett, it's a "oh, we fucked up and should have inducted him before he died" award.

 

Jann Wenner didn't think Bubba articulated at that level.

 

That guy seems like a sanctimonious prick.

 

The older I get the more I agree with that.

 

I think your latter contention is exactly how that category works these days. I'm not sure anyone thinks Jimmy Buffett was some sort of outstanding musician, per se, but this is a way for the RRHOF to conveniently end the debate over whether he should be in. Same goes for the MC5, a legacy-lacking band that almost no one remembers outside of 80-year-old former Rolling Stone album reviewers. Wayne Kramer, the last remaining founding member, died in February, so the hall can safely slot the band into this side category to satisfy its (likely minuscule) cadre of supporters. MC5 had been nominated six times but never got the votes; that's tied for second all-time for an act that hasn't gotten in (Chic has been nominated 11 times, though Nile Rodgers got in via the -- yep -- musical excellence category in 2017).

 

At this point, they can change the name of the hall to the Pop Music Hall of Fame. Dionne Warwick??
BTW, Why is Three Dog Night not in the hall? Twenty-one Top 40 hits between 1969 and 1975.

 

Well, how much music today can be classified as "Rock and Roll?" They want the museum to stay open they'll keep inducting popular artists - whatever their classification.

 

I visited the hall in 1998. It catered largely to boomers at the time. I don't think that has changed too much.

 

Which is why Willie Nelson was inducted in 2023.

 

This blogger makes a good point: The "musical excellence" backdoor is almost certainly going to be used more and more in the future, at least partially because it will allow the RRHOF to free up nominating spots in coming years, when a whole lot of 90s-era acts are going to merit consideration. I bet that'll be the way in for often-nominated older acts that haven't gotten in yet, or for the recently deceased who slipped through the nominating cracks.

Crowning the Idols: Thoughts on the RRHOF Class of 2024

(That blog is pretty good on the entire topic of the RRHOF, btw).