2025 Rock & Roll HOF screechfest

[I Should Coco]

I think Phish belongs but they are too niche to get inducted (the only song I can actually name is Run Like an Antelope).

Agree on Phish. "Bouncing Round the Room" is a good song, and for some reason I bought and really enjoyed their "Fuego" album from about 10 years ago.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

I mentioned it previously (and probably in connection to DMB and Jimmy Buffett too) but I think touring ... live concerts ... should play a bigger role in determining who gets in the Hall of Fame. If you're selling out football stadiums and headlining festivals with 100,000 attendees for 20-plus years, then you should get inducted. Even if most people can't pick out Tweezer from Chalkdust Torture or Wilson.

 

[YMCA B-Baller]

OK, I'll play along.

Mana: *shrug emoji* I have no idea and neither do the voters.
Chubby Checker: No. I mean, you know his name came up every single year since the place opened and they never wanted to drop the standard that much. No need to do it now.
Joy Division/New Order: Absolute yes. My number one "they should be in the Hall" pick every year.
Mariah Carey: Whatever. I wouldn't vote for her, but she'll be in at some point.
Soundgarden: Yes. Amazing singer, unique guitarist, solid body of work.
Joe Cocker: I'd vote yes. Tremendous singer -- I ashumed he was in until I looked it up about a year ago.
Oasis: An unenthusiastic yes, I think. Really great at their best, and huge in England.
Billy Idol: Nah. The safe, corporate face of 80s punk. He had some good songs, but always struck me as kind of lightweight.
Phish: Nope.
Black Crowes: Nope. I mean, perfectly good band, but I can't even imagine what the pro-Black Crowes argument would be.
Outkast: Absolutely yes. And I'm not even a hip-hop guy.
White Stripes: Yes. Creative, original, really darn good.
Cyndi Lauper: No. A couple of good songs and they're covers. People like the idea of Cyndi Lauper more than anyone likes her music.
Bad Company: Short answer: no. Longer answer: fork no. Bad Company? NO.

I don't really give a fork as nearly all of these artists are non-essential and the equivalent of 15th-ballot MLB Hall of Famers, but I am interested in PCLoadLetter's opinions because we tend to think alike!

Mana: Agreed completely.
Chubby Checker: Looked up his discography, he has *way* more top 40 hits than I realized, nearly all of them pre-British Invasion. That 1960-63 period is a black hole in rock history, but since anything other than "The Twist" is rarely if ever heard today, I can't ashess how many of those songs influenced rock. However, he deserves induction solely based on teaming up with the Fat Boys. (No, he doesn't, but then again? Maybe he does ...)
Joy Division/New Order: I can't stand New Order, just not my thing, but I can grasp their influence. I've never heard anything but praise for Joy Division, but every time I've delved into their music beyond "Love Will Tear Us Apart", I'm just like, no. I don't mind the discordant stuff, but if all you need to get in the RRHOF is one album-ish of vaguely proto-alternative music with a lead singer that is miked like he's doing a bad haunted house voice, that's a pretty low bar. Plus, I've really only embraced "Love Will Tear Us Apart" as an ironic theme for my favorite soccer team anyway.
Mariah Carey: Will never understand her appeal, nor why people think she's such a great voice, but I'm sure she gets in at some point out of pure adoration.
Soundgarden: I think when they were "hard", think pre-"Super Unknown", they were pretty great. "Badmotorfinger" is right up there not only as a great grunge album, but one of the greatest metal albums, but they never get categorized that way. Problem is, and I say this with some pain given that grunge is right at ground zero of my generation's legacy and that I was a fan of it, how influential was any of the grunge stuff? Should that matter?
Joe Cocker: I don't think so. I suppose there's room for great interpreters of other people's material, though I'm not a big fan of it. Linda Ronstadt is in. Three Dog Night is in. Wait, Three Dog Night is NOT in? If they're not in, Joe Cocker doesn't deserve to be in. Plus, unique as his voice is, it grates on me in some songs. Bizarrely, my favorite of his is "High Time We Went" one of his few well-known songs that he wrote.
Oasis: They can fork off. Popular, but not very original at all, and frankly, mediocre at what they did do. They have aged as poorly as any 90s group has. Including Jackyl.
Billy Idol: A couple decent songs. Nothing like any kind of RRHOF legacy.
Phish: They can fork right off too. So many better bands that have that kind of live cult following that are better. I'd take Flaming Lips 1,000 times over forking Phish.
Black Crowes: I was HUGE into the Black Crowes and I still enjoy a lot of their ship, but they are absolutely derivative of the Faces and Rolling Stones. That's fine with me, I dig that music, but in no way was it original. It was just a breath of fresh air to kids like me in the 90s who were sick and tired of forking hair metal. And for a lot of people our age who never listed to the Faces or Stones stuff that influenced the Crowes. Would still go see them live, but they're not RRHOF or even close.
Outkast: Sure.
White Stripes: Probably. One of the last rock bands to reach some sort of consensus as to how good they were. Definitely in the mix for best bands of the 2000s.
Cyndi Lauper: "She's So Unusual" is probably one of the best albums of the 80s that never gets mentioned as one of the best albums of the 80s, but you're right. Nearly all of her big ones were written and/or recorded first by others. Almost all of her hits were in a very confined period, so she didn't really have longevity. Big personality, but not a RRHOF to me.
Bad Company: What the fork? If Bad Company got in before Mott The Hoople, Mick Ralphs' far, far, far superior previous band, I'm going to, well, do nothing, but it would Pish me off. Bad Company is the Stone Temple Pilots of the 70s. Not original, do have some decent to good songs ("Shooting Star" or "Silver Blue And Gold" is to Bad Company as "Lady Picture Show" or "Big Bang Baby" is to STP, I dig all of those songs, but none make either group RRHOFers), also have some annoyingly overplayed songs ("Feel Like Making Love" and "Can't Get Enough" is to Bad Company as "Creep" or "Interstate Love Song" is to STP, none good, all way overplayed), but weren't at the vanguard of anything.

 

[dixiehack]

"She's So Unusual" probably isn't enough to get Lauper across the finish line. (I ashume she's been on the ballot previously.) But man, that's a hell of a debut album that came out right as MTV was blowing up and it turned out she had the personality that was a perfect fit for music videos. Women artists just didn't chart that many singles from an album then (Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Time After Time, She Bop and All Through The Night each were Top 5) and I think that success helped soften the ground a little bit for Madonna to break through big the following year. Even after that album she got a few more top 10 songs, including a second No. 1 with True Colors. A lot of women in rock in the generation after her consider her an influence.

Cyndi Lauper deserves more than a one-line dismissal as "a couple of hits," even if she isn't in.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

Problem is, and I say this with some pain given that grunge is right at ground zero of my generation's legacy and that I was a fan of it, how influential was any of the grunge stuff? Should that matter?

That's something I struggle with a little each year. Ultimately I think being influential or at least unique is a major bonus, but not fully a requirement.

By and large, the grunge bands were really derivative. Nirvana is practically a Pixies tribute act. Pearly Jam wouldn't have sounded wildly out of place on the radio in the 70s.

Alice in Chains had a unique sound, and I've never heard a guitarist that sounds like Kim Thayil of Soundgarden. So, bonus points there.

In terms of being influential, I would say Joy Division and probably Outkast are about it for this list.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

I have newfound respect for Billy Idol after listening to several of his shows on Sirius XM. I had no idea how embedded he was in the early days of London's punk scene as a roadie and club kid before GenX. Oh, and "Eyes without a Face" is his best song.

Ironically, he nearly went blind making that video. The contacts he was wearing became attached to his eyeballs thanks to all the fire & smoke on the set.

 

[Cosmo]

Outkast ushered in an era of experimental hip-hop and were extremely influential in establishing Atlanta as a hip-hop hotbed. They seem to be the one tap-in here. I'd vote White Stripes and JD/NO next, then Soundgarden. That's all for me.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

Alice in Chains had a unique sound, and I've never heard a guitarist that sounds like Kim Thayil of Soundgarden. So, bonus points there.

I've probably noted this here, so advance apologies for the redundancy, but Alice in Chains was as hair metal as it got for a hot minute. They opened for Poison in the summer of '91, just before the giant shift in musical tastes. Most of these bands started out trying to copy the Sunset Strip bands and pivoted fast once ship changed. Pantera was hardcore hair metal for their first few pre-Anselmo records. Their non-Anselmo album covers are hilariously awful. Shotgun Messiah went from hair metal to industrial in one record. All of which is to say I'd give Soundgarden a vote b/c I think they were more original than the rest. I don't remember them ever having much of a hair metal bent. They started out sludgy and gloomy before polishing it a bit.

 

[Cosmo]

Someone listened to the Pantera episode of Harvilla's podcast!

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

Someone listened to the Pantera episode of Harvilla's podcast!

Ha! I haven't. Just know more than I should about hair metal and hair metal-adjacent acts!

 

[YMCA B-Baller]

Nirvana stands apart a bit for me because their evolution was different and has aged better. "In Utero" is quite possibly the best album of the 90s and a big jump from "Nevermind" in my opinion, even if "Nevermind" is more "tuneful". I get the Pixies comparison, but they took it further and louder.

Pearl Jam's best album is probably "Vitalogy", but it wasn't that big of a leap from "Ten" or "Vs". "Ten" is weird. It's probably their "grungiest", but has also aged the worst? I never want to hear "Even Flow" again as long as I live. Then again, "Alive" sounded really cool when it came out (it was floating around MTV for about a year before it finally broke) and has aged better than some of PJ's other ones.

Hate to say it, but most of the other grunge bands were very much of the moment, much in the same way a lot of the 1960s San Francisco bands were. I would think 90s grunge sounds just as aged to my kids' ears as 60s acid music sounded to mine, even if there's good songs in both genres that stand the test of time. Screaming Trees is to Seattle grunge as Moby Grape is to San Francisco psychedelia if you get my drift on this.

 

[Cosmo]

Ha! I haven't. Just know more than I should about hair metal and hair metal-adjacent acts!

He made a ton of the same points, so that's why I thought you might have. Pantera basically has made it impossible to find its early stuff because it's so cringy.