Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2020 is a surprising one
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced its Class of 2020 Wednesday, and even with just six artists inducted, it made for some very lively watercooler talk.
Classic rock staples The Doobie Brothers, electronic forerunners Depeche Mode, industrial legends Nine Inch Nails, glam rock icons T. Rex, songstress Whitney Houston and rapper The Notorious B.I.G. all received the nod and will be recognized at the induction ceremony May 2 in Cleveland, Ohio.
Per usual, inductees are chosen by an international voting body of some 1,000 artists, historians and members of the music industry. An incoming artist becomes eligible for induction 25 years after the release of their first single, album or EP, with this year’s class having to have released their first recording in 1994 or before.
The stars have aligned for a couple of the acts, with 2020 already lining up to be a benchmark year. The Doobie Brothers, for instance, are celebrating their 50th anniversary with an expansive tour which sees Michael McDonald rejoining the band. Known for the hits “China Grove,” “Black Water” and “Takin’ It to the Streets,” the group will be making a pair of area appearances with a show at the PPL Center in Allentown June 26 and the next night at the BB&T Pavilion across the bridge in Camden.
Similarly, Depeche Mode are celebrating their 40th anniversary, and this March is the 30th anniversary of their biggest album, the 1990 breakthrough ‘Violator,’ which spawned the hits “Personal Jesus,” “Enjoy the Silence” and Policy of “Truth.”
Also, a as a bit of a personal side note, here at Rock Music Menu, I’ll be publishing my first ever book and it’s on the UK trio. ‘Depeche Mode: All That’s Left to Know About the World’s Finest SynthPop Band’ is set for release Oct. 15 and is currently available for pre-order at Amazon. Unfortunately, the Mode has no plans to tour this year.
Nine Inch Nails being inducted is a shock, primarily because the argument can be made that thematically they are cut from the same cloth as Depeche Mode, both being electronic and industrial outfits and the former heavily influenced by the latter. NIN mastermind Trent Reznor has also been vocal about being a massive fan of Depeche Mode, particularly their bleak 1986 effort ‘Black Celebration.’ He even went so far as to record a bulk of his debut LP, ‘Pretty Hate Machine,’ at Blackwing Studios, an old church in London where the first two Depeche Mode records were made.
T. Rex is a prime example of the Hall doing things backwards. They put Def Leppard in the Class of 2019 and this year the originators of glam rock finally go in after being eligible for 27 years without once being nominated prior to this class? That’s insanity.
Whitney Houston is the sole female inductee into the Class of 2020, which is a bit frustrating, even more so when you consider that out of the initial 16 nominees presented on the ballot, there were only three women. She truly deserves to be in for certain, which is one thing most people can agree.
Finally, continuing the trend of hip-hop and rap making inroads into the procedures, The Notorious B.I.G.
Is the seventh artist from the genre to be inducted. The nominations committee played this one really smart by not putting up any other hip-hop acts for induction, thereby avoiding a split on votes.
Sadly, those last three have all passed away and unable to enjoy the accolade while still alive. T. Rex leader Marc Bolan died in a car crash at the age of 29 in 1977. Houston drowned in a bathtub just days before the Grammy Awards in 2012. Christopher Wallace — aka The Notorious B.I.G. — was shot to death in an orchestrated driveby shooting in 1997 that remains unsolved to this day.
On a lighter note, more than debating who is inducted into the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame each year is who got ignored. Both Nine Inch Nails and Depeche Mode deserve the recognition, but electronic pioneers Kraftwerk were also nominated this year, and this is another one of those cases where the more popular acts go in before the originators. We’ve seen this time and again, especially in metal and punk rock.
Judas Priest were a nominee this year, and heavily favored to get in, but were snubbed along with Motörhead. If there were any logic or justice, two elements which have been sorely missing from a reliably inconsistent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, this wouldn’t keep happening. One positive, at least on the electronic music end of the spectrum, is the door is now open for the likes of New Order, Pet Shop Boys, Duran Duran and Devo to get their just due.
Then there is the Dave Matthews Band, who received a record breaking one million plus votes on the fan ballot and were completely ignored by the induction committee. This marks the first time that the winner of that poll didn’t receive admission to the music institution, which made many fans of the jam band unhappy. It goes to show that at the end of the day, fan service is never the first thing on the minds of the Hall.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be broadcast live from Cleveland on HBO May 2, with performances and special guests schedule to be announced at a later date.