THE OLD HALL GAME
These are the six nominees who can shake or rattle the rock ’n’ roll institution
AND so the annual music debate begins: Who deserves to be enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?
Nominations were announced on Thursday morning for the 2018 induction ceremony, which will be held in April at Cleveland’s Public Auditorium.
Up for the honor this year: Bon Jovi, Kate Bush, the Cars, Depeche Mode, Dire Straits, Eurythmics, J. Geils Band, Judas Priest, LL Cool J, MC5, the Meters, Moody Blues, Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, Rufus featuring Chaka Khan, Nina Simone, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Link Wray and the Zombies.
The final call is made by an international voting body of more than 900 artists, historians and members of the music industry. (Fans can also weigh in on the Hall of Fame’s Web site.)
1960s boomer rock has already been heavily exalted by the organization since it started inducting nominees in 1986 — so maybe, just maybe, the Hall of Fame can inch away from its reputation as a place where old white dudes celebrate other old white dudes. Here’s how it should mix up the honor roll in 2018. Depeche Mode Modern pop music is ostensibly electronic music, and with their pioneering work throughout the 1980s, Depeche Mode helped make that happen. The Brits are currently touring their new album, “Spirit,” and are in superb live form. They’d make the induction ceremony go off with just the kind of bang that was missing from last year’s snoozefest. Kate Bush It’ll be hard work to get the reclusive Bush to participate in anything as public and clichéd as an awards ceremony. But the Brit’s baroque pop grows more important by the year: Lorde’s latest album “Melodrama” was clearly indebted to her, while Sia’s interpretive-dance-filled live performances echo Bush’s famously conceptual first tour in 1979. Nina Simone Simone has been eligible for induction since the very first event in 1986, so her continual omission is one of the Hall’s many absurdities. This could finally be her year — if only because it’s timely. 2015’s excellent documentary, “What Happened, Miss Simone?” highlighted her traumatic life and farreaching influence on jazz and beyond. And as racial tensions rise again in the country, her seething 1964 civil rights anthem, “Mississippi Goddam,” has become eerily relevant again. Radiohead This is the British group’s first nomination. They’re known for cornering the mopey alt-rock market in the ’90s, but they really deserve their place in the Hall of Fame for their 21st century work, such as “Kid A” and “In Rainbows,” which saw them fuse rock with electronic music and dance grooves. They’re a shoo-in. Rage Against the Machine Another new name on the list, Rage mixed rap and rock into potent, politically charged songs that highlighted social inequalities. They even managed to predict the Trump presidency in the video to 2000’s “Sleep Now in the Fire.” We probably have them to blame for Limp Bizkit, but hey, nobody’s perfect.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame likes to pay tribute to the people who seeded the genre, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe its one of the few female planters. Still unknown to many, the Arkansas native bridged the gap between gospel and R&B throughout the ’30s and ’40s, well before Chuck Berry, Little Richard and even Elvis popularized rock ’n’ roll.