UNPOPULAR OPINION: THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME IS A SCAM

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Forward by W Carbone, LasVegasBuffetClub.com

The following article is interesting, however the author – since he’s writing about rock & roll – takes the approach that he’s above it all, speaking down to us from his high-horse of being a rock and roll journalist, loading the article with the mandatory “sh–” and “fuc—-,” so juvenile. This is a warning, you may be offended.

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LAWeekly.com
BY NICHOLAS PELL
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2015

It's like the Louvre, but awful. -Derek Jensen
It’s like the Louvre, but awful. -Derek Jensen

It never fails. I write something, someone doesn’t like it, and they feel the need to seek me out and tell me about it. It’s never really surprising, even if I don’t understand it. I can barely muster the energy to tell people I know personally how much I disagree with them. When I do, I almost always regret it. My recent Green Day screed touched a nerve, as my screeds tend to do. One of the most bizarre and common objections to my dislike of Green Day is that Green Day are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Let me explain it like you’re 5: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is a scam. It’s not Cooperstown with guitars. The expert committee that “inducts” people is thinking about how to get tourist dollars into Cleveland, not how to preserve a legacy of one of America’s finest home-grown art forms. Don’t believe me? Ask Gene Simmons. If you think the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is any measure of how good a band is, you seriously don’t know shit about anything.

Or just look at the extensive list of people not in the alleged “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.” Listen, I’m not holding my breath for The Dictators, Discharge or even The Smiths to make it in. But to not have Todd Rundgren, Link Wray and Roxy Music is a pretty damning indictment of the place. The first is one of the finest producers to ever produce, the second invented the power chord, and the third is more or less responsible for everything interesting that happened in rock and roll after their inception.

Then there’s the list of who’s actually in there. For the first several years, the Hall saw fit to induct mostly non-controversial figures who, by all rights, belong in anything called “The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.” There were even some more adventurous choices, like Rick Nelson, Dion and Bobby Darin. It took them until 1994, eight years after the first inductions, to put Duane Eddy in.

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Collection Auto Group Plaza
1100 Rock and Roll Blvd.
Cleveland, Ohio 44114-1022
Open daily: 10am – 5:30pm
(and until 9pm on Wed.)

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