I recently perused a list of the 2009 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, who were announced last Saturday.
Metallica? Too angry. Little Anthony and the Imperials? Meh. Wanda Jackson? Snore. Bobby Womack? Whatever, I don't really care.
Can it really be that I'm most excited about the induction of Run-D.M.C?
After all, this is the hip-hop group whose cover of Aerosmith's "Walk This Way" in 1986 so bombastically blended pop and hip-hop. Still, the real reason I'm excited about Run-D.M.C. -- well, sort of excited -- is that I watch "Run's House" while using the elliptical at the gym. Way to go, Rev. Run! Now that's something you can text about in your bathtub.
While it may be that I have poor taste (see my columns on Cher and Jingle Cats), perhaps I'm not enthused about any of the inductees because the Hall of Fame inductee ceremony has become so superfluous.
The sheer spectacle of the awards ceremony dwarfs the achievements of the inductees. A Facebook page for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame lists 12 different Hall-sponsored events that took place in the week prior to the ceremony. Somewhere between "Elite Populism or a Populist Elite? The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductions," a lecture at Case Western, and the ceremony's "simulcast," presented by Jim Beam Kentucky Bourbon, it seems the induction has ceased being about the artist.
Maybe it's true, as some would say, that the Hall of Fame is still dedicated to the idealistic cause of celebrating the effect of rock and roll on American culture. This year's inductee list may have been full of unknowns, but many selections are highly deserving of the honor. Little Anthony and the Imperials has had an integral impact on rhythm and blues, and the same can be said for Wanda Jackson on rockabilly.
Making a big deal out of an award show is unnecessary at best and masturbatory at worst.
The superfluous events leading up to the awards homogenize the accomplishments of the diverse cadre of artists, making the artists pawns in a spasmodic and off-puttingly glamorous megaevent.
