Well, we’ve come to the last 24 hours or so of voting in the 2023 Rock And Roll Hall of Fame “fan vote,” and I thought I’d start expanding my territory, so to speak, into talking more often about things other than politics, by taking a look at this year’s Rock Hall vote – in part because it’s a pretty fascinating class and the decision-making was definitely not easy.
This is where I’m going to get in trouble with people, because the truth is this band have never resonated with me, at all, even a little tiny bit. As far as I can tell their most significant contribution to Rock and Roll was that t-shirt. I mean no disrespect to the tragically departed Ian Curtis nor to the rest of the band, I’m sure they’re all competent and exceptional musicians to have the careers they’ve had. But I’ve never heard a song by them that made me want to hear it again or cover it, including “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” and while it may relate more to the way my life has subjectively intersected with their fan base, they seem primarily to me an act whose success is predicated mostly on people who like to impress other people with how edgy and alternative they are by name-checking a 45 year old British punk band.
Good band? Sure, I’ve got nothing against them on that level, just not my style per se. But objectively, listening to their music and looking for the things that I believe make great rock and roll, I just can’t merit the suggestion they belong in the Rock Hall at all. There are dozens of acts more worthy (and I’m not even under consideration so again, I’m not trying to generally crap on them as an act), whose contributions were more clear, substantive, and resonant, and I just don’t feel like putting them in the hall representing the punk wing before bands like X, the Germs, Devo, Bad Brains, MC5, and Black Flag makes a whole lot of sense from a perspective of “what impact did this artist have on music?” The Germs alone ended up squeezing out bits of everything from the GoGo’s (Belinda Carlisle was an early bassist and huge advocate) to Foo Fighters (Germs guitarist Pat Smear famously launched a whole new career as the guitarist for Nirvana and the Foos), and I just don’t hear that much impact musically from JD+NO that to me would rate their inclusion in the Rock Hall over that pedigree among many others.
Even if you set the “punk” aside and focus on the “new wave” elements, there are tons of acts more deserving of a place in the Hall who don’t have one, including seminal influencers like Simple Minds, Brian Eno, Depeche Mode, INXS, the Psychedelic Furs, Madness or The Smiths, just off the top of my head.
Sorry if that hurts feelings but there you have it, I’m sure not all of you think Chris Cornell is the king of all rock either.
Again, I’m not saying the band sucks or even that the fact they don’t resonate with me personally is a meaningful criterion for exclusion. I honestly can’t really stand the Smiths and Morrissey either, never did a thing for me, but I can recognize their influence and talent objectively and wouldn’t object to their inclusion if Morrissey would stop being a drama queen and just play the songs that people love out of respect for the people who love them, that being literally the only reason they weren’t inducted on at least two different occasions (2008 and 2014 if I remember right).
Objectively from decades of listening to other musicians across all genres talk about who they’ve been influenced by there are at least two dozen bands who fit comfortably into this slot and merit it far more, and that means for me there’s a long, long list of folks I want to see in the Hall before I’m interested in voting for Joy Division, New Order, or both separately or together.
