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Ah, there’s nothing that gets the music media worked up to the edge of hysteria quite like the annual announcement of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s induction nominees. Well beyond a red-rag-in-front-of-a-bull scenario, it’s more like the equivalent of Nancy Pelosi painting a hammer-and-sicle on Glenn Beck’s door, videotaping it, and sending the footage to Fox News. Such is the level of furor the Rock Hall noms can inspire amongst music pundits, but let’s take a breath, step back, and regard this year’s list with all the seriousness it demands (i.e. very little).
We won’t even get into the game of “Who was left out?” because opening that particular Pandora’s box can only lead to madness. Instead, let’s concentrate on the actual nominees. There are the like-it-or-lump-it icons whose legends loom so large they really can’t be denied, regardless of subjective opinion, like Neil Diamond, Alice Cooper, Beastie Boys, and Tom Waits. Then there are the legends from outside the realm of rock, who underscore the fact that, like it or not, it’s really the Pop Hall of Fame (If you haven’t been able to figure that out by now, you probably couldn’t have read this far without seeking assistance on the polysyllabic words) — LL Cool J, Donna Summer, Chic, and depending where you draw the line, Darlene Love. You’ve got your old-school R&B cat contingent, which this year includes Joe Tex and Chuck Willis, who deserve all the love they may or may not get, though both nominations are posthumous by decades.
Once you get past those, the real fun begins. Can populism be taken far enough to buy Bon Jovi a ticket to posterity? Will the wishes of white-whiskered boomers and their freak-folk progeny be enough to assure Donovan entry to the hallowed Hall? Can the idiosyncratic appeal of singer/songwriter Laura Nyro finally transcend cult status years after her death, now that she’s influenced every eccentric gal with a piano and a quirky perspective? Will Dr. John be remembered by those with no time for New Orleans R&B as more than just the “Right Place, Wrong Time” guy? And can the J. Geils Band’s years as stalwart R&B road dogs, whose frontman was the closest anyone will come to being the American Mick Jagger, transcend their status as ’80s MTV pop darlings? Well, what do you think?

Fuente: LimeWire Music Blog