How the Rock Hall Works

I wish there was a link to this article on Rolling Stone's website, but I can't find it. Anyway, in the November 26 issue, the one devoted to the 25th anniversary concerts of the Rock Hall, Nominating Committee member Anthony DeCurtis wrote a piece called, How Do You Get Into The Hall of Fame? Sounds juicy, but the piece itself rehashes stuff we already know. How does the NomCom meet, and what does Steven Van Zandt think about all this? We know he's the one pushing the 50's and 60's artists, and wants more early artists inducted. It's not until the final 1/3 of it that we get some juicy information.

Why only 5 inductees? Because Jann Wenner says so. Add more inductees? "I've had to be the curmudgeon and say no," and he says "there are plenty of years coming up. We're trying to do this for the history books. It can't be a popularity contest."

Most of the quotes are from Jon Landau, head of the nominating committee.
Among them: criteria for induction? : "a mix of quality and influence", and "we have artists with mass appeal, and artists with a very narrow audience."

What about these committee members? Landau says, "It's not a group that can be easily swayed or intimidated." Landau also says he has tried to bring more women, minorities and younger people onto the committee. (as the article says most of the nomcom consists of white men between 40 and 60 years of age).

The closing quote from Landau is also of interest. About the Hall's signifigance today he says, "The Hall of Fame has its critics, there are people who disdain it for a variety of reasons, and I've heard them all. But I've also heard artists walk into that induction ceremony and just say, Wow. The Hall of Fame is a big place, physically and emotionally. Some artists feel underappreciated by it and knock it. At the same time, it's obvious how much they'd like to be in there."

The CMA's

George Jones recently said that what's on Country radio now should be re-named, because it sure ain't Country. He might be right. Today's Country singers have grown up with MTV, and so have today's Music City executives. Looks and packaging. Back in the mid-70's Nashville traditionalists got ticked off at the CMA's for giving awards to John Denver and Olivia Newton-John. So, the fight against "outsiders" invading the purity of the Nashville Golden era will go on until the last of that first generation has passed.
No, Taylor Swift isn't any more Country than Shania Twain. Darius Rucker's album sounds like a Hootie one with steel guitars. But I don't agree completely with Jones. There is the Golden era sound in some of Brad Paisley's stuff, or Miranda Lambert's. But like I said it's all been processed to sell beyond Nashville to a younger audience. Maybe George Jones fans like Taylor Swift more than he thinks they do. But the days of Hard Country getting any chart action, save for a fluke hit single, will never come back. To hear this stuff you have to go outside of the major labels and find Indie artists.

Have A Nice Decade

The past week I've been immersed in making CD-R's for a friend who just bought an Ipod. He wanted cheesy 70's stuff, so that's where my head's been. All the while I got up to 7 CD's, nearing 150 songs. But after giving them away I kept thinking about all the lost revenue from these artists and their songs. Well, mostly I was thinking about how some of these one hit wonders aren't on any Itunes or Amazon site, but can be easily had on free sites.
I thought about this, until I realized that I paid my own hard-earned money for these songs. So, now I don't feel bad after all.

Worst Country Singles

50 Worst Country singles of the 00's

This is just a blogger's opinion, but he kind of gets the Country decade about right. There were just as many awful Country songs charting as Pop ones. I'm just surprised that he didn't put any Big & Rich or Cowboy Troy songs on it.

End of the 00's List

I've got 26 solid contenders for a best of 00's albums list. My singles list is twice that, but that's usually the case with me. I'll narrow the singles one down, and the album one might get trimmed. But I'm pretty happy with my picks. Don't think I've missed too much, but there will be more decade's over lists to come, so things might change.

Playlist for 11/9

Foo Fighters - Greatest Hits
Carrie Underwood - Play On
Now 32
Michael Jackson - This Is It

Quick Book Update

Wish I could tell you I spend all my time reading books, but I don't. All of these were generous promos, mostly from the good folks at Da Capo who continue to put out great music books.

Phish the biography - Parke Puterbaugh
Best Music Writing 2009 - Greil Marcus, Daphne Carr
He Is ...I Say - David Wild
Corn Flakes with John Lennon - Robert Hilburn

Defining Rock

Speaking of defining "Rock", which is what most Rock Hall haters have, even long time critics can't figure it out. Paul Grein in this column Chart Watch Extra: Soundtracks That Rock - Chart Watch has as much trouble as the haters. After reading it I wonder why not just include everyone under the same umbrella?