Rock Hall & Social Media
The great thing about the Rock Hall nominee announcement is how it gets Social networks, Facebook/Twitter, riled up. More than the actual inductee announcement does. This is not something we had pre-internet. We found out the nominees through newspapers and that was it. We also knew very little of how the process of nominating/electing really worked. The Hall would put out a press release stating how people get picked/inducted and we moved on.
Not anymore. But while you think the NomCom and the Hall brass would be bothered by so much skepticism, intrigue of how their little system operates, I say it's not so. They love the talk. I've often thought their were little Hall trolls checking out Twitter/Facebook and Hall specialized sites (Future Rock Legends) just to see what's being said about this year's class.
And without social networks rising to the occassion, we may never have had Rush, Yes, Neil Diamond, Deep Purple nominated. Letter writing was fine back in the day, but tack that on to today's wireless media and things get done a lot faster.
There's always a downside to all the social media talking. Many people, including long time music journalists, know or care little about the Hall but give their opinions anyway. Even though most info is just a click away. I'm still learning things about it myself. The mystery of the whole process sometimes makes me chuckle. The vow of silence that NomCom members supposedly have to take. And the continued mystery of the 600 or so voters. I'm glad to say more of these voters are coming forward on Facebook/Twitter to tell us who they voted for. It's a tough debate for many to handle. And I myself have gone back and forth trying to persuade some of them to vote for someone. Yep, we still take this stuff seriously. Okay, not life and death, but once or twice a year in the Fall, we sure do.
Not anymore. But while you think the NomCom and the Hall brass would be bothered by so much skepticism, intrigue of how their little system operates, I say it's not so. They love the talk. I've often thought their were little Hall trolls checking out Twitter/Facebook and Hall specialized sites (Future Rock Legends) just to see what's being said about this year's class.
And without social networks rising to the occassion, we may never have had Rush, Yes, Neil Diamond, Deep Purple nominated. Letter writing was fine back in the day, but tack that on to today's wireless media and things get done a lot faster.
There's always a downside to all the social media talking. Many people, including long time music journalists, know or care little about the Hall but give their opinions anyway. Even though most info is just a click away. I'm still learning things about it myself. The mystery of the whole process sometimes makes me chuckle. The vow of silence that NomCom members supposedly have to take. And the continued mystery of the 600 or so voters. I'm glad to say more of these voters are coming forward on Facebook/Twitter to tell us who they voted for. It's a tough debate for many to handle. And I myself have gone back and forth trying to persuade some of them to vote for someone. Yep, we still take this stuff seriously. Okay, not life and death, but once or twice a year in the Fall, we sure do.
posted by Tom Lane at 7:36 AM
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