2016 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominees POLL

wait wait wait i just realized pearl jam was eligible THIS year...i can't believe they're making them wait one

and nine inch nails was eligible last year. maybe they're spacing them out.

this guy who's been writing a regular column in my local free weekly since like 1980 has done at least two columns in my lifetime dedicated to complaining that chicago isn't in the R&RHOF

http://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/danehy/Content?oid=3436903

Bands are eligible after 25 years...or 6 to 4 decades

Very little discussion of Yes in this thread. Is the assumption that they're gonna make it?

I would have never assumed that.

Maybe the low level of discussion has to do with that they're the sort of band that a lot of people love and a lot of people hate and neither side wants to argue with the other?

i feel like Yes's odds are good because they seem to like these things to have eventful timing, so things like Squire's death, NWA's movie and Janet's comeback made a lot of people go 'well, this is their year.' and now that Rush is finally in, the prog stigma presumed to be a big factor against Yes's induction has softened.

i'm usually the one in these threads arguing that whatever alt-rock critical touchstone probably won't get in, but i think The Smiths could do it. they never crossed over in the US and sold a ton of records like The Cure or Depeche Mode but at this point it feels like they might as well have.

Now The Cars are in the lead with 13.5 million votes over Chicago, and Yes and Deep Purple aren't far behind with 13.3 and 13.2 mil. That's a lotta votes.

I like to check the stats once in a while to remind me of how massive The Cars were: the debut and most famous jukebox comp are 6 x platinum, Candy-O and Heartbeat City at 4, the rest at least platinum except for Door to Door.

Candy is 4xplat? Not shocked by debut and heartbeat but daamn

They were hugely important in terms of aor/new wave crossover but didn't think they'd have THAT many multiplatinums

In a British HOF, probably, but not this one: the Smiths.

Yeah, if there was a UK equivalent to this nonsense, The Smiths would probably get in no questions asked. On the flipside, The Cars and Cheap Trick wouldn't stand a chance.

Though apparently the first four foreigner albums are at at least 5x platinum so it matches up in terms of scale

And they ain't even nominated

"alright you fuckers, welcome to the stage robert smith, martin gore and thomas dolby!!!!!"

― da croupier, Friday, October 9, 2015 8:48 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This would just be the best thing!

I like to check the stats once in a while to remind me of how massive The Cars were: the debut and most famous jukebox comp are 6 x platinum, Candy-O and Heartbeat City at 4, the rest at least platinum except for Door to Door.

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, October 10, 2015 5:02 PM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

None of their albums made the Top 20 here, the highest charting was Heartbeat City, which made it to #25. Only two of their singles made the Top 10: 'My Best Friend's Girl' (#3) and 'Drive' (#4) - only three other singles charted: 'Just What I Needed' (#17), 'Let's Go' (#51) and 'Since You're Gone' (#37) ... they really were not a big deal here, so I always find the huge amounts of praise for The Cars on here a bit weird, if understandable: they were clearly an American thing.

Whatever New Wave means as sub-genre and marketing decision, The Cars fit it.

what makes the Cars the worst kind of inductee? They got the hits, the acclaim, the influence.

I can't think of bands influenced by the Cars.

Whatever New Wave means as sub-genre and marketing decision, The Cars fit it.

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, October 10, 2015 5:29 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

They do, if a certain strand of it.

I can't think of bands influenced by the Cars.

― timellison, Saturday, October 10, 2015 5:29 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

There's Weezer, I guess. I certainly can't think of any British bands influenced by 'em.

Whenever people do the are they/aren't they influential thing on ilx we start really looking for imitations rather than influence. So while I can't off the top of my head name a band clearly imitating the cars, they were a big deal in giving aor bands a road map into the 80s

I was gonna say: The Cars were responsible for more DX-7 purchases by .38 Special and ZZ Top than any magazine ad.

That's actually what I was thinking, that moves by older bands toward contemporary production and pop-rock composition structure might well have been Cars-influenced.

DX-7s were first made in '83, btw Alfred. Hawkes used a Prophet-5 according to Wikipedia.

As Chuck Eddy described the scene (from a piece I wrote but I think this line was at least partly his) - "Queen and Rush tightening up for a world of Cars and Police."

The main thing that's always bugged me about the Cars - especially the ubiquitous debut - is how the slicked-up, facile production hits you over the head with the band's formula - "see, we're just good-old-time rock and roll band - don't worry about the synthesizers" - and at the same time renders those tried-and-true usages essentially vacuous. They're like Bob Seger or some other cornball's idea of "quirky." I suspect this is what aesthetes from Christgau to S0to love about them. But it's fucking annoying. Their impact in the US was massive (who would've thought that same debut would become the definitive AOR album of all time? Don't believe me, check out the "most played" list from which that FiveThirtyEight article a year back was drawn), I enjoy about half their radio staples plenty, and I don't begrudge them their eventual place in the RNRHOF. But every time I listen to their greatest hits I get less than I bargained for.

"aesthete"!

I don't love them actually! I don't care for any hit after 1980 except "Tonight She Comes."

Christgau's not a fan either iirc

thewufs, you two have lots in common, get a beer:

Greatest Hits [Elektra, 1985]
In retrospect, it seems fairly incredible that this was once the stuff of cause célèbre--that the battle was joined over pop product so sleekly affectless. But of course, once upon a time affectlessness was progress; once upon a time a pop fan couldn't count on the radio to push his or her buttons. Those for whom struggle is all will claim that the sparer and supposedly fresher debut remains definitive, but they're just hyping their own dashed hopes. Fleet, efficient, essentially meaningless, this is the Cars' gift to history--seven seamless years of it. A

I remember reading something describing them as the US Roxy Music, I like that as an idea

they're the American Roxy Music if all they ever listened to was "Virginia Plain."

how the slicked-up, facile production hits you over the head with the band's formula

I could never get past those horrible Roy Thomas Baker stacked backing vocals.

And then they ditched him for Mutt "every snare hit should be the loudest thing that has happened" Lange.

Bryan Ferry is genuinely weird, Ric Ocasek is genuinely ugly.

"Love" was overstating it to make a point - wouldn't have written that the way I did if Xgau's review above weren't already burned into my consciousness. What I get from that review is that, for him at least, sleek affectlessness is the most interesting thing about the band. "Aesthete" is another favorite Xgau term - god, I can't get the motherfucker out of my head when I'm writing on ILM.

XXXP

I could never get past those horrible Roy Thomas Baker stacked backing vocals.

Bingo, exactly what I'm talking about.

They recorded one good album, half of another, a few singles. I like a couple tracks on Ocasek's first two solo joints.

once upon a time affectlessness was progress

I'm struggling with this one! I wonder what he was comparing them to.

Should be obvious, but "love about them" and "love them" mean two different things. Substitute "like most about them" if you want.

I'm rereading The Wings of the Dove, so I guess you're right about "aesthete."

Haha

wait wait wait i just realized pearl jam was eligible THIS year...i can't believe they're making them wait one

― da croupier, Friday, October 9, 2015 5:41 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm pretty surprised by this, seems like the HOF would be super-eager to get Pearl Jam in. Pumpkins were eligible too but not nominated.

I think you're right that they're spacing them out, knowing there are a handful of alt-rock HOF locks with debuts 1989-1995, followed by a fairly barren period for potential "hall-of-famers" at least by their standards.

Almost positive the rule is at least 25 years from first commercial recording to nomination year, not induction year. Looking at past shoo-ins and when they got in seems to bear this out.

The debut is pretty much perfect, front to back; the follow-up and Shake It Up are great singles and very good filler; Panorama is the weirdo art-project album with no hits that everybody forgets about. Heartbeat City and Door to Door I don't like as much, but I have almost no complaints about the first four.

It will be interesting to see if Radiohead gets in during their first year of eligibility.

according to futurerocklegends.com, next year's list of eligibles is as follows:

2Pac, Alanis Morissette, Antestor, Aphex Twin, At the Gates, Bikini Kill, Boyz II Men, Brooks and Dunn, Catherine Wheel, Color Me Badd, Cornershop, The Cranberries, Crash Test Dummies, Crystal Waters, Curtis Stigers, Cypress Hill, Deceased, DJ Quik, Earth, EMF, The Frames, Frankie Knuckles, GZA, Helmet, Joan Osbourne, Kyuss, Letters to Cleo, LFO, Lisa Germano, Live, Marc Cohn, Marilyn McCoo, Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, Mercury Rev, Meshuggah, Moe., Moose, My Dying Bride, Naughty By Nature, Paul Gilbert, Paul Weller, Pearl Jam, PJ Harvey, PM Dawn, The Prodigy, Ricky Martin, Right Said Fred, Rocket from the Crypt, Saigon Kick, Seal, Skyclad, Sleep, Spin Doctors, Stereolab, Tara Kemp, Teddybears, Temple of the Dog, Therion, Tori Amos, Type O Negative, Ugly Kid Joe, Wayne Kramer

super psyched for moe.

and the following year:

4 Non Blondes, Ace of Base, Anathema, Annie Lennox, Arc Angels, Arrested Development, Beck, Black 47, Blind Melon, Body Count, The Bottle Rockets, Brian McKnight, Buckethead, Buju Banton, Common, Cracker, David Gray, Dixie Chicks, Dr. Dre, Eva Cassidy, Fear Factory, Free Kitten, The Gathering, The Heights, Hootie & The Blowfish, House of Pain, Insane Clown Posse, Jade, Jamiroquai, Jeremy Jordan, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Juliana Hatfield, Kris Kross, Lagwagon, Lambchop, Lifetime, Luna, Martha Wash, Mary J. Blige, Morphine, Moxy Früvous, No Doubt, The Pharcyde, Pragha Khan, Praxis, R. Kelly, Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, Red House Painters, Reverend Horton Heat, Shadow Gallery, Shawn Mullins, Sophie B. Hawkins, Stone Temple Pilots, Sublime, Suede, Sugar, The Supersuckers, SWV, Tasmin Archer, Tim McGraw, TLC, Tool, Vanessa Daou, Vertical Horizon, The Verve, The Verve Pipe, Wallflowers

Panorama is the weirdo art-project album with no hits that everybody forgets about.

I know it wasn't a huge hit, but "Touch and Go" is possibly my favorite Cars single.

Former Beatle John Lennon mentioned the song in his final interview on 8 December 1980, praising it for its fifties sound and comparing it with his current record at the time, "(Just Like) Starting Over." He said, "I think The Cars’ 'Touch and Go' is right out of the fifties ‘Oh, oh… ‘ A lot of it is fifties stuff. But with eighties styling, but, but… and that’s what I think 'Starting Over' is; it’s a fifties song made with an eighties approach."

Almost positive the rule is at least 25 years from first commercial recording to nomination year, not induction year. Looking at past shoo-ins and when they got in seems to bear this out.

― Futuristic Bow Wow (thewufs), Saturday, October 10, 2015 12:02 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I don't think that's true, Nirvana was a 2014 inductee, Bleach came out in 89