This year’s inductees are:
Main Ballot
Early Influencers
Musical Excellence
Ahmet Ertegun Award
Jesus, that’s a lot of inductees.
Yeah. Eight from the main ballot (which typically is around 7 or so), but ten from the “committees.”
Queen Latifah is an “early influence”? She was born in 1970!
The “Early Influences” group was originally meant to recognize performers “whose music predated rock and roll but had an impact on the evolution of rock and roll and inspired rock’s leading artists.”
They apparently renamed that category “Musical Influences” a few years ago (to recognize influencers on more modern genres, I guess), but the list I provided above – which I took directly from an email from the Hall which they had sent to me – had that group still labeled “Early Influences.”
Queen Latifah has won a Grammy, but I never realized she was ever a musician until just now. I’ve always thought of her as a very talented actress.
She was one of the first major female rap/hip-hop artists, and was big as a musician in the late '80s and '90s, but mostly moved into acting by the mid 2000s.
I think I first became cognizant of Queen Latifah when she played alongside Denzel Washington in The Bone Collector in 1999.
Ed Sullivan was rock and roll?
Whatever, that’s a big pair of shews to fill.
Certainly as much as MTV. He also introduced more white households to the music of African Americans than anybody else in the 1960s.
This. He definitely was not rock and roll, but he was a major influencer. He regularly showcased rock and popular music acts on his program, and it was, of course, where many Americans heard and saw the Beatles for the first time.
Seems like at this point it’s like the Old-Timer’s Committee for the baseball HOF; a way for members of the “committee” to sneak in their personal favorites who can’t get enough votes to get in the regular way.
That seems to be an accurate assessment.
It’s getting to be a big Hall. Next year, Quarterflash, Nu Shooz and Kajagoogoo will be inducted.