The SDMB Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! ->Latest Poll in post 277

Cafe Society
283

Is Hip-Hop, Rock?
I don’t think Public Enemy belongs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

I get the Nirvana argument but always hated their sound, so no vote for me, they’ll fly in anyway.

What the heck is so special about the Beastie Boys? They seem like a successful but relatively unimportant group.

I’m at this point the one vote for Donovan, and that’s fine. He won’t make it and I don’t have strong arguments why he should.

Peter Gabriel seems like the strongest one this week, but again, I can’t stand Nirvana.

284

Yes.

In addition to being extremely popular over a long period of time, the Beastie Boys were also pioneers in the now sadly defunct art of sampling.

285

I notice Frodo is voting only for KISS so far. Is he making up his mind, or does he not want to dilute his KISS vote by supporting anyone else?

286

Frodo’s musical ignorance is showing, he doesn’t know enough about the other bands to choose.
(Also for some reason he seems to have started to talk about himself in the third person)

287

There was a great documentary of rock and roll on PBS from 1995. The final episode was named “The Perfect Beat” and it tied together rock, hip hop, and electronica. It showed how each influenced the others and how they were all just variations on the same theme. It’s a great watch and has fun interviews with artists from back in the day (the Beasties look and sound like they’re 15).

So yeah, I think hip hop definitely deserves to be in the rock hall. On the one hand, I can label a song rock or hip hop when I hear it. But I can’t come up with any workable definition of the difference. I mean, what is the definition of rock that doesn’t include “Fight the Power” or “911 Is a Joke”?

As @Thing.Fish said, they broke new ground in sampling. They were also leaders in bringing more traditional rock influences like electric guitar into rap. For rap and hip hop aficionados, they are typically in the top tier.

I’ll vote for a band that had great influence even if they aren’t my thing, but I won’t vote for a band I hate either. So no judgment here.

288

The Beastie Boys are the epitome of one of my favorite maxims: Just because something is objectively good, doesn’t mean you have to like it. I absolutely detest every song I’ve ever heard by the Beasties, but I can’t deny that they changed music in the same way that Elvis and Little Richard did. They absolutely belong in the HOF, but I’ll never vote for them. Same goes for the seminal Hip Hop artists like Public Enemy and NWA.

289

To be fair, I probably have 20 artists in my top 10 list.

290

WOMAD by itself is worth more than any 20 suicidal junkies with three chords and a distortion pedal ripping off the Pixies.

291

I did, too, until I went to a concert at Giants Stadium (NY metro) around 2003. Radiohead headlined, and Beck was scheduled as well - but he dropped out like two days before the show (claiming a leg injury, I think it was). The Beasties filled in for him, and they were terrific.

(Radiohead was great, too, but the fondest memory is of Elliott Smith playing in the parking lot.)

ETA: I see the show was called a “fiasco.” Didn’t feel that way to me.