by SamDBL » Tue Dec 20, 2016 10:59 am
Bad Brains not getting in is, like, the least offensive of a long list of offenses. It sucks, but there are sooooo many bands that have been left out, or didn't get on in the first few rounds that are just unforgivable. I'm not as upset about an underground hardcore band not making it into the RnR hall of fame as I am about the fact that Rush and Kiss were added so late, when they probably should've been in there from the beginning. Even if you hate those two bands, they both pretty much define either an era or set the standard for their sub genre of RnR. And yeah.. the fact that they keep putting rap artists (there are a few that I think would qualify as related to RnR... but very few. And Tupac is not one of them) and dance pop acts like Madonna in there every year compounds the problem. I guarantee that if there is a rap/hip hop HOF (there may already be), that they won't be putting Bryan Adams or Led Zepplin in there. And there are just too many that are out, still. Green Day before Iron Maiden? Seriously? No doubt Green Day should be there at some point. But to have them leap frog over bands that should clearly be in there and have been eligible for 20 years is stupid.
In essence, we all know it's a joke run by some dorky, elitist music critics that don't know their asses from a hole in the ground. And put things like political affiliation and back scratching power players ahead of actual substantive reasons for people being inducted. And while I think household name punk originators (Sex Pistols, Ramones, Clash) certainly belong beside artists like Chuck Berry or Kiss... 3rd or 4th generation US Hardcore bands don't. Not because they influenced less or are lesser in any way. But because a defining factor of the genre is that it is/was anti-mainstream. It would be like having an Ian Stuart section at a Holocaust Museum. So I'm not too disappointed that Bad Brains didn't get in. Although they have been so influential to so many bands that wound up being huge that I'd love for them to get their just rewards, if that's what they wanted.