Every year the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame announces their latest honorees, and it’s almost always met with criticism, notably from rock and metal fans. The institution has turned to honoring pop stars, rappers and country legends far more often than rock artists, and there are still some glaring omissions from their hall including Foreigner, Motorhead, Iron Maiden and numerous others.
The Smashing Pumpkins can certainly make a case for induction, too, and frontman Billy Corgan has shared his opinion of the Rock Hall in a new interview on the “Reinvented With Jen Eckhart” podcast. Corgan thinks a simple name change will clear up a lot of the controversy.
“A general criticism is, ‘Why have a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame if the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame isn’t only relegated to rock ‘n’ roll?’” Corgan said. “Personally, I think Willie Nelson belongs in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Because there’s no real clear definition, it’s confusing to people.”
He continued: “Why don’t you just call it the Music Hall of Fame? I quantify rock ‘n’ roll as more of a spirit thing … I think it’s hard for people to understand the definitive qualities, especially when you start putting in pop artists who are strictly pop artists. Now if the argument is that, over time, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has morphed into an institutional culture which is more the ‘Music Hall of Fame,’ then I think that would be easier for people to understand.”
Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider previously echoed the same sentiment. “The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame could have saved themselves a lot of problems by simply calling themselves the ‘Music Hall Of Fame,’” Snider said last year. “I lived on Long Island, and there’s a Long Island Music Hall Of Fame, and in there is Arlo Guthrie and Neil Diamond and Twisted Sister and Zebra is in there and Public Enemy’s in there and KISS is in there, because it’s music.”
“The minute you put that word on it, everybody’s, like, ‘Okay, I get it. It’s the Music Hall Of Fame. And these are great musicians.’ So by calling it the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, it positions itself to criticism.”
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