Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Information from Answers.com
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum pays homage to the great American art form of rock and roll music. The organization honors the legends of the genre, from early 20th century artists like blues man Robert Johnson and country singer Jimmie Rodgers, to still performing artists such as piano man Billy Joel and guitarist Eric Clapton. The Hall of Fame's facility, designed by renowned architect I.
M. Pei, also boasts the Alan Freed Radio Studio, from which stations can host on-site broadcasts, and hosts various permanent and rotating exhibitions. Key numbers for fiscal year ending December, 2005:
VP, Finance and Administration: Brian Kenyon
VP, Marketing and Communications: Todd Mesek
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at sunset.
performers, producers, and other people who have in some major way influenced the industry.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, showing in the foreground.
A handful of artists are inducted into the Hall of Fame in an annual in .
The first group of inductees, inducted on , , included , , Currently, groups or individuals are qualified for induction 25 years after the release of their first record. Nominees should have demonstrable influence and significance within the history of rock and roll. Four categories are recognized: Performers, Non-Performers, Early Influences, and since 2000, Sidemen.
Performers include and instrumentalists.
A nominating committee composed of music historians selects names for the Performers category, which are then voted on by roughly 1000 experts, including academics, journalists, producers, and others with music industry experience. Performers receiving the highest number of votes greater than 50% of the votes received are selected for induction; each year, about five to seven nominees make the cut.
roll artists. The most recent of this category to be inducted were and in 2000.
The Sidemen category includes veteran and players who are selected by a large committee composed primarily of producers.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation was created in 1983. The groundbreaking ceremony was , , with and Chuck Berry doing the honors. The museum opened on , in a building designed by .
During early discussions on where to build the museum, the Foundation's board considered the . Ultimately, the chosen location was in and the . Cleveland lobbied to be chosen, citing the facts that one-time promoting the new genre (and the term) of "rock and roll", and that Cleveland was the location of the .
After a petition drive that was signed by 600,000 fans favoring Cleveland, and a poll which Cleveland won by 100,000 votes, the hall of fame board voted to build the museum in Cleveland.
The museum documents the entire history of rock and roll, regardless of induction status. Hall of Fame inductees are honored in a special exhibit inside the museum's spire.
While the museum is located in Cleveland, the induction ceremony is held in New York City. This has been a source of The main criticism is that the induction process is controlled by a few individuals, such as founder , former foundation director Suzan Evans, and writer , reflecting their tastes rather than the views of the rock world as a whole. A enough big names that would sell tickets to the dinner.
That was quickly remedied by dropping one of the doo-wop groups being there needed to be more name power on the list, resulting in 70s superstars getting in before the people who made it possible for them. Some of those pioneers still aren't in today — but Queen is." Petitions with tens of thousands of signatures were also have even been put up for nomination with no discussion at all.
There are also very few , or bands in the hall. To date, the only progressive rock band in 1995, and in 2001, in 2003, and in .
After the 2007 nominations were announced, it was immediately noticed that there were only 9 nominees.
Up until that year, the fewest nominees there had ever been in one year was 13. The Rock Hall also officially announced that 5 of those 9 would be inducted. This has led to the belief that the low number of nominees is due to the nominations committee trying to muscle the voters into inducting a few certain candidates.
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