Songs Of Proof: The Class Of 2019

The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame's Class Of 2019 was an upswing from the past few classes.  The most notable aberration was that there were seven inductees in the Performer category.  This was something that had not happened since 2004.  It's a very welcome change, and one that we hope continues going forward.  This is also the most British class we've had, possibly ever.  Five bands from the United Kingdom, and the least American class we've had since 2010, when the Stooges were the only Performer representation from the United States.  The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame still skews highly American, as noted in the nominees that were on the ballot.  The generational shift is notable, as classic rock is not quite so heavily represented.  We may never get away from classic rock completely, not as long as there's a fan ballot, it seems, but classic rock wasn't half the Performer inductees this time around, which is a big change from the past few years.  This is also the first time that we've had two female acts inducted in the Performer category in some time.  In fact, the biggest buzz surrounding this class was the breakthrough of the first woman to be inducted a second time into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.  It's the biggest news of the class, and it was led with quite heavily in the public relations narrative set forth by the Hall.

The one thing that seems to have stayed the same though, is the limited racial diversity.  On paper, it looks like we should be looking at the scoreboard and saying all these positive changes versus one sad stagnation.  We have one African-American inductee and the rest are White.  It's not perfect, but regardless, we got a stellar class.  Unfortunately, there are no inductees in the other categories, and so, no songs that I haven't already mentioned, but hopefully a little more in-depth dissection and discussion of each of the seven songs chosen from these seven acts.

The Cure:  There's no denying that the Cure are one of the most quintessential bands of the entire 1980's despite being formed in the 1970's.  This band is one of the most influential bands of the alternative music scene, and yet, they had a surprisingly steady run of hits.  The voice of Robert Smith delivers some of the most profound lyrics of love, but his voice sounds like the emotionally detached British synth-pop bands.  But then again, the band has the guitar sound at times that is consistent with the post-punk scene.  And sometimes theirs was the music of inner crying of the soul.  It was this willingness to go all over the map and just do what they wanted to do that made them so influential.  The song chosen for them is "Friday I'm In Love," which kind of betrays their overall range of influence, partially because it's a later song, but having influenced the alternative scene in so many directions, that'd be a hard thing to capture using just one song.  This song has the sound and feel of music directed at the college crowd during this decade of history, but was still a sizable hit at the time and remains an enduring classic that one can use to introduce future generations to the music of the Cure.

Def Leppard:  As I said in the opening paragraph, as long as there's a fan ballot, there will probably always be some representation of the "classic rock" format in every induction class, unless the Nominating Committee makes a decision to have none of that on the ballot.  That said, it's not like Def Leppard's entirely undeserving either.  There will always be conflict and argument about the role of popularity and mainstream success in deciding an artist's merit, but it can't be denied that those are factors.  For Def Leppard, their brand of hard rock was good fun, and wasn't ever meant to not be.  There's something to be said about that.  With obvious exceptions, there's really nothing wrong with being good at what you want to do.  The structure of their songs was also something slightly different from what we were used to, as it kept building up and building up before getting to the main chorus.  The ability to lay catchy hooks is something that not every band is good at.  Arguably the most perfect example of this in the case of Def Leppard is "Photograph" and is one of their most enduring and beloved songs to boot.  Hence, it is the song of choice for this band.

Janet Jackson:  The lone representative of R&B music and off the African-American community in this class.  Janet is one of the all-time titans of the rock-era popular music scene.  If any act should have represented populism, it should have been Janet Jackson.  Unfortunately, given the primary demographic for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, and especially that of the broadcasts, it was Def Leppard.  Still, Janet Jackson's numbers don't lie.  Her legacy in pioneering New Jack Swing is an oft underplayed aspect of her legacy, but it's often so because her music is so much more than that.  The narrative surrounding her candidacy has been about getting out of the shadows of other members of her family, taking the reins of her professional and personal life, doing what she wanted, how she wanted, and when she wanted.  That's an amazing tale in and of itself to distinguish her from her family, but it ultimately means nothing if the music itself doesn't present a really strong case.  With Janet, it does this and more, as her own music's evolution is a narrative in and of itself.  So many catchy songs, but I ultimately dipped back to the legendary "Nasty" that was among the first to show her own strength of character and strength as a performer.  And it is a blueprint for New Jack Swing to boot.  It's far from my favorite song by her, but it is a succinct and prime example to use to show why her spot in this class is well-deserved.

Stevie Nicks:  And we reach the selling point for this year's induction class.  The most talked about of all the nominees and inductees, even by me.  What makes the induction of Stevie Nicks important isn't just the fact that she's the first woman to be inducted twice into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, though again, the press coverage would tell you otherwise.  However "unquestionable musical excellence" is defined, I think it can be accurately said that there has to be an element of honesty to it.  I think that's something most music-focused people, and especially people who follow the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, would agree is an ingredient of "unquestionable musical excellence."  It's why some only want acts that do pretty much everything with their music: write, play (no guest musicians ever), produce, promote, release, choreograph their shows, direct their own music videos, handle their own publicity and promotions, and even do their own stage makeup for their shows.  It's why some are okay with cover artists, as long as the interpretations have something different to them, an interpretation that is true to who the artist is.  It's why some want artists inducted who partied as much offstage as they did onstage.  It's why some object to those who sing about devil worship but are secretly Orthodox Jews.  With Stevie Nicks's solo career, it's about her no longer hiding her creativity, but baring it boldly in songs that she felt on some level.  It also a recognition of the validity of the simultaneous solo career, which we don't have a ton of in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.  And when Stevie broke solo, everyone had to "Stand Back" as she did her own thing, while staying with her band.  It's probably my favorite solo Stevie song, and I think it shows her own strength, despite ripping off "Little Red Corvette."  And I think it's a lot better than "Edge Of Seventeen," so I'm definitely going with that song instead.

Radiohead:  When this band missed out on induction last year, there was a lot of head-scratching, and even some murmurs about conspiracies centered on their relative apathy for the accolades.  The one thing everyone can agree on is that this band is extremely deserving of the honor, even if the band members themselves don't understand why it's considered an honor.  An artist is generally considered worthy of induction if it can be pointed to how they contributed to the evolution of rock and roll.  It becomes an easier sell when the evolution of the band itself is highly recognizable as being from one album to the next, or even from every other album to every other album.  Maybe it takes two albums to fully mine a particular vein, while also beginning to reveal the next vein you'll be excavating.  I feel that's how Radiohead tends to work; however, as someone who hasn't followed Radiohead since the beginning, this is speculation on my part.  Someone else could easily take me to school if I'm way off-base on that.  Anyway, that's the train of thought I was going for when I chose "Paranoid Android."  As the first single from OK Computer, it still has lingering hints of what the band accomplished from the days of Pablo Honey and The Bends, but it also contained a lot of elements that piqued the listeners' collective curiosity, making them ask (some maybe even aloud), "Where are they going with this?"  If nothing else, following the evolution of Radiohead's music is less like a trajectory that's easily calculable, and more like riding Space Mountain where you can't always see whether you're about to go left or right, up or down.  "Paranoid Android" is far from my favorite Radiohead song, but I figured either this one or "Fake Plastic Trees" would be the best example.  As a personal aside, I really only started listening to Radiohead when they were nominated last year, and I have to admit, I'm a little resentful of how much I relate to their music, because it's seldom for the better.  Despite the fact I prefer the music of the first two decades of rock and roll, I really don't feel any shame in being a millennial, so it doesn't so much bother me so much that my enjoyment of them is a reminder of what a millennial I am.  It's more a matter of what songs I relate to and why that makes me hate myself and love-hate their music by extension.

Roxy Music:  Despite not being such a huge band here in the United States, Roxy Music is a band you know of because your favorite bands of the '80's and '90's were fans of them.  You didn't even have to know more than "Love Is The Drug" to find them worthy of induction, because your favorite bands knew their songs.  Or maybe you just know what a musical dynamo Brian Eno is and that he's a Roxy Music alum.  Whatever the reason, you just know they're worthy of induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame before you even hear a second song from them.  And as Joe Kwaczala said, once you hear their music, you hear it in all those other bands.  That's influence, and there's no escaping it.  For their own catalog, the unconventional nature of their songs is the essential motif.  Despite songs like "Avalon" and "More Than This,"  they really had a way of being unconventional, whether it was subject matter, the way they created sounds, odd juxtapositions, or maybe all of the above.  "Love Is The Drug" certainly isn't so unconventional in the subject matter, and even the idea of being addicted to love isn't entirely new.  And yet, Roxy Music managed to write about it in a manner that almost makes it sound like an anthropological study.  And the sonic landscape that they fashioned around those words was definitely different, odd, and catchy.  True, while they languished in the "Previously Considered" category for years, I chose this song mainly as something recognizable to use, but the more I listen to them, this song really is the happy medium that kind of makes their body of a work a coherent collage, so we're going to catch that buzz after all.

The Zombies:  If the musical evolution of Radiohead's career is difficult to follow, try telling the story of the Zombies to someone unfamiliar with them.  Their biggest hit was after they broke up, their landmark album only grows in popularity and stature each year, there was an impostor group trying to capitalize on their newfound success at the time while the keyboardist was off doing his own thing with his new band... not to mention they started out as a British band covering American R&B, but became a keyboard driven, moody, quasi-jazzy, and almost Baroque-sounding band.  Oh, and the real band reunited a few times, and has put out some high quality, but more conventional, songs.  I'd make a comparison to Avengers: Endgame here, but that movie's still in theaters as I type this, and I really don't want to spoil anything for anyone.  Anyway, the music is still more fascinating than the story, which is what really matters.  I actually really like the pre-Odyssey And Oracle stuff and the new songs too.  It's not just about that one album for me.  Give me "I Love You" and "New York" as well as "Imagine The Swan."  And while I didn't want to be so obvious with every inductee this year, the song used for the Zombies is indeed "Time Of The Season," and that's still okay, because it's such an iconic song for not just the 1960's, but for rock and roll itself.  It needed to be that song.

And with that, we've kept the Songs Of Proof catalog current.  It's a further look at the songs that I mentioned back on the merits evaluation entry about six or seven months ago.  But like every other post like this one, feel free to weigh in using the Comments section below.  And of course, the recap:

the Cure: "Friday I'm In Love"
Def Leppard: "Photograph"
Janet Jackson: "Nasty"
Stevie Nicks: "Stand Back"
Radiohead: "Paranoid Android"
Roxy Music: "Love Is The Drug"
the Zombies: "Time Of The Season"