Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticConsider it a sign of the times, maybe: In the list of seven artists that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s select industry voters elected into the institution for the class of 2022, there is not a single rock band.
That can be taken as a major signifier that the pendulum among the music intelligentsia really has swung all the way from what was coined some years back as “rockism” — the belief that rock ‘n’ roll is inherently superior to other forms of popular music — to the other side of the scale: poptimism.The MC5?
No go, again, this year, despite this being the band’s sixth nomination, the first having come back in 2003. Rage Against the Machine?
Unsuccessful in the band’s fifth time in the ballot in just six years. The New York Dolls? Striking out in their third time officially at bat; the group’s first nomination came back in 2001.
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