My invitation to join the organizations selection committee seemed like a sign of change.
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In 2018, I received an email with the subject line Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Class.
It said I had been recommended by my peers.
To accept the invitation, I was asked only to provide a snail-mail address.
I wasnt sure it was real.
Who was this person?
Was I being scammed?
A day later, they confirmed the invitation was genuine.
I still had reservations.
The Hall had long been under fire for its opaque selection and voting processes.
I also heard the leadership was a deeply entrenched old boys connection.
Why were they reaching out to me?
Perhaps the Rock Hall was finally listening?
At the very minimum, I would have a vote.
But thats only part of the reason I said yes.
The other was that it felt like Id been tapped to join a secret society.
Thats why Im forfeiting my membership and resigning as a Rock Hall voter.
There were red flags from the beginning.
A week after I received the invitation, a glossy red-and-white ballot booklet arrived in the mail.
That meant, while the ballot entries were chosen and written anonymously, my votes would not be.
As a woman I felt Id be scrutinized.
I carefully scanned the ballot: Should I choose the Cure or the Zombies?
Kraftwerk or John Prine?
Def Leppard or Janet Jackson?
Although the task of voting felt daunting, I was no doe in the headlights.
Yet the ballot appeared to be a competency test full of potential trick questions.
I never heard back.
I was especially happy to see Nicks make it in, but why did it take so long?
(Nicks was inducted the first time, in 1998, as a member of Fleetwood Mac.)
I never knew who to direct these questions to.
I didnt even get an invite to the ceremony.
As a new member, it felt strange being so untethered from the actual institution.
Was this what it meant to be a Rock Hall voter?
Where was Link Wray?
Where were the Slits, the Runaways, and most of the Lilith Fair main stagers?
The field has always incorporated elements of other genres, and spawned many of its own subgenres.
Implicitly, the real rockers were still white guys with real rock instruments.
Everyone else rocked in a figurative sense.
Thats a horrific image on its own, and, when I looked into it, alsoa complete misrepresentation.
Of course I wanted to put in a vote for Dolly Parton that year who doesnt love Dolly?
(Fans are eligible to cast votes online,though its not clear how theyre tallied.)
Its been that way from the start.
LaVern Baker wasnt inducted until 1991, Sister Rosetta Tharpe not until 2018.
Willie Mae Big Mama Thornton still isnt in.
Once you consider the bigger picture and longer view, it only getsworse.
Right now, thats somewhere around 90 percent.
Did my expertise hold any more sway than a fan vote?
Or was I simply invited to vote so the Rock Hall could check its own box?
This years ballot was the breaking point.
IloveMissy Elliotts music, but is she a rocker?
Iron Maiden is a rock band, but is it among the most meritorious nominees?
And does voting for them do anything to diversify the Hall?
Thats a false dilemma, created by the very institution that purports to solve it.
Neither approach addresses the problem at its root or resolves what constitutes achievements or rock.
Which histories get preserved and which get erased?
