The Nom Com Project: Part 4

         Welcome to the fourth and final installment of the Nom Com Project! In case you just discovered this project, let me direct you to Parts 1, 2, and 3. We are in the tail end of this project and I will be revealing which 15 artists made the final cut to appear on our mock ballot. I will analyze both the shortlist of prospective candidates and the final overall ballot we created.

         After all the committee members made their cases, Mark and I opened the floor (unmuting everyone’s mics) and allowed everyone to talk about the shortlist. While the others deliberated, I hastily put together a ballot on Google Forms and corresponded with Mark to ensure all 42 artists were present. After that was done, we sent all the link to all the committee members through both the Zoom chat box and in a private Twitter message forum. We gave everyone roughly 10 minutes to complete their ballots and submit it on Google Forms. One of the downsides of Google Forms is that it did not limit the number of choices a voter can make. To avoid a potential blunder, we insisted that everyone makes sure they vote for exactly 15 artists to compose their ballot. Thankfully, perhaps shockingly, everyone followed protocol and there were no major hiccups.

         Google Forms also created a bar graph of the tallies. The only downside to that is Mark and I still had to count to verify the results. And oddly enough some of the names were missing on the bar graph (Rage Against the Machine, Rufus featuring Chaka Khan and George Thorogood & The Destroyers) and we had to review the ballot to confirm the names matched the projected numbers. This took several minutes to calculate, but allowed the others to talk amongst themselves. We also released the bar graph to group so they can look at the results and ensure transparency in the process.

         With the votes finalized, the following artists received enough votes and qualified to appear on our ballot: Kraftwerk, Tina Turner, The Spinners, The B-52’s, Salt N Pepa, Joy Division/New Order, Judas Priest, LL Cool J, Kool & The Gang, Beck, John Coltrane, Big Mama Thornton, Rufus featuring Chaka Khan and The Smiths.

         But there was one problem: a tiebreaker would be needed to see who lets the coveted #16 slot. The three artists in contention were Kate Bush, Foo Fighters and The Monkees. Similar to the “conscious pick” round, I asked each person for their tie-breaking vote in rapid-fire style. We opened the floor once again for those artists’ advocates to say a final word before voting takes place. With everyone’s mics on mute again, I asked each person for their selected artist and the tiebreaker vote went relatively smooth. But there was one problem: Kate Bush and The Monkees received 8 votes, thus creating another tiebreaker to straighten this out once and for all. Mark and I decided to have the 4 members who voted for the Foo Fighters to break the tie. Talk about thinking on the fly! Kate Bush would win the tiebreaker vote and become the final artists on the ballot.

Analyzing the Mock Ballot

• Women are well-represented on the ballot. 7 of our nominees feature women: The B-52’s, Kate Bush, Joy Division/New Order, Rufus featuring Chaka Khan, Salt N Pepa, Big Mama Thornton and Tina Turner. Our ballot is a major step forward from the actual ballots, especially since the 2019 and 2020 ballots only featured three total women. Our ballot features ten women. With the exception of Big Mama Thornton, the rest of the women are alive and would become members of the voting body, a win in its own right. 

• Black performers comprise half of our ballot. 8 of our nominees, literally half the ballot (!), feature black artists: Jay-Z, John Coltrane, Kool & The Gang, LL Cool J, Rufus featuring Chaka Khan, Salt N Pepa, The Spinners, Big Mama Thornton and Tina Turner. This is an amazing revelation from our ballot. 

• The vast majority of the artists on the ballot are alive, a stark contrast to last year’s ballot. John Coltrane, Big Mama Thornton, most of the Spinners and members of other bands (e.g., B-52’s, Kool & The Gang, Rufus, Kraftwerk) have died, but most of the nominees could potentially show up and perform at the ceremony if inducted. That doesn’t always guarantee that will happen, but it’s often a good indicator. Plus, I’d love to see how a potential Smiths and/or Joy Division/New Order reunion would play out (probably not well). And if Tina Turner (who now lives in Switzerland), Kate Bush and Kraftwerk would travel stateside to attend the ceremony…probably not.

• Specific genres are well-represented on our ballot:

  • Our ballot features 3 hip-hop artists—Jay-Z, LL Cool J and Salt N Pepa—which would be the most artists of that genre ever appearing on an actual ballot. In the last 5 or so years, the Nominating Committee has nominated only one sole hip-hop artist on the ballot each year. By clearing the lane, this has led to the inductions of N.W.A, 2pac and The Notorious B.I.G. But that plan has also backfired when they put the often-nominated LL Cool J as the sole rapper on the ballot and he didn’t get enough votes for induction. Our ballot also features Salt N Pepa, who would become the first female rappers ever nominated for Rock Hall induction.

  • Lots of R&B on the ballot with 5 artists on the ballot: Kool & The Gang, Rufus featuring Chaka Khan, The Spinners, Big Mama Thornton and Tina Turner. In the last two years, there has only been 2-3 R&B acts on the ballot, which is a huge decease from years prior. Post-60s R&B is one of the Rock Hall’s weakest areas and this ballot could correct many long overdue wrongs.

  • The ballot is also heavy on Alternative Rock with 5 artists: The B-52’s, Beck, Kate Bush, Joy Division/New Order and The Smiths. On the heels of the inductions of The Cure, Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails, each of these artists have a relatively decent shot to seek induction. But our committee tends to favor alternative rock more so than the nominating committee, so perhaps it may not align with the actual 2021 ballot.

  • Perhaps not shockingly, we chose very few classic rockers for contention in our project (e.g., Pat Benatar, Jethro Tull, George Thorogood, Joe Cocker, King Crimson). Judas Priest is not only the sole metal act on the ballot, but also the only one played on classic rock radio stations. With the oversaturation of hard rock and metal on last year’s ballot, perhaps we cleared a lane for those leather-obsessed rockers to finally get inducted. 

  • Speaking of clearing the lane, John Coltrane (Jazz), Big Mama Thornton (Blues) and Kraftwerk (Electronic) are the sole representatives of their respected genres. With crowded fields in Hip-Hop, R&B and Alternative, that could actually clear the lane for those three artists and make it easier for them to get inducted.

• 11 Previously-Nominated Rock Hall nominees: Pat Benatar, Kate Bush, Judas Priest, Kraftwerk, LL Cool J, Gram Parsons, Rage Against the Machine, The Replacements, Rufus featuring Chaka Khan, The Smiths, The Spinners. Of these, 7 appear on our final mock ballot.

• Not counting the artists listed above, 10 artists have been previously considered by the Nominating Committee but never officially nominated: The B-52’s, Black Flag, Chubby Checker, Joe Cocker, The Monkees, Patsy Cline, Peter Tosh, Sade, Tina Turner, X. With the exception of the newly-eligible Foo Fighters and Jay-Z, nearly half the ballot feature artists that have never been nominated or considered by the actual nom com.

• Only 3 artists from the actual 2020 ballot appear on our mock ballot: Judas Priest, Kraftwerk and Rufus featuring Chaka Khan. And in the last 5 years, only 3 other artists have been previously nominated: Kate Bush, LL Cool J and The Smiths. We concerned quite a few artists who have never been nominated before and that is definitely risky if we wanted to “think like” the actual Nom Com. Usually there’s way more

• The median year of eligibility of the 42 nominees is 2000 and the median year of eligibility of the 16 finalists is 2001, which would mean that the average artist on our ballot debuted in 1975/76.[1] To put it another way, this is when artists such as Television, Kenny Rogers, Boston, The Runaways, and Luther Vandross first became eligible for the Rock Hall. This alone reveals the backlog of worthy prospects is still stuck in the pre-MTV era.

• Tina Turner is the sole nominee who is already a Rock Hall inductee, but could potentially become the second-ever woman to become a two-time inductee. Dave Grohl just missed out on becoming a potential two-time inductee when the Foo Fighters lose the crucial tiebreaker vote.

Problematic Aspects to the Ballot

• Foo Fighters not appearing on the ballot although most Rock Hall watchers would agree they’re likely to appear on the actual 2021 ballot. In hindsight, this is probably are biggest mistake of the mock ballot.

• Chubby Checker is the only the artist to appear on our prospective nominees list to have a song inducted into the problematic Singles category. Acts such as The Shangri-La’s, Procol Harum and Link Wray were, unfortunately, not considered despite the pushes from Rock Hall Watchers to get them back on the ballots.

• Although most Rock Hall watchers predicted her get inducted for the class of 2020, Pat Benatar failed to make our final ballot. Maybe Benatar isn’t the lock we all thought she once was.

• Given how many Rock Hall watchers speculate the importance of an HBO telecast on the decisions of the actual Nominating Committee, I wonder if any of the 20+ members kept that in-mind when nominating artists. Would HBO be pleased with this ballot and the prospects of potential inductees showing up to the event? Some artists are hugely successful and others not so much.

• Potential vote splitting in respective genres caused artists not appear on the final shortlist: Hardcore Punk (Black Flag and X), Country (Dolly Parton and Patsy Cline), Progressive Rock (Jethro Tull and King Crimson), Early Rock (The Clovers and Chubby Checker) and Pop (Mariah Carey and Dionne Warwick).

• Given their careers started and/or emerged in rock’s infancy years, I wonder if voters would think Big Mama Thornton and John Coltrane should be considered the Early Influences category. There’s a better case for Coltrane, especially considering his most important body of work began in the rock era with collaborations with Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. Even at the end of our meeting, a few members expressed concern regarding Thornton’s status on the Performers ballot. Some believed she’d be in a similar situation as Sister Rosetta Tharpe back in 2018.

• A lot of artists considered big-time snubs were not nominated by the committee: The Go-Go’s, Soundgarden, Carole King, Sonic Youth, Willie Nelson, Duran Duarn, Chic, Pixies, Warren Zevon, Oasis, Cher, Dave Matthews Band, Iron Maiden, OutKast, Dick Dale, Smashing Pumpkins, Motörhead, Big Star, Todd Rundgren, MC5, Eurythmics, Weezer.

[1] I adjusted 1985 as the first year of eligibility for artists, mainly because that was the first year these artists would’ve been eligible for induction. See John Coltrane and Big Mama Thornton as examples.

Conclusion

         This was not an easy event to put together. Even though we capped the number of people to just 20, it was very tough putting together a date and time that everyone could be together. Spread over 4 time zones in various parts of the U.S., we somehow made it work and the meeting was largely successful. We remained diplomatic, respectful and patient throughout the process. Even though I use Zoom on a fairly-regular basis, I was nervous to see how that’d play out and it was largely successful. Very few of the members had lagging connection issues and/or needed help logging into the meeting. That alone is a win in its own right.

If there’s one thing I hope all the members got out of the meeting, it’s that we have more sympathy for the actual nominating committee. They have a tall order at hand when they are asked each year to create a ballot for the Rock Hall’s annual induction ceremony. As someone who’s been a Hall watcher for many years, it’s easy to critique their decisions and biases against specific artists and genres. But at the same time, others can and probably will critique the decisions we made. No matter what, I’m proud of the work we did in this project and pleased that everything, somehow, went so smoothly.

And although I have talked online to many of the Rock Hall watchers over the years, this was the first time I saw most of them in live and in real-time (on different time zones no less!). It was a pleasure meeting them for the first time, especially since we’re a close-knit group whose common interest, sometimes obsession, is the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. We may not always agree on everything the Rock Hall does and who should be enshrined among the greats, but we always remain respectful and diplomatic every step of the way. This might cliche and even corny, but you all rock! Let’s hope this hope this becomes an annual (or semi-annual) tradition and we can include more members of the Rock Hall watcher community in the process.

To keep this project alive, we decided to create a Google Forms Ballot and see which artists garner the most support from Rock Hall watchers and fans. You can vote for up to 5 artists and only one email address per ballot will be accepted. The poll will end on August 31, 2020 and Mark and I will reveal the results in a future blog shortly thereafter. If you have any inquiries or questions, you can reach us at @NickDBambach and @alex_voltaire on Twitter. 

Which five artists would you vote for if this was the actual ballot? Let us know in the comments section below.