The United States’ musical elite will gather in New York on Friday evening to celebrate the inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the pantheon of rock and a range of popular music styles: including Missy Elliott, Kate Bush and the late George Michael, died in 2016.
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Based in Cleveland, Ohio, in the northern United States, this institution is also trying to improve its image in terms of gender and racial diversity.
Kate Bush AFP
In addition to the American rapper Missy Elliott, the Californian metal and rap fusion Rage Against the Machine, the Texas country icon Willie Nelson, 90, the American rocker Sheryl Crow and the R&B group The Spinners round out the 2023 vintage.
They’ll be in the spotlight at a gala concert Friday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
George Michael AFP
The prestigious Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – which surveyed more than 1,000 musicians, music historians and music industry executives to make its decisions – has never been limited exclusively to rock and, from its first edition in 1986 to the present, has opened its pantheon to other genres: soul , blues, R&B, folk, country, then rap.
In 2022, rapper Eminem and country queen Dolly Parton made their debut.
First woman in hip hop
Missy Elliott will become the first female star of hip-hop – a culture and music genre that celebrated its 50th anniversary in New York this summer – to join the music pantheon.
To be one, you need at least 25 years of professional experience after your first commercial success.
It is the rapper Queen Latifah who will appoint Missy Elliott, a “blessing”, said the latter on ABC, because “whatever people say, the world of hip-hop is both special and unique”.
Meanwhile, famed British songwriter and musician Kate Bush, 65, announced in a press release on Friday that she “could not attend” the ceremony, without giving any reason, but expressed her “honor” as “the beating heart of the American music industry ” apply.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is one of the pillars of this industry, as is the Recording Academy, which administers the Grammy Awards, the Oscars of music.
This Pantheon, like many cultural and entertainment institutions in the United States, has had to make efforts for its image and diversity policy: to be less male and less white.
Most notably, Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin and Madonna have been inducted, but women have made up barely 10% of the Hall of Fame’s thousand members since 1986.
controversy
The institution was rocked by a controversy in September.
Jann Wenner, 77-year-old American businessman and founder of the respected cultural magazine Rolling Stone in 1967, was removed from the Hall of Fame’s board for comments he made in the New York Times that he deemed racist and sexist.
When asked about the complete lack of musicians of color in his latest book paying homage to the greatest rock stars (“The Masters”), Jann Wenner replied that no rocker had “expressed themselves in a sufficiently intellectually structured way.”
John Sykes, president of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, asserted in the New York Times this week that “the electoral body is young and diverse enough to really make the most thoughtful decisions about who should be inducted.”
“We have to do better, but we are making progress,” he said.