Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

A repository dedicated to the rich heritage of rock and roll

Date Created in 1983

The establishment of this institution exemplified the trend toward the preservation of heritage that marked the 1980s.

Establishment

In 1983, Ahmet Ertegün, cofounder of Atlantic Records, decided to establish an organization that would recognize those who had created rock-and-roll music and those who had propelled it to the height of popularity. After meeting with attorney Suzan Evans about the concept, Ertegün brought together a group of music industry professionals including Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner, attorney Allen Grubman, and record executives Seymour Stein, Bob Krasnow, and Noreen Woods. After numerous discussions, a nominating committee was formed to select inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The criteria established by the group included three categories for induction: performer, nonperformer (including producers, journalists, and music industry executives), and early influences.

Once the criteria were established, the search began for a home for a major museum that would include a library, archives, educational facilities, a performance venue, and a permanent museum collection of rock-and-roll memorabilia. The first location was to be a brownstone in New York City, but other cities began to submit requests to be considered for the honor. Philadelphia, New Orleans, San Francisco, Memphis, Chicago, and Cleveland all made offers to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation.

The first inductees were honored at a dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City on January 23, 1986. The inaugural class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame performers included Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, and Little Richard. Robert Johnson, Jimmie Rodgers, and Jimmy Yancey were honored in the early influences category, and the first inductees in the nonperformer category were legendary producer Sam Phillips and disc jockey Alan Freed, who was credited with first using the term “rock and roll.”

On May 5, 1986, the foundation announced that Cleveland, Ohio, had been selected as the permanent home for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Once the site had been selected, an exhaustive search was held for a designer, and world-renowned architect I. M. Pei was chosen. He created a building that reflected the energy of rock and roll. The hallmark of the building was a dramatic triangular glass “tent” that served as the main entrance to the museum. The groundbreaking ceremonies for the museum took place on June 7, 1993. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opened its doors on September 2, 1995, with artifacts of John Lennon donated by Yoko Ono serving as one of the primary collections.

Awards

Each year, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts about five to seven new performers, honoring them in an annual ceremony usually held in New York, though it has also been hosted in Los Angeles and Cleveland. In addition, the foundation usually inducts at least one nonperformer industry professional; following Ertegün's death in 2006, this category was renamed the Ahmet Ertegün Award for Lifetime Achievement in his honor. Occasionally, artists from earlier eras who influenced rock and roll despite not being rock artists are also inducted; in the early twenty-first century inductees in this category included rockabilly singer Wanda Jackson (2009), folk and blues guitarist Elizabeth Cotten (2022), calypso musician and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte (2022), and hip-hop artist DJ Kool Herc (2023). Inductees in this category are often folk, blues, jazz, or country musicians, and often have careers predating the 1950s.

In 2000, a new award category was instituted, then called the "Sidemen" award, for notable session and concert musicians. The category was inactivated in 2004 and reinstated in 2008; in 2010, it was renamed the Award for Musical Excellence and expanded to any musician who has spent a significant part of his or her career "out of the spotlight" supporting major artists. In 2023, inductees in this category included songwriter and producer Al Kooper and funk vocalist Chaka Khan.

Some have criticized the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's selection process, citing a lack of transparency, neglect of certain subgenres, and apparent racial and gender biases. When the Sex Pistols were inducted in 2006, for instance, the remaining members refused to attend the ceremony, as they objected to the whole institution. By 2015, only 61 of 719 inductees, or 8.5 percent, were women, and of the 21 artists who had been inducted multiple times, 17 were White and all were men. Nevertheless, the awards remained coveted in the music industry, and the museum, which hosts a variety of temporary exhibits and concerts along with the actual Hall of Fame, remained popular with the public and a major source of revenue for the city of Cleveland. Efforts to improve the diversity of inductees were made in the 2020s, when greater numbers of women and people of color were inducted. However, criticism persisted, and in 2023, Jann Wenner, one of the original cofounders of the Hall of Fame, was ousted from the board of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation following comments he made that were perceived to be racist and sexist.

Notable Inductees

Three of the six founders of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame have been inducted as nonperformers: Ertegün in 1987, Wenner in 2004, and Stein in 2005.

The only artist to be inducted three times is Eric Clapton, as a member of the Yardbirds in 1992, a member of Cream in 1993, and a solo artist in 2000. The only band inducted whose individual members have all been inducted as members of other bands is Crosby, Stills & Nash (inducted in 1997). David Crosby was inducted with the Byrds in 1991, Stephen Stills with Buffalo Springfield in 1997, and Graham Nash with the Hollies in 2010. Meanwhile, the Beatles is the only band whose members have all been inducted for their solo careers, and Ringo Starr became the first artist to be honored in two different categories when he was given the Award for Musical Excellence in 2015.

Drummer Ilan Rubin of the Nine Inch Nails became the youngest living musician ever to be inducted in 2020, when he was thirty-two years old. Previously the record had been held by Stevie Wonder, who was inducted in 1989 at the age of thirty-eight.

Impact

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation created an enormously successful location for the preservation, commemoration, and promotion of rock and roll. It provides a place for the narrative of rock and roll’s history.

Bibliography

Cateforis, Theo. The Rock History Reader. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2013. Print.

Coscarelli, Joe. "At Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Ceremony, a Generational Push and Pull." New York Times. New York Times, 19 Apr. 2015. Web. 4 June 2015.

George-Warren, Holly. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: The First 25 Years. New York: Harper, 2009. Print.

Juchartz, Larry, and Christy Rishoi. “Rock Collection: History and Ideology at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.” Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies 19.2/3 (1997): 311–32. Print.

Horning, Susan Schmidt. "The Architects of Rock and Roll: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Cleveland." Technology and Culture 52.3 (2011): 598–605. Print.

Manzel, Kevin. “Cleveland’s New Museum Celebrates Rock and Roll.” Historian 58.1 (1995): 29. Print.

Sisario, Ben. "Jann Wenner Removed from Rock Hall Board after Times Interview." The New York Times, 19 Sept. 2023, www.nytimes.com/2023/09/16/arts/music/jann-wenner-removed-rock-hall.html. Accessed 20 Nov. 2023.