Why Does the HOF Hate Prog-Rock?

The latest list of nominees for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame are out, and once again Rush, Genesis and Yes have been ignored by the nomination committee. Run D.M.C., Metallica, The Stooges, Jeff Beck, singer Wanda Jackson, Little Anthony and the Imperials, War, Bobby Womack, and disco and R&B group Chic are the nine nominees that have been selected as this year’s potential entrants by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation.

At least this batch of nominees is better than last year’s group, but why the hate for prog-rock? Metallica, The Stooges and Jeff Beck deserve to be in the hall no questions asked. In fact both Metallica and The Stooges were listed by HT Contributor Sleepy Floyd in his B List on 10 Bands That Should be in the Rock Hall of Fame. Yet, the HOF needs to open its doors to some Proggy Goodness.

Does the committee really think that covering Walk This Way with Aerosmith makes Run D.M.C. more important to the legacy of rock than Peter Gabriel, an artist who broke new boundaries with every solo album he released? And don’t even get me started on Chic. More than 500 musicians, industry professionals and journalists vote on the inductions, but perhaps it’s time to let them vote with a blank slate. If you trust these people to make the right choices, why limit them to a short list of potential inductees?

This leaves us with a number of questions for our readers. Are you content with this year’s list of nominees? If you could pick three bands from the previously mentioned list of nine, who would you pick?

Let us know by leaving a comment below…