Should Madonna be in the RRHOF ?

It's the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in name only. It's really a celebration of Popular music so yes she should. With Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Cash, and other popular music icons.

 

How can you say you're not a huge fan and then call her one of the greatest performers in the history of American popular music ? Are you speaking for others, then ?

 

Nothing to do with rock & roll.



What a relief!

 

She managed to stay on top for thirty-odd years. At some point you acknowledge the accomplishment.

 

I don't disagree with that and I'm not saying they don't belong. I simply brought them up because so many pedantic people focus narrowly on whether or not an inductee is a "rock artist". These people act like prior to 10 years ago or so, every inductee was a "real rock artist" but suddenly the HOF loosened the criteria.

The criteria's always been loose...

 

I would think so - if anyone deserves to be in Cooperstown, it's Gaga!

 

You'd rather have people voting on what they perceive other people like than what the voter (him or herself) actually likes. Interesting. Thing is, everybody has a different opinion on what "the big picture" is. There ain't no universal big picture. I'd much prefer if voters voted based on what they actually like themselves, because this they at least have a fair chance of being accurate about.

I'd say the whole concept of even trying to appropriate another person's opinion for voting purposes, let alone the great compendium of all opinions is a fool's errand. It's over-intellectualizing, like I said before. It's a nonsense proposition.

Voter: Let's see, who is on the ballot. ok, I really love this band's records but what does the world think? They don't have full appreciation so I won't vote for this band I think is amazing because the masses I think don't really get them. Wait, here's someone to vote for. I'm pretty sure the world likes to watch her dance, hell, she's huge. I don't like her music a lot but I need to be voting on what I think everyone else likes and they seem to like her. She did have 4 #1 songs off the same record, ok, they all sounded the same but nobody else seemed to notice. I do recognize that she's an above average dancer. She's important, when she broke up with her boyfriend they talked about her on the news for a week straight. Done, she gets my vote.

 

You trolled yourself in your post above that.

 

She was already inducted in 2008...

 

Do you judge comedians the same way even if you find their humor to be repulsive ? Politicians who have been in Congress for 30 years and voted for every lame bill there ever was ?

 

chervokas successfully baited me.

 

No, makes no sense.

 

It's the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, not Scott's Personal Favorites of All Time. Personally, I couldn't give a crap about the Eagles. I find them to be dull and annoying, but only a fool would try to deny their huge success in the 70s. I don't have to be a fan to recognize that they have a place at the table. Meanwhile, regardless of their qualities, history has largely forgotten the Carpenters. You could try to force them down our throats because you personally think they were really, really special, but most casual observers would just scratch their heads. With a little bit of detachment, it's not impossible for a knowledgeable student of pop culture to put aside their personal biases and assess the artists who have an enduring impact on popular music in the last fifty years. Clearly, Madonna is one of them, whether you like her or not.

 

I'm speaking of a special quality of hers that yes I've observed but also others have observed. We know in history that there are rare performers like that. Maybe we have to rely on the testimony of others because they performed so long ago..like Thomas Daddy Rice or something. Or sometimes we are lucky enough to witness that kind of thing for ourselves. But again its a quality you can observe without being a fan of. In this case I am a fan of Madonna as a performer. But, for example, I can say that Eddie Van Halen is one of the most influential and important electric guitarists ever to pick up the instrument, one of the few players to expand the instrument's vocabulary, an absolute titan and still not enjoy his playing or his tone as I don't. I like Madonna. I admire and respect Madonna. I was blown away by the MDNA show I saw on TV and I went to see her on her first tour. Haven't bought an album of hers since Ray of Light though, or gone to see her since the Reagan administration, so I think that disqualifies me from being a huge fan.

You know I have gigged on multiple instruments, done some very listed session work, produced tracks for bands that have been lucky to be picked up for movie soundtracks etc. It hasn't been what I've done for my career but I've been around the creative side of music as a kind of sideline for most of my life so maybe I have a bit of a practitioner's respect for people who do it really well and who possess special qualities. But I think there are plenty of non musicians who also can look at the work and qualities of an artist apart from only their personal tastes and preferences.

 

Agreed, they lost the compass early on.......

 

Funny...

 

I think Madonna should be in the Rock Hall as long as she pays her admission fee.

 

I never thought Johnny Carson was funny. I thought he was incredibly corny and old-fashioned, "Hee Haw" with nice curtains. But if you put him in an American Comedy Museum, I'd acknowledge that he was at the pinnacle of the profession for thirty-odd years and, yes, deserved to be in there.

 

YES

 

Troll calls kettle "black". This entire thread is a sad, rolling troll and everyone knows it. Maybe even you.

D.D.

 

Just for the record: Madonna is still better than Bread.

 

Well, I think Bowie has a major edge over Madge here. Like, at a minimum, I don't think Madonna has done anything that really ranks with Bowie's "Berlin trilogy" in terms of experimentalism within a pop context - she's always been a lot more explicitly chart-focused.

 

An aside: I think some desperate but inspired producer should pitch a remake of The Bad News Bears where Lady Gaga has to manage a little league baseball team as part of a "community service" sentence for violating some local obscenity law, and call it Li'l Monsters. Come on, it writes itself!

 

Was the music of the "Berlin Trilogy" his idea or an appropriation of someone else's? And was the music all that amazing when the Berlin artists themselves realized Giorgio Moroder was doing much more advanced stuff in the same vein and putting it on the charts?

Similarly, Madonna managed to put au courant stuff in the charts that hadn't been heard by the public at large, although it had been appropriated from the the clubs. But I would think most people's first exposure to House and other dancefloor styles were her songs and videos.

Again, I'm not trying to diminish Bowie's career. I just don't understand how his accomplishments are all that different from or superior to Madonna's. Two peas in a pod, to this listener.

 

I'm not out to diminish Madge myself or say that Bowie didn't ever appropriate anyone else's ideas, just that (a) Bowie has more of a track record for coming up with innovative music (whether himself or working with people like Co-Producer Tony Visconti, who I understand did more than people think), and (b) Madonna was always more commercially oriented than Bowie was. I don't think that's a particularly contentious observation.