The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame shouldn't exist.

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On New Year’s Day while looking for something to watch I came across a channel with a loud, gray-haired British guy wearing a nice suit. And Scarf is complaining about something. I thought I had turned to CNN and was watching the occasional cheerful, shouting business and aviation reporter. Richard Quest– I’m not even close – that’s Roger Daltrey of the Who, and he was excited to introduce new Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Peter Frampton at an abbreviated ceremony in October.

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Frampton’s music was the soundtrack to my nostalgic teenage nights in the 1970s; On the broadcast, Keith Urban joined him to perform his mega hit “Do You Feel Like We Do” and I remember every word, and Frampton truly looked like a man who was loved by those around him. It was a good time. But when Daltrey was 80 years old, famous at 21 years old. sing“Hope I Die Before I’m Old”—is introducing the man whose biggest hit was nearly 50 years ago. It’s a reminder that the entire Rock & Roll Hall of Fame idea is completely wrong.

As the proverb says, Good writers borrow And great writers steal it. By the way, I used to be a professor. and the teacher shows the source So let me lean on John Strausbaugh, who wrote the excellent 2001 Jeremiad , to counter Boomer musical nostalgia. Rock ‘til you dropTo explain why the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame shouldn’t exist: Because “it’s as true to the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll as a Hard Rock Cafe—where there are too many kids and you can’t Get a drink.”

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Hall of Fame is about the old and the dead, rock’n’roll is about the young and the living. The Hall of Fame tried to reform rock ‘n’ roll, tame it, reduce it to bland middle American family entertainment. It exudes all the sexiness, danger and rebelliousness…

Strasbaugh is particularly stricken by the Rock Hall’s tradition of “honoring” classical performances by “drag their old butts out on stage” then make them As they pretended to feel the music the same way they did as kids nearly 25 years ago, he said the Rolling Stones were well past their retirement. and Cher’s performances in her late 1990s were “very strict in her makeup and clothing.” Until she looked like a wax figure of herself.”

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Last year, The Rolling Stones went on tour again and were supported By—I’m serious—AARP

And Cher was just inducted into the Rock Hall in October at age 78. When you ask Cher to dress so she can be praise By Dua Lipa A granddaughter young enough to be her granddaughter. You might try to honor the artist. But mostly you’re just warning everyone about the brutal march of time.

Sometimes I get annoyed on social media because of my bad music. And I will confess that there are some exceptions. I didn’t develop my musical tastes beyond the Beatles, Billy Joel, and Top 40 ear candy until I was in college. Less is better by the older generation. WBCN in Boston and my freshman dorm neighbors at Boston University who introduced me to Steely Dan) But you don’t have to have exquisite musical taste to cringe when worthy people from the music industry get together each year to perform an often ridiculous Choices about what constitutes “Rock and Roll” and who does it well enough to be praised by every era? Listen, I love Cher’s hits from the ’70s—“Train of Thought” It’s an underrated little pop gem in my view, but is Cher an inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? If you and Bobby Darin and Lovin’ Spoonful and Woody Guthrie and Willie Nelson are “rock,” what isn’t?

This is where I have to admit that I have never been to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame or even Cleveland. But I would argue that seeing it all up close. As Straussbaugh notes in his book It’s full of This rock artist once wore this shirt. and That rock artist has touched this mic stand.—Not an issue Trying to trap the power and spirit of youthful grandeur behind the ice in the Fortress of Rock Solitude is, in some ways, nothing more than a monument to nostalgia. What’s worse is that it’s an ongoing tribute, not to the music. but to the capitalist system. Maybe the music business has always been a business. But most rock ‘n’ roll songs are about rebellion against the establishment. without asking for a good table At the Chamber of Commerce ceremony

Don’t get me wrong. I like both rock music and capitalism. I also tend to reflect on my past to some degree. And I would pay to see some of my favorite older stars get up on stage. Wink at the audience and pull out their famous dance moves As long as they do it With a self-awareness that makes it more like visiting an old friend than revisiting a painful past.

But even though returning to the stage with taste Even age can have an effect on both performer and audience: I’m in my 60s now and I love seeing Peter Frampton get loud applause. I don’t feel warm or happy. I just feel old because Hey! Obviously old (Frampton has autoimmune disease This caused his muscles to weaken so he had to sit and sing in the arena.) And when Keith Urban played as a representative of the younger generation At the age of 56 yearsIt makes me feel sorry for the people who shaped the musical landscape of my youth.

Maybe America doesn’t need to commercialize every Boomer memory. Artists are eligible for induction into the Rock Hall 25 years from the date of the first commercial recording release. But Rock can’t be distilled in 25-year batches like some rare whiskies. Rock is more like… sex. Each model must be experienced by oneself. Each generation later thought that they had invented it. Eventually we all realized that no one generation could fully explain their feelings on this matter to the next generation.

When it comes to sex and rebellion One of the best arguments against the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is exactly that. Warren Zevon not in there His continued exclusion is one of the greatest ongoing actions. Argument of the selection process, but the point is not that Sewon should stay in it; But the question is whether Zewon will ever do it or not. need The man who wrote Play It All Night Long and Mr. Bad Example isn’t on a pedestal next to Mary J. Blige and Buffalo Springfield, and that’s reason enough there shouldn’t be a Hall of Fame. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

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