Public Enemy, Rush, Donna Summer Named to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Disco queen finally gets posthumous invite
In a victory for those interested in the teachings of Malcolm X and Ayn Rand (or not!), the new crop of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees includes both hip-hop fire starters Public Enemy and Canadian prog merchants Rush.
The rest of this year's newcomers include Heart, Donna Summer, Randy Newman, and Albert King, as well as Lou Adler and Quincy Jones in the nonperformers category. The induction ceremony will take place at Los Angeles' Nokia Theatre on April 18, 2013, and will undoubtedly feature Flavor Flav embarrassing himself and an extremely long version of "Tom Sawyer."
It's hard to argue with any of those inductees, as they all had a great deal of influence over the course of long careers. However, it's interesting to note the nominees who were left out in the cold:Those not inducted include N.W.A., Procol Harum, the Meters, Kraftwerk, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, the Marvelettes, Chic, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and Deep Purple. It's easy to spot the voting trends on some of those; the mysterious cabal that picks those votes probably flipped a coin between PE and N.W.A., and likely did the same thing with Heart and Jett. None of the other also-rans can really be considered shocking, though with the current surge of electronic music dominating the airwaves, it's mildly surprising Kraftwerk were denied.