The class of 2020 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees is here. This year’s additions to the exclusive group of Hall of Famers are Whitney Houston, Notorious B.I.G., Depeche Mode, The Doobie Brothers, Nine Inch Nails, and T. Rex.
The Ahmet Ertegun Award, which honors other industry players influencing rock and roll goes to Irving Azoff and Jon Landau.
The new Rock and Roll Hall of Famers were chosen from a list of sixteen nominees. Some of those who were nominated but not voted into the Hall of Fame include the Dave Matthews Band, Pat Benatar, and Soundgarden.
The winners are chosen by a group of more than 1,000 voters. The voting process also includes a fan vote that counts as one ballot. In recent years, the voting body has branched out in terms of genre, inducting artists from Tupac Shakur to the Cure.
A Diversity Problem
As much as they’ve spread out in terms of style, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is often criticized for its lack of diversity. This is particularly true when it comes to female inductees. Much like the shocking lack of female festival headliners, women in music are still striving for equal acknowledgment.
Only 8 percent of the inductees are women. Out of 37 individual inductees last year, only two of them were women, Janet Jackson and Stevie Nicks.
Rock and Roll, and music in general, is a man’s world. Whitney Houston is the only female inductee this year, not exactly marking an improvement from years past. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. We are not lacking talented women in this industry, the problem is sexism.
In addition to the striking lack of women, only 32 percent of inductees are people of color. Given the incredible role that Black and Latinx communities play in shaping American music, this is not exactly a representative figure.
The ceremony takes place on May 2nd in Cleveland and will air on HBO.
