If you are an avid Rock Hall watcher the same way as you are an Oscar predictor, then the 2008 ballot would’ve been one of the two easiest classes to predict which artists that were nominated would’ve made the final cut. If you even look at the ballot, you can look at the artist just by their name and say, “Yep, that artist definitely belongs on the Hall of Fame”.
Even with all the rock purists who whine about her induction because she isn’t “rock”, you can’t deny that Madonna is an artists that is worthy to be inducted on her first year she became eligible. She is too big of an artist to get snubbed. Madonna has change the musical landscape (for better or worse depending on who you ask) and some of her songs definitely rock. Just listen to “Like a Prayer” and try to tell me that it isn’t rock. During the induction, Madonna made a bold move by having fellow Michigan artists The Stooges to perform two of her songs “Burning Up” and “Ray of Light”. During that The Stooges had six nominations and weren’t on the that year’s ballot, so Madonna letting them perform is her way of saying “Get them in!”.
As soon as you see the name Leonard Cohen on the ballot, you know that you’re going to vote for him. Cohen had many fans from both critics and artists who are voters and I can guarantee that almost every voter picked Leonard Cohen. Cohen is probably the most influential songwriter of the 20th century besides Bob Dylan, and even people who don’t know him have a favorite song that he wrote and was sung by a different artist.
Out of all the artists on the ballot, John Mellencamp is probably the only one who can be seen as a “rock artist”, so it’s no wonder he got inducted on a weak year where Classic Rock felt really underrepresented. While the other two inducted artists below also sound rock, Mellencamp is the one where an average Rock fan can recognize. Unlike fellow Roots Rock inductees Bruce Springsteen and Bob Seger, John Mellencamp was big for about 5 to 7 years while Bruce and Seger’s fame lasted longer than Mellencamp’s; which was why he took three nominations to get inducted.
If you are a Rock Hall analyst at the time, you know that The Dave Clark Five would get in automatically due to a (made-up) controversy. Story time: A reporter wrote an article about how The Dave Clark Five got the enough votes from the previous year but the Hall held them off in favor of inducting Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. That report is skeptical once you learn that it came from a then Fox News entertainment correspondent. Controversy aside, The Dave Clark Five are worthy of induction. They were the band that knocked The Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” off the #1 spot on the UK charts and became one the main inspirations for the fictional band Tom Hanks’ film That Thing You Do!.
If you aren’t a musician who grew up in the early 60s or a big fan of the original Hawaii Five-O series, then you wouldn’t know who The Ventures are. The Ventures are a surf-rock instrumentalist band whose big hit was “Walk, Don’t Run” and, surprisingly, big in Japan. They’re one of the two most obscure acts on the ballot that it could’ve gone to either artists that missed. Which isn’t entirely fair considering that the band was one of the first to use fuzz effects and also use twelve-string guitars in Rock.
Unlike my last article, the other inductees in other categories are worthy. Gamble & Huff in the non-performer category are worthy because they were the main architects of the sound and success of Philly Soul during the 1970s. While Little Walter is worthy for induction, him getting inducted in the Sidemen category feels like an insult because his solo work is worth more to consider looking instead of him being known as a sessions musician.
Artists Who Were Nominated, But Didn’t Get Inducted That Year
Even in 2008, the Disco backlash was still alive and well at the time. Which makes the snub of both Chic and Donna Summer make sense. This was Chic’s fourth try but if the voters didn’t even try the first three times, why would they start flocking to their support this time round. 2008 was the first of five nominations for Donna Summer, and there is no way the voters would vote for the artist who has the title of “Queen of Disco”.
Like Madonna, this was also the first year the Beastie Boys became eligible with the release of their 1982 Punk EP Polly Wog Stew. While they certainly deserve to be inducted on their first try, I think that voters might think that it is too early for them to be inducted at that time. And unless if you’re a big Hip-Hop head, voters wouldn’t know who Afrika Bambaata is. Voters might not name a single Afrika Bambaata song whereas they can name “The Message” for Grandmaster Flash.
Final Thoughts
I find the 2008 class to be a little bit of meh. While there are more worse induction classes after this, three of the five inductees don’t interest me that much and would’ve been interesting if they got inducted in separate years, and two of the inductees that I like didn’t even perform on the ceremony. Although The Stooges performing Madonna’s songs are still great.
Artists Who I Would’ve Voted If I Had a Ballot:
- Beastie Boys
- Chic
- Leonard Cohen
- Madonna
(couldn’t find a better nominee as my fifth pick)