Hole frontwoman and guitarist Courtney Love is calling out the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for remaining a boys club, nearly 40 years after its inception. In a viral instagram carousel, Love shares a text conversation she had with Dave Grohl, drummer of Nirvana and friend of Love’s late husband Kurt Cobain, explaining why she’s pissed about the famed awards ceremony.
“Have fun at the rock hall Dave,” Love writes in a text. “Make sure and hold the seats of Tina Turner & Carole King, who have been eligible for over 30 years each!”
Love also shared a tweet from music critic Jessica Hopper, who responded to an article from Musical Connection called “Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Celebrates Women Who Rock.” Though the article is about a series of Women’s History Month events hosted by The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Hopper is quick to point out the hypocrisy of the celebration.
“719 inductees to The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, only 61 are women,” Hopper cites. That’s 8.48%.”
Love isn’t the first musician to criticize the sexist nature of The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In 2019 when Janet Jackson was (finally) inducted, she pleaded in her acceptance speech, “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, please, 2020 induct more women.”
Just last year, singer Alanis Morissette dropped out of performing at the induction ceremony. In an instagram story she explained her perspective as a woman in music. “Many decades I’d put up with condescension, dismissiveness, exploitation, physiological violence and an overarching anti-women sentiment.”
She goes on to imply she dropped out of the performance because she’s “at a point in my life where there’s no need for me to spend time in an environment that reduces women.”
It’s been just over a month since the 2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominees were announced. This year’s list includes four solo female artists, Kate Bush, Sheryl Crow, Missy Elliot and Cyndi Lauper and two other female nominees, Meg White of the White Stripes and Gillian Gilbert of New Order.
This year’s roster still falls short of the “female-centric” class of 2021, which included six solo female nominees as well as the members of the Go-Go’s. Of that class, only Tina Turner, Carole King and the Go-Go’s were actually induced.
The 2023 inductees will be announced in May, and we’ll have to wait and see if the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is ready to start actually honoring their women nominees in equal numbers.
& patriarchy is never a surprise & boomer bro music biz never stops furiously reinscribing itself etc etc But @rockhall tut-tutting out here all hashtag Women's History Month -- I cannot abide it.
— Jessica Hopper (@jesshopp) March 10, 2023
REMINDER: ONLY 8.4% OF INDUCTEES IN THE RNR HALL OF FAME ARE WOMEN.
Top photo by Amber Gray, styled by James Rosenthal, makeup by David Tibolla, hair by Charley Brown
Carmella is a writer and journalist based in Milwaukee, WI. She's an arts advocate, insatiable thrifter and the bassist in the band Chit Chat.
