The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has announced the 2016 inductees and, much to our chagrin, not a single female artist made the cut. Chaka Khan, Janet Jackson and the band Chic (which includes female members Norma Jean Wright and Luci Martin) were all nominated, but didn’t make it to induction. Instead, Cheap Trick, Chicago, Deep Purple, Steve Miller and N.W.A. will be this year’s newest members.
This is not the first time the RRHF has forgotten about the women of rock and roll. Out of the 749 people who are members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, only about 50 of them are women. The last woman inducted was Joan Jett in 2015. We bet she’d have a few things to say about this year’s list.
Janet Jackson’s snub particularly stings. At Cleveland.com, Troy L. Smith writes, “Her failure to earn induction highlights older rock voters claims’ that Miss Jackson isn’t rock, isn’t Madonna and isn’t as good as her brother. I couldn’t disagree more.”
So how can Janet get that nomination!?!? Artists become eligible 25 years after the release of their first album, and are then judged by their “influence and significance…to the development and perpetuation of rock and roll.” An international voting body of over 600 artists, historians and members of the music industry casts their votes, and the top five to seven are inducted each year. We have a feeling that, just like the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, that group is mostly made up of old white dudes – meaning that nominations for female artists are few and far between.
Sorry, Ms. Jackson. Sexism sucks.
Top image via Facebook/Janet Jackson
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