Simply put, Madonna does not belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Her name was bound to come up in the consideration of artists eligible for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s class of 2008. Madonna, whose self-titled debut album saw release in 1983, meets the technical criteria for induction eligibility.…
Article comments
26 - Robert
If they want rock and roll to be just 'classic rock,' then they're in trouble...
By the way, who are some of these others? Chic? Leonard Cohen? Africa Bambaataa? If no one remembers you 25 years later, you're not notable, not a hall-of-famer. The real measure of a Hall of Famer is someone who is remembered long after they first emerge on the scene.
27 - know real rock
Madonna rock and roll ???? NOT!! SHE IS POP ! Time for a new real rock and roll hall of fame!!!I am not saying she does not belong some were but not in rock and roll!!! Time to rock the vote!!!
28 - Eric Whelchel
No one takes the R&R HOF seriously anyway. We're not talking about something that is considered anything relevant anymore (if it ever was).
29 - Visit the Anti Madonna Forum
Madonna is an entertainer, not a musician. There's a difference.
For the sexist person who discounted this author's editorial simply because of his gender:
I'm a female, and I competely agree with the author's message.
In the 25 years she has been in the music industry, Madonna has not contributed anything. Which is mostly due to the fact that...
The music is not even Madonna's. All her biggest hit songs (such as 'Like A Virgin,' 'Material Girl') were written by other people.
Madonna's supposed contributions on songs where she's listed as "co-writer" are highly questionable.
(It's a common practice in the music business for singers to get their names as co-writers on a song they did not write or contrubte to in any way.)
Madonna has continually relied on song writers and well-known producers (e.g., Nile Rodgers, William Orbit, Stuart Price, Jellybean, Stephen Bray, Patrick Leonard, etc. etc) to create her work for her.
Madonna is famous for being famous - the music was always second, 3rd, or 4th with her.
To have her even considered for induction is a disagrace and a joke.
And, by the way, Madonna is dance/disco and not "rock and roll." She doesn't even fit.
Madonna has no talent or substance: in addition to getting the genuinely talented to make her music for her, she relies on manufactured controversy to get attention.
Madonna's "reinventions" are nothing but thefts - she stole Marilyn Monroe's look, Debbie Harry's look, Jean Harlow's, Marlene Dietrich's, etc.
Someone above said, "he [associate of Pat Leonard's] said she [Madonna] had an amazing ear for what works and what doesn't work."
-so do I; that doesn't make me (or Madonna) a musical genius.
Madonna gets someone else to come up with the music, and she dictates what she likes and does not like about it; they're the ones who do the actual work, not her.
Simply offering your opinion to the song writer or producer on what sounds good in a piece they wrote does not equate to having musical talent.
Re:
"[snip list of 'accomplishments'] which is more than half of the current inductees can say."
-and the list you submitted contains points still irrelevant to criteria for having musical talent and for being considered for nomination into the HoF.
Re: "Plus the video for True Blue always gives me a hard on."
~Yeah, another irrelevant reason given by fans as to why 'Grand-ma-donna' should get into the HoF.
Madonna looked like a circus clown in the True Blue video - does Bozo the Clown get you sexually excited too?
Re: "When Madonna started out, she was little more than yet another disco diva."
And that's what she still is, albeit a very over-hyped one. As for her "evolving"
- look, all Madonna's reinvention crap, whether fashion-wise or music-wise, is based upon her desire to keep earning money and to remain in the media spotlight (she's an attentino whore).
The No-Talent has no genuine interest in music. It's all about profit and fame with her.
More from Glen:
"I don't think you can deny her [Madonna's] impact. She empowered women artistically and in terms of controliing their own careers -- in a male dominated business for one thing --, like few female artists I can think of ..."
Madonna is not a feminist and did not liberate women.
Madonna is not the first woman in the music business to control her image and make her own choices.
There were successful female artists before Madonna came along, who actually paved the way for her, from Peggy Lee to 1970s punk band The Slits to Debbie Harry.
How can Madonna empower women "artistically" when she, as noted above, did not even create her own music? It was all made by producers and men she slept with (such as Stephen Bray).
The only impact Madonna has made, and it's not a positive one, is to encourage the current crop of 20-somethings to dress in next to nothing and grab their crotches in their music videos. Some impact.
30 - daryl d
To the author before...wow! I don't even like everything Madge does but I don't waste five paragraphs on someone I don't like. Get a life!
31 - daryl d
OH, I wish I could erase my comment. I know many here will call me out on the hypocrisy of what I just said.
32 - Roger Friedman
I'm heading an effort to take away Madonna's nomination. I am the music critic from Fox News. Madonna is a washed up, black baby buying hypocrite who NEVER wrote a song in her life. I think she should be shot like a dead old horse: that would symbolize the damage she has done to our society. [Personal contact info deleted]
Roger Friedman
Fox News
33 - Dr Dreadful
It's the height of ridiculousness to pooh-pooh Madonna's achievements on the grounds that she doesn't write her own songs.
How many of his own songs did Frank Sinatra write? Or Bing Crosby? Luciano Pavarotti? Elvis, even?
I don't think you'd hear many people saying that those guys contributed nothing to the music industry.
34 - daryl d
Except that she does write or co write all her songs. This is a fact but certain music critics want to call foul play whenever they want withoug doing fact checking.
35 - Michael J. West
Really, what's the problem with inducting Madonna?
It might cheapen the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? Turn it into nothing more than a crass, shameless commercialization that pretends to honor rock & roll music, artists, development, and principles, but really only turns them into a spectacle for people to gawk at and pay big bucks?
If that's what you're worried about, the only way you can prevent it is to travel back in time. I suggest the first moment when someone said, "Hey! Let's build a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame!"
How can the induction of Madonna cheapen the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? The fact that the Hall of Fame EXISTS is the cheapest proposition on Planet Earth.
36 - Steve
I guess, like some folks have already intimated, it all depends on how you define 'rock 'n' roll'. Whether you define it specifically as 50's rock or pop music in general. If the former, obviously Madonna does not belong, if the latter, she most certainly does.
Personally, I prefer to draw a distinction between rock and pop, in which case, a Pop Hall Of Fame (or even a Dance or Disco one), would be a better place to acknowledge Madonna's musical accomplishments.
As far as I'm concerned, the term 'rock 'n' roll really only applies to the original 50's stuff. I find the North American trend of calling bands like Aerosmith and Nickelback, 'rock 'n' roll bands' almost as silly as calling Madonna 'rock 'n' roll', to be honest.
However, it would appear the Hall Of Fame folks have decided to ascribe the term 'Rock 'n' Roll' to all rock and pop acts, in which case, Madonna has certainly made a contribution of some degree, whether you like or loathe her.
Although I think she is over-rated in terms of sales, and under-rated by critics, her success has certainly shaped pop culture to some degree, for better or worse.
37 - J
You have to be off your rocker to think that Madonna should not be in! She has more top 10 hits than any female in history!! If the only reason they were hits is because they came with cool videos, why are all her classic songs still played on the radio on a constant basis!? And I am sorry but any woman who has the balls to anger the Pope and not be appologetic about it is 100% ROCK & ROLL in my eyes.
38 - Benjie
The purpose of inducting artists to the hall of fame is recognition of these persons to the advancement of Rock and Roll, then no doubt Madonna had perpetuated and continued Rock and Roll up to this very moment. At her age no one can claim to have contributed, mutated, stimulated as well as titillated music the way she did. Forget about song writing abilities; not everyone can be a gershwin or a cole porter besides they are all dead. Their era has past and the music we have today is the music we have enjoyed. Albeit a more morphed and mutated form of Rock and Roll Its still Rock and Music altogether. In 20 years we could probably see Eminem and Jay-Z as inductees as well. Its all about the music and not your hate for one personality.
39 - Jim Baldwin
YES, Eminen in the hall! He has to wait a few years though.
For now, would you help get Melanie in?
40 - El Bicho
"has she contributed to the genre of rock and roll as opposed to pop music in general?"
Uh, you know Billy Joel is in right? I am surprised people care, but if you don't vote, your opinion doesn't matter either way.
41 - tullfan
Madonna is most certainly NOT Rock and Roll. Not that it matters for induction into whatever that place is in Cleveland. How can Madonna be considered when the group that was around 15 years before her put out Aqualung and Thick As A Brick and is STILL TOURING is constantly OVERLOOKED? The Hall of Fame is a farce!
42 - Josh
she should have been in there years ago....... she is a musical icon legend and her live voice is perfect not one other artist has worked harder then that woman and she deserves it alot.... you say you dont like her music let her be accepted for her looks coz she is one hot mamma!!! go Madonna You Rule.... and your always in my hall of fame... and the only one
43 - cadebra1961
Whoredonna is a disgusting, no-talent, phony waste of skin. And she's as rock 'n roll as Debbie Gibson for God's sake. I fucking hate that pretentious, mannish, slutty old hag!!!
44 - Bette Dillinger
Really, what attracted me to Madonna first, last and always was the visual image of her early days. She was a fiesty little bombshell that had her own funky, New York flavored style. No pretentions to be anything else. I also enjoyed the Blonde Ambition period, but have a very hard time thinking of her songs as anything more than a soundtrack to her unflinching desire to provoke. It has served her well financially, and that is what The Hall of Fame is about. She commented on the absurdity herself by having Iggy Pop, who has yet to be inducted, play a few of her songs. Tough decisions for a "museum" going through a economic age, eh? From the above comments, it is obvious money was the ultimate factor. Mark my words in thirty to fifty years, after the dust has cleared, critics will deem her purely a visual artist who generated her own soundtrack. And that's not a bad thing. She truly did it with guns ablazin'.