Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
Monday is the 19th annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction ceremonies. This year’s class is interesting and worthy if not quite first-tier material. I wrote about the event and the artists being inducted for MSNBC.com:
- The Grammys honor what’s happening now in music, but the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame takes the long view and celebrates the significance and influence of artists over the course of their careers: a Grammy is exciting, but induction into the rock hall is the profound achievement of a lifetime.
There will be both excitement and profundity in the air on Monday, March 15, when the 19th annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony is held at the fabled Waldorf Astoria in New York City. This year’s inductees are Jackson Browne, the Dells, the late George Harrison, Prince, Bob Seger, Traffic and ZZ Top. Jann Wenner, co-founder and publisher of Rolling Stone magazine, will receive a non-performer lifetime achievement award.
Reflecting and amplifying the star power of the inductees will be Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews, Tom Petty, OutKast and Alicia Keys among the presenters and inductors. VH1 will tape the event, which will include live performances, for broadcast March 21.
The Inductees
The year’s inductees are a varied and worthy group, although arguably none but Prince belongs in rock’s core pantheon….
please click over for profiles
- Banner Year for the Rock Hall
As satisfying as is the gathering and induction of another noteworthy class into the hall, 2004 also looks to be the best year in some time for the organization and its physical home, the stunning Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum on Cleveland’s lakefront. Although some feel a grand commemorative edifice is in direct violation of rock ‘n’ roll’s living spirit – that any “Rock Hall” would be a mausoleum, a place where dead things go to pretend that the race with time hasn’t been lost – the place sure feels alive with rock ‘n’ roll spirit to me.
Designed by acclaimed architect I.M. Pei, the museum is a glass-dominated 150,000-square-foot structure, punctuated by a 162-foot tower, and stuffed with accessories to magic. While paid attendance decreased about 6 percent last year, this is seen as a victory in the midst of a tough economy and a downturn in tourism. Better still, through Feb. 15, year-to-date total attendance for 2004 was up 1.8 percent over last year, and the organization is ahead of schedule in paying off long-term debt.
Now just a year-and-a-half away from its 10th anniversary, the Rock Hall recently announced exciting plans, including collaborating with Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University to house the hall’s library and archives on the university campus, solving a dire space shortage at the hall itself. A new television series will pair veteran musicians with up-and-coming artists for performances starting in May on the hall’s main stage, with four episodes set to air nationally; and the hall is scouting permanent, revenue-generating satellite locations for its traveling exhibitions in Phoenix and Memphis, Tenn….
Unless you are attending the event in New York at the Waldorf, the only way to see the show live is to go to the Rock Hall in Cleveland Monday to watch the closed-circuit presentation:
- Uncut, Uncensored, Unbelievable…Unavailable Anywhere Else
Join us in celebration of the lives and music of the 2004 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees with a LIVE closed-circuit broadcast of the ceremony at the Museum. Attendees will be able to view the entire 2004 Induction Ceremony live from New York on large screens throughout the Museum.
Monday, March 15
Show starts at 8:00pm
Museum exhibits will be open to tour.
Tickets are $10.
I’m not sure it’s all that, but Prince will be well worth seeing and Traffic is reuniting, although their great woodwind man Chris Wood died back in 1984.
