This year, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will induct acts including Soundgarden, Outkast, and the White Stripes — but some huge names from the ballot didn’t make it, most notably Mariah Carey (for the third time!), Oasis, and Phish.
Carey is an undisputed pop legend; Oasis recorded some of the greatest songs of the Nineties and are about to embark on the most-anticipated reunion tour in years; Phish are, well, Phish, a band that’s created a universe of its own, playing arenas decades into their career. So what happened?
In the new episode of our weekly Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, Andy Greene joins host Brian Hiatt to talk about this year’s inductees (who also include Bad Company, Chubby Checker, Joe Cocker, Cyndi Lauper, Salt-N-Pepa, and Warren Zevon) and omissions. Along the way, they try to get inside the minds of the Hall of Fame’s voters. (To hear the whole episode, go here for the podcast provider of your choice, listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or press play above.)
Oasis falls into two categories that sometimes seem to challenge the Hall of Fame. For one, they’re British; the Smiths have never made it in, and even combining New Order and Joy Division into one slot on the ballot hasn’t helped those bands. Equally problematic: Their hitmaking peak was in the Nineties. Despite Soundgarden’s induction this year, other essential Nineties acts including Smashing Pumpkins, Weezer, and Pavement, among others, have never even been nominated.
As for Carey, Greene suggests the problem is with older voters who may not understand her importance, as well as voters who are looking for some intangible “rock & roll spirit” even for non-rock acts — he’s heard from at least one voter who suggests that Carey somehow lacks that essence, unlike, say, OutKast, who did make it in this year. Maybe if Carey finally releases the lost alt-rock album she talked about in another episode of our podcast, she’ll overcome that particular set of doubts.
Phish, meanwhile, may have been hurt by a love-them-or-hate-them dynamic and their opacity to non-fans — unlike their most direct predecessors, the Grateful Dead, the band has never had any of their songs become radio staples, and prospects for a late-career smash à la “Touch of Grey” seem dim. That said, if past precedents such as Rush are any indication, a humanizing, well-publicized documentary might be the key to getting Phish past any voter skepticism.
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