The class of 2023 Rock hall of famewhich was announced this week, is made up of Kate Bush, willy nelson, Rage Against the Machine, Sheryl crow, Missy elliott, George Michael, The Spinners, DJ Kool Herc, Link Wray, Chaka Khan, Bernie TaupinTo the kooper and Don Cornelius. The ceremony —which will take place in November at the Museo del Rock hall of fame in Cleveland, Ohio—will be the pretext to pay tribute to these artists and join that pantheon of artists that since 1983 has aroused controversy and many passionate discussions among rock fans.
For willy nelson, Sheryl Crow, george michael and Missy Elliot this was his first time on the ballot. The legendary willy nelson joins Johnny money, hank williams and Dolly Parton as a key piece of country music that has been instrumental in the development of the genre that mixed country, blues, jazz, R&B, and gospel to make what is known today as rock and roll.
george michael as co-founder of Wham! and in his solo career he invited us to listen to the music unprejudiced and tags as we danced freely. Sheryl Crow who began her career as a showgirl in michael jackson during the tour Bad of 1987, and later supported Stevie Wonder, Belinda Carlisle and Don Henleyhas sold millions of records and lit up the radio with his catchy compositions like “All I Wanna Do”, “If it makes you Happy”, “Soak up the sun” and “Every day is a winding road”.
Missy Elliot in her first year of eligibility, she will become the first female rapper to be recognized by this musical institution. His debut album Supa Dupa Flypublished in 1997, placed her on the hip hop scene and has left us with a legacy of memorable songs such as “work it”, “Get Ur Freak On” and “Sock It 2 Me”. The Spinners one of the legendary bands of the Motown record label is one of the best known representatives of the Philadelphia Soul Sound.
The arrival of Kate Bush to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is no surprise. Bush had been among the finalists for several years. The renewed success of him achieved in 2022 by the inclusion of “Running Up That Hill” in the Netflix series stranger things it took it to the top of the UK and US charts 38 years after its release and allowed it to be discovered by new generations.
the famous DJ Kool Herc and the guitarist Link Wray They will be recognized for their musical influence. Herc, originally from Jamaica, is considered one of the precursors of hip hop. In the summer of 1973 Herc showed up at a party thrown by his sister at the recreation center in an apartment complex in the Bronx to raise money for back to school. It was there that for the first time the world heard what is now known as “breaks”, the repetition of a fragment of a song -usually the catchiest- and which is the basis of hip hop.
Without Kool Herc’s contributions they wouldn’t be here. Missy Elliot neither Rage Against The Machinea band that combined punk, hardcore, funk and metal with the rebellious vision of groups like Public Enemy either Run DMC to give visibility to a series of social and political causes during the nineties.
Link Wray He is one of the pioneers of distortion on the electric guitar. The iconic “Rumble,” recorded in 1958, is a precursor to garage, surf, punk, hardcore, grunge, and an influence on every guitarist who has used a distortion pedal in the last 70 years.
the extraordinary singer Chaka Khan, who has made funk, disco, soul in a career of more than five decades and the lyricist Bernie TaupinElton John’s longtime duo, will be recognized for their musical excellence, along with keyboardist and producer Al Kooper. Kooper was fortunate to play with Bob Dylan in their first electric performance at the 1965 Newport Festival, the one that electrified folk. He is also a co-founder of the extraordinary Blood, Sweat & Tears and as a producer he is responsible for albums like Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd, Second Helping and Nothing Fancy of Lynyrd Skynyrd, The tubes, nils logfrenas well as super sessions engraved with Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills.
Don Cornelius was the producer of Soul Train, one of the biggest music variety shows of the 1970s. Along with The Midnight Special it helped bring high visibility to a number of artists primarily of color.
As every year there are always the voices of discontent that lament the exclusion of other legends like Iron Maiden, Joy Division/New Order, The White Stripes, A Tribe Called Quest, Cyndi lauper, soundgarden and Warren Zevon, who were left out of the final list. The exclusion of Warren Zevon left a somewhat bitter taste to specialized critics, who hoped to celebrate the arrival of one of the cult singer-songwriters most revered in recent decades.
Kate Bush celebrated the recognition: “It means a lot that they thought of me. It’s a great honor. Now as part of the initiation ceremony, I will already be able to learn the secret greeting… there is one, right?”
