Flowers

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's women problem

10.02.12

Do the math: Out of the 11 new members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class of 2012, one — Laura Nyro — is a woman. Include all the musicians in each of the newly anointed bands, and you’ll still find only one woman (still Nyro) and 21 men. In the 27 years since the Hall was founded, there have been 296 inductees , including bands, pioneers, producers and promoters. Forty have been women or had female members.

Do women really only account for less than 14 percent of rock history?

Not only do fewer women get picked for the Cleveland-based institution, it takes longer for them to get in. The late, great Nyro, a brilliant singer-songwriter whose career spanned rock, folk, jazz and soul, was nominated 19 years after she first became eligible. (Acts are eligible for nomination 25 years after their first recording.) The Beastie Boys, her co-inductees, were enshrined only four years after eligibility.

Apparently, beneath the marquee announcing the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum’s current exhibit — “Women Who Rock: Vision, Power, Passion” — should be a hand-lettered sign for the secret entrance to the fort of fame: “No girls allowed.”

Source: Salon