DETROIT — Eminem has sold a gazillion albums, he's done and said it all, there are few if any musical milestones he hasn't hit over the last two and a half decades.
But does he rock?
He does by the standards of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which announced this week he will be joining its ranks, along with a 2022 class that includes Duran Duran, Dolly Parton, Pat Benatar, Eurythmics, Lionel Richie and Carly Simon.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is the premier institution for recognition of lifetime achievement in the field of recorded popular music. Artists are eligible for induction 25 years after their first album, and inductees are selected by a voting body that includes more than 1,000 artists, historians and members of the music industry.
There's no question Eminem has earned his stripes and deserves to be enshrined alongside the greatest of all time in his field. What is in question, though, is if Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is still the best name for this thing.
In terms of popular music, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame hasn't been around that long; it's only as old as Dionne Warwick's "That's What Friends are For," which was the No. 1 song in America at the time of the first induction ceremony, in January 1986.
That first induction class included Elvis Presley, James Brown, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, Sam Cooke, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, and Jerry Lee Lewis: all men, you'll note — Aretha Franklin wouldn't get in until a year later — and some whose credentials when it comes to actually rocking are questionable.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation was established three years earlier by legendary record exec Ahmet Ertegun, the co-founder of Atlantic Records, who helped shape the careers of the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and many others. (He himself entered the Rock Hall in 1987; it may have been seen as tacky if he put himself in the first class.)
The Foundation included a board made up by record execs, music industry professionals and Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner, who for a long time has been the face of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, for better, maybe, but mostly for worse.
Now had this board gone with a different name from the onset, it could have saved itself some future grief. But rock 'n' roll was alive and well at the time, and who could foresee a future where rocking was not the be-all, end-all?
Flash forward a couple decades, and here we are. Rock's stranglehold on popular music has significantly diminished — 2021's best-selling rock album was Queen's 40-year-old "Greatest Hits" set — and "rock and roll!" is something dads excitedly say to themselves when the mounting fixture they're looking for is in stock at Home Depot.
There's a longstanding argument that the "Rock & Roll" part of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame embodies a spirit of rebellion more than it does define one's musical style. And while cases can be made that figures such as Madonna (inducted in 2008) and Tupac Shakur (inducted in 2017) certainly epitomize a rock star attitude, that rock star persona or ideal carries less cultural clout or relevance today than it ever has in its existence, especially since MGK's recent rock star makeover.
Some inductees still rock. Pat Benatar rocks, Duran Duran rocks. (Well, maybe they synth.) But Lionel Richie and Carly Simon not so much, and Dolly Parton rocks so little that she asked her name be taken off of this year's ballot, since she never considered herself rock 'n' roll "in any sense of the word." (She since pulled back on her statement, right around time it was clear as day she was getting in.)
And as the sands of time continue falling through the hour glass, artists are now entering the Rock Hall who got their start in the late 1990s, a time when rock rocked a whole lot less, and it's not going to get any better from here.
In his 2000 hit "The Way I Am," Eminem complained about his songs being played on rock and roll stations. Hip-hop icon Jay-Z, who was inducted last year, said he never had dreams of being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, mainly because of its name. "They may have to change that name pretty soon," he said.
Sooner than later: Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé, Kanye West, Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Drake will all become Hall of Fame eligible over the next decade and some change, and it's important for the Hall to maintain its relevancy by continuing to recognize younger artists.
But as fewer and fewer of them have any relationship with rock 'n' roll proper — and some even have an adversarial view of the very idea of "rock" — why not change the name to something that's more representative of what the Hall of Fame truly is?
So what to call it? Music Hall of Fame just sounds undercooked, and names such as the Popular Music Hall of Fame or the Hit Music Hall of Fame invite issues: who is to say what's popular, and why does something have to be a hit to be influential or worthy of recognition? (Just ask Tom Waits, who never charted a hit, but was inducted into the Rock Hall in 2011.)
The Recording Artists Hall of Fame is generic but it gets the job done: it's an all encompassing term for artists who work in the field of music, and there's no way Dolly can say she doesn't consider herself a recording artist.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame definitely has other problems, mainly over who's in and who's not, and how they get there. Those are tough ones to solve, but the name thing isn't. Change it. Nothing would rock more.
