The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is destined to always evolve, says chairman John Sykes, but while new categories could arrive in the future, a new name for the establishment is out of the question.
Sykes’ comments were published in a new interview with Vulture, which arrived on Tuesday (Dec. 31), just one day before the 2024 Rock Hall induction ceremony hit streaming services. In the piece, Sykes opens up about the current state of the foundation, and touches on previous calls for a name change, especially given how more pop and hip-hop artists have found themselves inducted in recent years.
“I think it’s because some people don’t understand the meaning of rock and roll,” Sykes explains. “If you go back to the original sound in the ’50s, it was everything. As Missy Elliott calls it, it was a gumbo. It just became known as rock and roll. So when I hear people say, ‘You should just change it to the Music Hall of Fame,’ rock and roll has pretty much covered all of that territory. Rather than throwing the name out, it’s doing a better job of communicating to people where rock and roll came from and what it’s truly about. Once they hear it that way, they understand.
“The best story to convey this was when a great friend of mine, Jay-Z, got inducted a few years ago,” he continued. “I was so excited. But he told me, ‘Rock is dead. It should be called the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame.’ And I said, ‘Well, hip-hop is rock and roll.’ He goes, ‘No, it isn’t.’ And I said, ‘We’ve got to do a better job explaining it. Little Richard, Otis Redding, Chuck Berry — these artists were the cornerstones of rock and roll. If you look at the sounds over the years, those artists ended up influencing hip-hop.’ Jay-Z hemmed and hawed, but he showed up to the ceremony. That made me feel like we had done our job to communicate that rock and roll is open to all.”
These comments echo Sykes’ previous recollection of the discussion, as printed in Jay-Z’s Book of HOV just last month.
“My last words, as I pleaded for Jay to come to Cleveland to accept his award, were that rock n’ roll is not any one sound, rather a gumbo,” he wrote. “To paraphrase the great Berry Gordy, rock n’ roll created the sound of young America. It’s a spirit, and the spirit of hip-hop and rap connected rock n’ roll with an entirely new generation.”
Elsewhere in his new discussion, Sykes also looked towards the future of the Rock Hall and the potential for further new categories. While the annual induction ceremony has always featured Performers, Musical Influences (previously called ‘Early Influences’ before 2023), and the Ahmet Ertegun Award (previously called ‘Non-Performers’ before 2008) as categories, it has expanded further in the past.
In 2000, the Rock Hall introduced the Sidemen category to honor those who are often overlooked in the grand scheme of things, with the category being renamed the Award for Musical Excellence in 2010. Likewise, between 2018 and 2020, roughly half-a-dozen songs were chosen each year as the singles that shaped rock history. As Sykes explains, there’s the potential to dig even deeper into the music industry to honor those who keep the industry turning.
“We’ve discussed ways we could recognize not only artists but those around them who’ve had an impact on the sound of rock and roll. Fans often don’t even know who helped break these artists,” he added. “It could be record-company presidents, it could be lawyers, it could be agents. We also want to look at specific songs that change culture. That could be another category.”
Concluding his interview, Sykes also discussed a number of artists who have been overlooked in previous years, including The B-52s, “Weird Al” Yankovic, the Pixies, and Phil Collins’ solo career.
Labelling Yankovic a “genius” who is yet to make it “close” to the ballot, Sykes expressed confidence that the others may make it in some day.
“There’s been a group of nominees who’ve been passionate about the Pixies,” he said. “The same thing with Warren Zevon, who actually did get on the ballot one year. I’m passionate about Warren, and he’ll get in, too. But the Pixies have had a lot of support.”
