‘A Big Fat No’: Two Rock Hall Voters Dissect Their 2025 Ballots
“They are the turds in the punch bowl of rock and roll.”
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Sorry, boomers. If this year’s Gen X–heavy Rock & Roll Hall of Fame shortlist indicates anything, it’s that your reign is coming to an end. This evolution was inevitable for the Rock Hall, which has recently rebranded itself as a more generalized hub for popular music. However, as one member notes, these changes could give the vocal “change the name to the Music Hall of Fame” movement more validation. “I believe the organization is doing their best, so I don’t rage at the nominators the way some people do,” they say. “But sometimes you wind up with strange ballots — and this is one of the stranger ballots.” Another member is more blunt: “I was very disappointed that there weren’t more women nominated. There had been a trend in recent years of trying to right the gender imbalance, so I was surprised it was so male dominated.” This year’s shortlist is the most regressive in years for gender diversity, with only four artists (Cyndi Lauper, Mariah Carey, the White Stripes’ Meg White, and New Order’s Gillian Gilbert) representing a female contingent. “I really have no idea who’s going to get in,” the voter adds with a sigh.
So let’s talk it out. For the fourth consecutive year, Vulture has gathered two voters for the Rock Hall to anonymously analyze what their ballots look like. (I was invited to join the voting committee this year, which I accepted.) Voter 1 has been involved for “about ten years,” while Voter 2 has reached the five-year mark. While their strategies and allegiances may vary, they’re both in firm agreement on one thing: Why the hell is Chubby Checker there?
Bad Company
Voter 1: Are they a major rock act? No. Are they an ever-present classic-rock act heard on the radio to this day? Absolutely. I like them more than I want to admit, largely because Paul Rodgers has a fantastic rock-and-roll voice. “Feel Like Makin’ Love” may be a meathead anthem, but it’s catchy. I won’t vote for them, though, because I’m trying to use my vote strategically to help women and people of color.
Voter 2: When you look at people talking about the Rock Hall and saying, “Why isn’t X inducted?,” Bad Company is up there every year. It’s a quintessential rock supergroup. You have Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke, so you have links to Free, Mott the Hoople, and King Crimson. They’re sort of the connective tissue between all the British bands of the ’60s and everyone who came after. They have a good chance of getting in without my vote.
The Black Crowes
Voter 1: I’d be a liar if I didn’t cop to the fact they’ve had hits I’ve liked. But do I think they deserve to be on this ballot? No, not over other people. It’s possible to love an act and think they don’t need to be in the Rock Hall. This comes up with the Monkees argument every year. I love the Monkees, but I don’t feel it’s a great outrage that they’re not inducted. The Black Crowes are fairly derivative. If they get in, it’s because people will say, “When you think rock and roll in the ’90s, you think Black Crowes.”
Voter 2: It had never occurred to me that the Black Crowes, of all bands, would get nominated. That’s no shade on them because I find them to be fantastic. I just don’t think they’re Rock Hall–worthy. They’re part of the great southern-rock tradition and fit in that lineage, but who have they influenced?
Mariah Carey
Voter 1: I buy the argument that Mariah Carey’s hybridization of Whitney Houston–style singing with hip-hop aesthetics is influential. She’s also a songwriter, lest we forget. I just don’t love the material. Bluntly, it felt good to let her go by for at least one ballot. In a world where everybody from Radiohead to Janet Jackson didn’t get in on their first ballot, why was it such an outrage that Mariah didn’t, either? Unlike Whitney, who had to do a Teddy Pendergrass duet before she actually broke in the mid-’80s, Mariah launched her career with five No. 1 hits. She hit the ground running with a promotional battle plan that was like the D-Day landing. This gal has rarely waited very long for anything.
Voter 2: I’m a huge fan. Yes, she’s closely associated with Christmas, but people forget how massive she was in the ’90s and early aughts. She’s in the Songwriters Hall of Fame. When you’re thinking about mixing pop, hip-hop, soul, and R&B, she excelled at it all.
Chubby Checker
Voter 1: This one bugs me. His career is overshadowed by one big and important hit. About a decade ago, the Rock Hall very briefly tried doing a thing where they inducted songs. It felt a little half-assed, but if any song deserves to be in the Rock Hall, it’s “The Twist.” That said, the only reason Chubby recorded “The Twist” — which was originally by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters — was because Dick Clark told him to. The song is greater than the man.
Voter 2: I was befuddled. I’m not sure why he was nominated in this main Performer category. I’m surprised he wouldn’t get in as an Early Influence. It feels like with a lot of those artists of his caliber, that’s where they’re placed. I don’t understand this at all.
Joe Cocker
Voter 1: I’m partially disappointed by this nomination because it would’ve been nice if he had been on the ballot while alive. I’m still deciding if I’m going to vote for him. He’s a very distinctive vocalist, but the recorded output is spotty. “Up Where We Belong” and “You Are So Beautiful” aren’t priority songs in the history of rock and roll. You’re basically voting for him as a song stylist. It’s comparable to Chubby Checker in that the songs slightly overshadow the career, but the career is pretty great.
Voter 2: This was another one that was a bit of a head-scratcher for me, only because it was like, Huh, that’s right, he’s not in. He sits in the Linda Ronstadt–type category in that he’s such a wonderful interpreter of music and other artists’ songs. As a vocalist, he’s peerless. What his impact is, I don’t know. I didn’t end up voting for him, but I could see him getting in.
Billy Idol
Voter 1: Do I need to vote for this guitar-wielding white man? Maybe not. This nomination is basically about Billy playing ball with the Rock Hall. Not to be too cynical, but appearing at a couple of ceremonies is notoriously a way to get on the ballot. Good for you, buddy. The main thing I love about him is he’s a tough genre categorization. He’s pop, he’s punk, he’s New Wave. He even qualified as hair metal. If anything gets me to vote for Billy, it’s his shape-shifter nature.
Voter 2: I would never have anticipated Billy Idol getting inducted. It makes a lot of sense, though. When you think of ’80s solo acts, he was huge. He started off in Generation X as a real punk-rocker and translated that attitude to rock and pop music for decades. But this year, there were other people I felt needed my vote more.
Joy Division/New Order
Voter 1: However many times they appear, I’ll check that box. If ever there were a cause célèbre for my generation, it should be them. The combination of the two bands is sensible. It’s not cheating.
Voter 2: They weren’t exactly a no-brainer, but I’m like, Yeah, it’s about time. It’s funny that the Rock Hall insists on lumping them together, because they’re so different in terms of their specific sound. When you’re just looking at influence, they both continue to reverberate.
Cyndi Lauper
Voter 1: I think the world of her. I slightly agonized over voting for Cyndi two years ago in a Billy Idol sense where I was like, Am I doing this because I’m a Gen-Xer and I have warm feelings, or does she actually deserve it? In the end, I did, and this year it’s even easier for me. First of all, there aren’t enough women on this ballot. Cyndi is a titanic vocalist. She’s a songwriter. “Time After Time” has become a standard. Yes, the career gets thin after the first two albums, but what she achieved on those albums — especially She’s So Unusual — is vital and important enough. The fact that she’s one award shy of an EGOT tells you the quality of her talent.
Voter 2: Cyndi was No. 1 for me on this ballot. I was upset a few years ago when she didn’t get in. Everyone associates her with the ’80s and her first record, but she’s so much more than that. She writes her own songs and has written so many beautiful ones about important topics like abortion. She’s a vocalist with a singular voice. You can’t look at the ’80s without her. She paved the way for any female artist who wants to carve out their own path and not follow convention. I could talk for hours about Cyndi. It’s a capital, big check-mark “yes.”
Maná
Voter 1: There’s a snowball’s chance in hell Maná will get in unless we have enough voters who understand Latin rock. There are certain acts the Rock Hall puts forth that almost feel like trial balloons for somebody they eventually wind up inducting via a side category. I have a feeling Maná will be one of those.
Voter 2: I’m not very familiar with them. Still, I’m happy the Rock Hall nominated Maná. When we talk about popular music, sometimes we get stuck in certain countries. I applaud them for saying, “No, this is a rock band who’s influential around the world.”
Oasis
Voter 1: Oasis has a brand to protect. They are the turds in the punch bowl of rock and roll. They have to act like they’re above it all and don’t give a shit, though Liam said he would show up if they got inducted. I won’t vote for them. I have a hard time seeing the influence. I suspect a lot of the people voting for them are ten years younger than me who remember the ’90s a little more fondly than I do.
Voter 2: They’re so influential, almost in spite of themselves. It’s been 30 years since they first emerged, and bands that are still forming are saying, “I want to sound like Oasis.” The fact they’re coming around to do a victory lap, to say, “Hey, remember us? We did it right first, we’re the best” — I love that. They’re massively popular in America. People forget about that. I voted for them because the spectacle of them showing up would be hilarious.
OutKast
Voter 1: OutKast should come pre-checked on the ballot. What took so long? These guys have been eligible for five years. There was a period in America when they were the consensus stars of their era. They were an act that hip-hop heads and boring white people liked equally.
Voter 2: I absolutely voted for OutKast. I was a bit disappointed there was only one hip-hop artist on the ballot again this year because when you only have one, it almost looks like they’re the token nominee. But when you’re talking about Atlanta hip-hop and southern hip-hop, the influence is incalculable. We’ve had a lot of hip-hop inducted from the East and West Coasts. Making sure southern hip-hop is represented is important because it’s such a dominant force.
Phish
Voter 1: If I were going to rank this ballot, Phish would be dead last. A big fat no. I come by my distaste honestly: About ten years ago, I was at a bar with some buddies; I was relatively sober and something had been playing on the jukebox for about 15 minutes. I was finally like, “What is this shit music?” It was in minute 18 of a 20-minute track from the Phish album A Live One. Some jerk had used his $2 for TouchTunes to put on a Phish track because (a) he’s a Phishhead and (b) he wanted to punk the whole bar. All the clichés apply. I do appreciate that Trey Anastasio is a genuine fan of rock history. I just can’t stand the music.
Voter 2: I didn’t appreciate Phish until I saw them live. A few years ago, Trey Anastasio inducted Genesis into the Rock Hall and Phish played “Watcher of the Skies.” That unlocked something in my head. I was like, Oh, they’re a prog band. I think that’s the key to why they got nominated because they’re from that lineage. It’s polarizing to call them a jam band, so I hesitate to do that. I didn’t vote for them, just because I felt there were other people who deserved it more this particular year.
Soundgarden
Voter 1: They arguably could’ve gotten in before Nirvana and Pearl Jam and have a bit more influence than them. They were in the Seattle scene long before Nirvana even released an album. I’m the problem because I’ve never voted for them. I’m trying to find room for Soundgarden this year because they deserve it. This is morbid, but after Chris Cornell died, why didn’t they get in the following year?
Voter 2: They’ve probably been dinged for so long because they draw so much on the metal side, especially their earlier stuff. I can see people being a little put off because they hewed toward that end rather than, say, someone else from Seattle who was a bit poppier, like Nirvana. Soundgarden is heavy, but they’re extremely influential. Chris Cornell’s voice was unreal. They were a “classic band,” so I voted for them. It’s long overdue.
The White Stripes
Voter 1: I love the White Stripes, but I’ll confess I didn’t vote for them a few years ago. I thought, They don’t need it because they’re a slam dunk. Whoops. Won’t make that mistake again. Jack White is a walking history of rock and roll. Meg White is an underrated drummer. She’s not flashy, but she was the right drummer for that band. I hope if they get in, she can overcome her stage fright and appear with Jack. That would be a gasp.
Voter 2: I voted for them. In the early aughts, they single-handedly kicked off so much of what was defined as rock: the Strokes and then onward into all the post-punk with Franz Ferdinand. They were the linchpin for a lot of that. Everyone knows Jack for how he is now as a solo artist, but Meg’s drumming was so unique and the White Stripes wouldn’t have worked without her. Over the years, there’s been more of a reassessment of her drumming because there was so much misogyny and sexism directed toward her. People are finally saying, “No, they were equals.”
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