Earlier this week, Courtney Love took aim at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame over their lack of female representation, with women only making up 8.48% of the 719 inductees currently in the Hall.
Now, Love has doubled down on her criticism in some style, penning a lengthy Op Ed for The Guardian titled Why are women so marginalised by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? The article analyses the paucity of female inductees compared to their male counterparts, underlining specific examples of legendary female rock and roll trailblazers that are yet to make the Hall Of Fame, or that took a surprisingly long time to get inducted.
“When the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame started in 1983, you would have thought they might want to begin with Sister Rosetta, with those first chords that chimed the songbook we were now all singing from,” Love notes. “The initial inductees were Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Little Richard, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley; not a woman in sight. Sister Rosetta didn’t get in until the Rock Hall was publicly shamed into adding her in 2018.”
“It took the Rock Hall 30-plus years to induct Nina Simone and Carole King,” she later adds. “Linda Ronstadt released her debut in 1969 and became the first woman to headline stadiums, yet she was inducted alongside Nirvana in 2014. Most egregiously, Tina Turner was inducted as a solo artist three decades after making the grade alongside her abuser, Ike. Why are women so marginalised by the Rock Hall?”
Love later suggests that the “Rock Hall’s canon-making doesn’t just reek of sexist gatekeeping, but also purposeful ignorance and hostility,” before also analysing black artists’ presence in the Hall Of Fame, adding: “It doesn’t look good for Black artists, either – the Beastie Boys were inducted in 2012 ahead of most of the Black hip-hop artists they learned to rhyme from.”
Read the full piece here. The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame are yet to respond to Love’s comments.
