The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame (RRHOF) has infuriated hard rock music fans for years with their selection process. Despite a groundswell of support from their millions of fans, KISS had to suffer the indignity of being passed over by the RRHOF for 15 years. During the course of the past decade-and-a-half, the RRHOF inducted a multitude of artists whose impact paled by comparison to the one made by KISS. In 2014, the wait to be inducted into the RRHOF will finally end for “the hottest band in the world.”
The wait may have finally ended for KISS, but that doesn’t mean that hard rock fans are going to embrace the RRHOF anytime soon, not as long as band like Deep Purple keep getting inexplicably snubbed.
A certain degree of subjectivity is involved with any hall of fame selection process, but at least with sports, understandable mitigating factors can come into play, the most obvious being the steroid era of Major League Baseball. However, rock and roll as we know it wouldn’t be the same without “performance enhancing substances,” so the only thing that should matter when it comes to the RRHOF is the impact that a band made on the world. Whether you like their music or not, KISS is undoubtedly one of the most impactful bands in the history of rock and roll.
KISS being inducted a year after Rush finally got their due from the RRHOF is a good start, but until all of the deserving bands in the genre get inducted, hard rock music fans are unlikely to be booking flights to Cleveland any time soon.
According to Eddie Trunk, it is believed that only the four original members (Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss) of KISS will be inducted into the RRHOF, a decision that most KISS fans will likely embrace.
The 29th annual induction ceremony will take place on April 10th at the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, which should make the event extra special for Criss, a Brooklyn native.
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