Do artists like Jay-Z and Dolly Parton belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

When you think of rock and roll, are you more leaning towards the Stones or Dolly Parton? You might not think a debate between the two is worthy, but according to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, they’re not only in the same conversation but the same wing.

The debate over whether or not what might be deemed “non-rock and roll” artists should be in the Cleveland’s Hall of Fame has been going on for a while now but has jumped to the top of the charts as of late, with artists such as Dolly Parton, Mary J. Blige, Sheryl Crow, Eminem, and Jay-Z being inducted over the past few years. But John Sykes, a chairman for the hall of fame, is defending this move, saying the artists such as those embody the spirit of the genre. “I think it’s because some people don’t understand the meaning of rock and roll. If you go back to the original sound in the ’50s, it was everything. As Missy Elliot 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.”

As head-scratching as it may be to induct Rage Against the Machine, Willie Nelson and Missy Elliott in the same year, I think Sykes actually has a point – one I’ve been saying since I first got wind of the debate. Bands and artists like these have a certain spirit that falls under the rock and roll umbrella. Maybe they didn’t all play the style, but they represent a renegade spirit that best falls under it.

Sure, the 2024 inductees of Kool & the Gang, A Tribe Called Quest and Cher feels like a far cry from the inaugural year of 1986 when you had people like Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley getting in – hell, Berry and Presley are known as the Father and the King of Rock and Roll, respectively – but music and attitude has evolved, and modern inductees should be approached in a way that reflect that. Added to this, would you really consider other fellow ‘86 inductees The Everly Brothers and Sam Cooke to be “rock and roll”?

What do you think? Should the hall of fame exclude certain genres? Which artists do you think deserve to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?