Starting the new year with a musical rant...

So after watching the Winter Classic hockey game on News Years Day, the next show on NBC starts. Not one to go out of way to watch ice skating, Brian Boitano's Skating Spectacular is coming on, but being a bit tired and dozing off in the living room, what the heck, I leave it on. The music group Chicago is playing live on a stage next to the ice, to accompany the skating.

I've enjoyed the music of Chicago over the years. As some of the members of the band speak between songs, I'm thinking, wow, this is pretty cool, these guys are still together after all these years. Chicago is one of the few major rock groups that have never broken up or even taken an extended hiatus. Dating back to 1967, four of the six surviving founding members, Lamm, Pankow, Loughnane and Parazaider are still with the band. How cool is that!

So I started thinking about some news I heard not all that log ago, that ABBA was recently named to the class of 2010 of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Hmm, so I started thinking, and reading, and researching, what exactly is the point of this so called Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. According to their website the annual induction is to "to recognize the contributions of those who have had a significant impact on the evolution, development and perpetuation of rock and roll."

I agree that Chicago, also known as "The Big Thing" and "The Chicago Transit Authority" was lot different, and more orginal in the 60's and 70's. But the core of the band is still together after 40 years! Chicago, in the late 1960's through the 1970's were at the top of their game, and introduced a new breed of rock and roll. As far as the perpetuation of rock and roll, it would seem that a group that has survived over 40 years together in the music business is in a small group of bands that have helped to perpetuate rock and roll as a genre of music.

Two other groups that are my personal favorites, that I would put in the same class of Chicago, for the same reasons, would be The Moody Blues, and Jethro Tull. All three of these groups were innovative in their day, had a significant impact on the evolution of rock music, and their longevity and fan base that has spanned generations has helped to perpetuate rock and roll as a genre of music.

In recent years "Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five" and "Run-D.M.C." have been elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as well. When we start electing in groups like ABBA, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and Run-D.M.C. to the so called Rock Hall of Fame, but neglect the likes of Chicago, The Moody Blues, and Jethro Tull, it does make you wonder what is the motivation for the voting. Many of the criticisms I've read of the Rock Hall is that the nomination process is controlled by a few individuals who are not musicians. Not only are they not musicians, they don't seem to have an understanding of their own goals.