Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Says “Fuck the Fans,” Will Induct Nine Inch Nails

Well, here’s an interesting turn of events: in what I can only assume was a deliberate effort to demonstrate that they give zero fucks about what the fans want, the people who make these decisions have voted for Nine Inch Nails to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this May, alongside Depeche Mode, The Doobie Brothers, Whitney Houston, Notorious B.I.G., and T-Rex. With the exception of The Doobie Brothers, none of these artists made it onto the fan ballot shortlist earlier this week, which was comprised of the five acts that received the most votes from the plebes online. Soundgarden’s 722,931 fan votes and Judas Priest’s 675,434 fan votes counted for ONE vote each in the overall tally… which was obviously not enough to turn the tide in their favor (NIN, by way of contrast, received 380,869 fan votes, and did not make the shortlist). So letting the fans vote is 110% a meaningless PR stunt.

But hey, at least Dave Matthews didn’t get in, either!

Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor has given Rolling Stone an extensive interview on his impending induction in which he says that “I’m allowing myself, for a limited period of time, to feel good about this,” while tacitly acknowledging that the whole thing is pretty ridiculous:

“I had thought the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concept felt absurd. In some ways, it surely is; to try and quantify something as broad as that and inevitably add a competitive element to it. The gamification of it is hard to rationalize.”

And:

“I’m thrilled Depeche [Mode] finally made it in. When it gets weird for me is when you think about, ‘Okay, who’s in? Who’s out?’ And you see Kraftwerk and Todd Rundgren not get in. That’s when it’s like, ‘Okay, what’s the criteria here? These guys should absolutely fucking be in there.’ Both of those that I mentioned were hugely influential. I don’t think I would be me had those guys not existed. That’s where I think of it with a grain of salt.”

As a huge Nine Inch Nails fan, I think I’m actually happier that Trent has a good head on his shoulders about this whole thing than I am that he’s being inducted. In any case, HBO will do a live broadcast of the induction ceremony on May 2, which means Robin Finck will be on TV that night. We all know how I feel about him. So that makes me happy at least.