The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has been branching out with its nominees in recent years, inducting artists ranging from Eminem to Dolly Parton. The inclusion of genres other than rock has caused backlash with people calling on the institution to change its name. So will it?

Chairman John Sykes confirmed there are no plans to rename the Rock Hall during a recent interview with Vulture, explaining that the decision is an effort to “communicate that rock and roll is open to all.”

“I think it’s because some people don’t understand the meaning of rock and roll,” he explained about the backlash. “If you go back to the original sound in the ’50s, it was everything. As Missy Elliott 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," he continued. "Once they hear it that way, they understand.”

Sykes also noted Jay-Z's reluctance to accept his own induction in 2021. “He told me, ‘Rock is dead. It should be called the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame,’” he recalled. “And I said, ‘Well, hip-hop is rock and roll.’ He goes, ‘No, it isn’t.’ And I said, ‘We’ve got to do a better job explaining it. Little Richard, Otis Redding, Chuck Berry – these artists were the cornerstones of rock and roll. If you look at the sounds over the years, those artists ended up influencing hip-hop.’”

Cher, Ozzy Osbourne, Kool & The Gang, Peter Frampton, Foreigner, Dave Matthews Band, A Tribe Called Quest, and Mary J. Blige were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2024.

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Anthony Jeselnik

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Saturday, June 9, 2018

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