美国国家公共电台 NPR Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Inductees Historically Include Too

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Tomorrow, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is going to announce its 2020 inductees. And while this year's nominees¹ do include three female-driven acts, critics have long chided the Rock Hall for the low percentage of women in its pantheon of performers. From member station WCPN ideastream, David C. Barnett explains.

DAVID C BARNETT, BYLINE²: After warmly accepting her induction³ into the Rock Hall last spring, Janet Jackson threw down the gauntlet.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING⁴)

JANET JACKSON: And Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, please - 2020, induct more women. Thank you so much...

BARNETT: Her co-inductee Stevie Nicks also criticized the Rock Hall that night for its low female numbers. Rock Hall Foundation CEO Joel Peresman says he's heard that complaint before.

JOEL PERESMAN: We're trying to make this as gender⁵ neutral as possible and just look at as - the criteria⁶ of being inducted is quality of work. And if it's male or female, that's the criteria.

BARNETT: Former Rock Hall board chair Jann Wenner echoed that sentiment in a Billboard⁷ interview this past fall, adding racially neutral to the judging criteria.

EVELYN MCDONNELL: That's a very easy thing for a white man to say.

BARNETT: Evelyn McDonnell writes about music and teaches journalism⁸ at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Last year, she did an analysis of gender representation in the Hall of Fame and found a problem. For every female bandleader inducted, her male bandmates also go into the Hall of Fame. McDonnell discovered that over the course of 34 years, that process has yielded 69 women out of 888 inductees - less than 8%.

MCDONNELL: Since the dawn of the recording industry, there have been prominent women - sometimes women who were dominant⁹. Big Mama Thornton sang the original and, to me, still the best version of "Hound Dog." And she's never been inducted.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HOUND DOG")

BIG MAMA THORNTON: (Singing) You ain't nothing but a hound dog, been snooping round my door. You ain't nothing but a hound dog, been snooping round my door. You can wag your tail, but I ain't gon' feed you no more.

BARNETT: The Rock Hall's Joel Peresman acknowledges that a glut¹⁰ of all-male bands has skewed the induction numbers.

PERESMAN: It's not an empirical process like chemistry. If the committee looks at Joan Jett & the Blackhearts and says, look at the people that were involved with her from the beginning and that made a significant contribution to the creative process, then how do you not induct them?

BARNETT: A nominating committee of about 30 artists, scholars and record industry insiders draws up the ballot¹¹ each year. Craig Werner was on that committee for 18 years. An emeritus¹² professor of Afro American studies at the University of Wisconsin, Werner is also a music writer. And he has no problem with the nomination¹³ process.

CRAIG WERNER: The issues are much more - what happens to that ballot once it goes to the larger electorate¹⁴? Well, I'm just going to say it. I think that the electorate makes dumb decisions on a regular basis.

BARNETT: There are about a thousand people who get to vote on the ballot, although there's no accounting¹⁵ of exactly who they are. Joel Peresman says they include record company people, writers and performers. But the voting public also includes every living person who's ever been inducted, which is largely a population of white men.

WERNER: The nominating committee, I think, reflects a good sense - a contentious¹⁶ sense sometimes of what rock 'n' roll history is. The electorate, I think, does not. I think that it adheres to a very white-boys-with-guitars and hip-hop that fits into that mythology¹⁷. It marginalizes women, it marginalizes artists whose core audience is in the African American community, and it almost entirely¹⁸ ignores Latins.

BARNETT: Yale scholar Daphne Brooks¹⁹ has written extensively on race and gender in relation to popular music. And while critical of the Rock Hall's past induction practices, she's encouraged by some recent changes.

DAPHNE BROOKS: For instance, a couple of years ago now, we have the induction, posthumously²⁰, of Nina Simone and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. That's the kind of work that should continue, I think, to be done.

(SOUNDBITE OF SISTER ROSETTA THARPE'S "THAT'S ALL")

BARNETT: Tharpe finally got her spot in the Hall of Fame 32 years after it started inducting performers, even though one of the first inductees, Chuck Berry, always cited Tharpe as a major influence.

(SOUNDBITE OF SISTER ROSETTA THARPE'S "THAT'S ALL")

BARNETT: Daphne Brooks sees the Rock Hall as a piece of the country's historic and cultural memory and says it needs to do better.

BROOKS: And if we can start from that point, then I think we can understand why the hall is important and also why we have to fight for it to be a place where we can all hear and see ourselves and see America in its bold, heterogeneous²¹ self.

BARNETT: Jann Wenner recently stepped down as chairman of the Rock Hall Foundation's board of directors. His replacement²², John Sykes, has pledged to bring more diversity to the 26-person board, which up until now, has two women and no members of color.

For NPR News, I'm David C. Barnett in Cleveland.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "IT'S A MAN'S MAN'S MAN'S WORLD")

JAMES BROWN: (Singing) This is a man's world...

1 nominees   

n.被提名者，被任命者( nominee的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She's one of the nominees. 她是被提名者之一。 来自超越目标英语 第2册
• A startling number of his nominees for senior positions have imploded. 他所提名的高级官员被否决的数目令人震惊。 来自互联网

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 induction   

n.感应，感应现象

参考例句：

• His induction as a teacher was a turning point in his life.他就任教师工作是他一生的转折点。
• The magnetic signals are sensed by induction coils.磁信号由感应线圈所检测。

4 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

5 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

6 criteria   

n.标准

参考例句：

• The main criterion is value for money.主要的标准是钱要用得划算。
• There are strict criteria for inclusion in the competition.参赛的标准很严格。

7 billboard   

n.布告板，揭示栏，广告牌

参考例句：

• He ploughed his energies into his father's billboard business.他把精力投入到父亲的广告牌业务中。
• Billboard spreads will be simpler and more eye-catching.广告牌广告会比较简单且更引人注目。

8 journalism   

n.新闻工作，报业

参考例句：

• He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
• He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。

9 dominant   

adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因

参考例句：

• The British were formerly dominant in India.英国人从前统治印度。
• She was a dominant figure in the French film industry.她在法国电影界是个举足轻重的人物。

10 glut   

n.存货过多，供过于求；v.狼吞虎咽

参考例句：

• The glut of coffee led to a sharp drop in prices.咖啡供过于求道致价格急剧下跌。
• There's a glut of agricultural products in Western Europe.西欧的农产品供过于求。

11 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

12 emeritus   

adj.名誉退休的

参考例句：

• "Perhaps I can introduce Mr.Lake Kirby,an emeritus professor from Washington University?"请允许我介绍华盛顿大学名誉教授莱克柯尔比先生。
• He will continue as chairman emeritus.他将会继续担任荣誉主席。

13 nomination   

n.提名，任命，提名权

参考例句：

• John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
• Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。

14 electorate   

n.全体选民；选区

参考例句：

• The government was responsible to the electorate.政府对全体选民负责。
• He has the backing of almost a quarter of the electorate.他得到了几乎1/4选民的支持。

15 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。

16 contentious   

adj.好辩的，善争吵的

参考例句：

• She was really not of the contentious fighting sort.她委实不是好吵好闹的人。
• Since then they have tended to steer clear of contentious issues.从那时起，他们总想方设法避开有争议的问题。

17 mythology   

n.神话，神话学，神话集

参考例句：

• In Greek mythology,Zeus was the ruler of Gods and men.在希腊神话中，宙斯是众神和人类的统治者。
• He is the hero of Greek mythology.他是希腊民间传说中的英雄。

18 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

19 brooks   

n.小溪( brook的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Brooks gave the business when Haas caught him with his watch. 哈斯抓到偷他的手表的布鲁克斯时，狠狠地揍了他一顿。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Ade and Brooks exchanged blows yesterday and they were severely punished today. 艾德和布鲁克斯昨天打起来了，今天他们受到严厉的惩罚。 来自《简明英汉词典》

20 posthumously   

adv.于死后，于身后；于著作者死后出版地

参考例句：

• He was confirmed posthumously as a member of the Chinese Communist Party. 他被追认为中国共产党党员。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Her last book was published posthumously in 1948. 她最后的一本书在她死后于1948 年出版了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

21 heterogeneous   

adj.庞杂的；异类的

参考例句：

• There is a heterogeneous mass of papers in the teacher's office.老师的办公室里堆满了大批不同的论文。
• America has a very heterogeneous population.美国人口是由不同种族组成的。

22 replacement   

n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品

参考例句：

• We are hard put to find a replacement for our assistant.我们很难找到一个人来代替我们的助手。
• They put all the students through the replacement examination.他们让所有的学生参加分班考试。