Courtney Love Takes Rock Hall to Task Over Lack of Women Artists

Courtney Love, like many other artists and fans, is not impressed with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and their lack of women artists.

The singer shared her thoughts via Twitter by sharing a thread from music critic Jessica Hopper. She shared a link titled "Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Celebrates Women Who Rock." Hopper followed it up with the Rock Hall's long history of their lack of women artist inductees. Her whole thread is worth a read, but it begins pointing out the massive gender disparity of inducted artists.

"719 inductees to the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame, only 61 are women," writes Hopper. "That's 8.48%. C'mon @rockhall, it's F---ING GRIM BRO when yr doing worse than women-artists-on-country radio numbers (10%) and women headliners at major music festivals (13%)."

Then, Hopper points out that it has taken women artists much longer to get inducted once they're eligible. She writes, "Scrolling this inductee tracker via Future Rock Legends, I did v rough math. The avg number of years women artists languish PAST their eligibility year for induction is around 18 YEARS. That Nina Simone, Carole King, Dolly, Joan Baez all took 30+ years drives that up.

When Love shared Hopper's thread, she tweeted, "@jesshopp DOES THE MATH! 37 years in existence & women make up 8.48% of inductees out of 719. See txt to Grohl. @rockhall ELIGIBILITY is 25 years after 1st release. @foofighters were nominated 4 secs later. @NinaSimoneMusic & Carole King 30 years #fixtherockandrollhalloffame."

Along with her tweet, Love shared a text she sent to Dave Grohl when the Foo Fighters were inducted in 2021. She texted, in part, "Have fun at rock hall Dave. Make sure and hold the seats of Tina Turner and Carole King, both who have been eligible for over 30 years each!"

Plenty of women still need to be inducted into the Rock Hall, but never forget about the ones that have defied the odds. Keep scrolling to see all of the women artists that have been inducted.

Today (March 8) is International Women’s Day. How should we celebrate? By honoring the influential women that have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

...Oh, and to serve up the reminder that women accounting for just over eight percent of Rock Hall inductees is simply inexcusable. (For a further breakdown of this, check out Evelyn McDonnell's exceptional piece "The Manhandling of Rock ‘N’ Roll History.")

John Sykes, the Rock Hall's new chairman after Rolling Stone/Rock Hall founder Jann Wenner stepped down as of January 1, 2020, said in countless interviews how the Rock Hall needs to evolve and diversify. It seems as though he's keeping his word. More women are being nominated and more women are being inducted. Tina Turner, Carole King and The Go-Go's were inducted as part of the 2021 class. Meanwhile, Annie Lennox, Dolly Parton, Pat Benatar and Carly Simon are members of the 2022 induction class. Hopefully, fans will see even more women make the cut in future classes.

Until then, scroll through the gallery. It features the remarkable women who have defied the odds to be recognized by the Rock Hall.

Fleetwood Mac