Plans For America's Pop Music Hall Of Fame

Cleveland has the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

America's Pop Music Hall Of Fame

St. Louis is building the Blues Hall of Fame. Nashville is the home to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Now another town is taking on an another faction of music and that place is little Canonsburg, PA.

The suburb of Pittsburgh is working on establishing America’s Pop Music Hall of Fame in response to the lack of places of honor for artists such as their town’s favorite son, the late singer Perry Como. They initially thought about putting up a museum in his honor but people questioned whether he was worthy, pointing out that he wasn’t inducted into any music hall. The problem was, there is no place for artists like Como, Dean Martin, the Carpenters, Nat King Cole or even Frank Sinatra.

A group of local music lovers started a committee and plans for a Pop Music Hall of Fame started to move forward. That group put together the following mission:

To develop and grow a National Museum to be named America’s Pop Music Hall of Fame in Canonsburg that will house a historical area to showcase the roots of the local artists, a permanent artist exhibit, a theater, office space, and rotating section of newly inducted artists.

The group then brought in a group of industry experts to choose 25 nominees for the first class and a list of songs to be named “Iconic Pop Songs.” That list of nominees grew to the point where 40 have been named with ten eventually being inducted. Those nominees have now been put to a public vote at the group’s website (see the list below).

The real question is, what is Pop music and how do you limit the list of artists that fall into the category? The list of Iconic Pop Songs include such rock classics as Born to Be Wild by Steppenwolf and House of the Rising Son by the Animals. Are these really pop music? The list of artists nominated include the Beatles, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder and the Beach Boys, all fine artists but also already honored at the Rock Hall.

Problem number two is that they are letting the public make the decisions. Unfortunately, the general public as a very shallow and sometimes short memory. As of September 24, the artists that would be inducted if the voting ended would be Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Johnny Cash, the Bee Gees, Roy Orbison, Johnny Mathis, Frank Sinatra, Neil Diamond and Elton John. Eight of those ten are already in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and they are blocking out both of Canonsburg’s home town heroes, Perry Como and Bobby Vinton, along with a number of others who are much more deserving of the title “pop” such as Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, the Carpenters, Andy Williams and Connie Francis.

The concept of a Hall of Fame for the overlooked (and very popular) icons of pop music is a superb idea but the execution leaves quite a bit to be desired. Let’s hope that they can bring this ship back upright and put together a worthy shrine to the great adult contemporary artists of the last 60 years.

The nominees for the Pop Music Hall of Fame: