ABBA - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee

How does one define "Rock and Roll"?

If ABBA is being inducted into its Hall of Fame, then I'm operating under a different definition.

From the New York Times:

Abba, Genesis, Jimmy Cliff, the Hollies and the Stooges will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next year, the Hall of Fame Foundation has announced. But the biggest news might be who did not make the cut. Kiss, nominated for the first time this year after being snubbed for a decade, was left out, although if the Stooges’ experience is any guide Kiss (Gene Simmons, the group’s mainstay, right) may have better luck next time: the Stooges were nominated and rejected seven times before being accepted. Also being honored this year, as nonperformers, are David Geffen and seven songwriters: Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, Jesse Stone, Mort Shuman and Otis Blackwell. The 25th annual induction ceremony is to be held on March 15 at the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan.

Here's more on Kiss being snubbed, from Sean Daly, the St. Petersburg Times:

It's the tongue, isn't it?

For the 11th year in a row, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, that barely respected barometer of musical achievement, has blatantly snubbed Gene Simmons and Kiss for induction into its sort-of-hallowed establishment.

What gives?! Has the Hall's small, totally biased nominating board — including Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner, who's more of a Dylan/Springsteen guy anyway — never driven down a highway in a rusted Camaro cranking Detroit Rock City while eating a six-pack of chalupas?

It's called life, gang. You should try it some time. Heck, in a recent interview, Simmons intimated that he bedded my mother — and I still think he and his glam progenitors deserve to be in!

Instead, the Hall will welcome Swedish disconauts ABBA, prog-pop's Genesis, reggae star Jimmy Cliff, Brit harmonizers the Hollies and Midwestern punks the Stooges as 2010 inductees. That's a swell list, but it's not very dramatic —unless you're wagering whether the Stooges' Iggy Pop will wear a shirt to the festivities or Peter Gabriel will return to Genesis to give Phil Collins a noogie.

If Kiss is feeling blue, the guys should call Iggy, who knows all about HOF malaise: "We've been rejected seven times," he told Rolling Stone. "It started to feel like Charlie Brown and the football. I had about two hours of a strong emotional reaction after hearing the news. It felt like vindication. Then I kind of scratched my head and thought, 'Am I still cool? Or is that over now?' "

Nothing against ABBA, if you like that sort of music, but I don't see how that group got on the short list let alone made the final cut.

I guess Rock and Roll is like hard-core porn. It can't be easily defined but you know it when you see it.

ABBA doesn't belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.