{"id":792,"date":"2019-02-07T08:20:59","date_gmt":"2019-02-07T08:20:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cherscholar.com\/cherblog\/my-essay-cher-and-the-rock-and-roll-halls-of-fame\/"},"modified":"2023-02-20T08:16:39","modified_gmt":"2023-02-20T15:16:39","slug":"my-essay-cher-and-the-rock-and-roll-halls-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cherscholar.com\/cherblog\/2019\/02\/my-essay-cher-and-the-rock-and-roll-halls-of-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"My Essay: Cher and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tour2\"<\/a>I\u2019ve never been sure to have such a personal response to Cher. It\u2019s probably in there somewhere. I\u2019ve been a fan since I was 4 or 5 and I\u2019m now 50 so…psychologically speaking… <\/span><\/p>\n

Recently an interviewer asked me what I\u2019ve learned personally from Cher. This was hard for me to answer. I tend to think about Cher in terms of the stuff, or more recently in terms of her impact on culture. I struggled to find something to say, like maybe a lesson about letting small things go, (from Cher\u2019s mother\u2019s edict: \u201cIf it doesn\u2019t matter in five years, it doesn\u2019t matter\u201d) or that you should always stay friends with your exes. (If Cher can do it\u2026) Oh, and how to fluff my hair by flipping it upside down. Yes…that I did learn from the <\/span>Cher <\/span><\/em>show. But that\u2019s it.<\/span><\/p>\n

And when I think about any Cher essay (something for formal than a blog post), it always wraps around the idea of Cher lacking proper respect in pop culture. And maybe that\u2019s personal in some way, like maybe I had two 70s-rock-loving older brothers who disparaged my taste in Cher or all those years being self-conscious about liking the things I like. This digs to the very concept about what rock and roll is, of which the Hall of Fame in Cleveland is but a part. Whether or not Cher is in the Hall is secondary, symptomatic. She\u2019s not part of the insider\u2019s club and that\u2019s the issue, Chronically snubbed. The perpetual underdog. And this has been the case for much longer than the Hall of Fame has existed. <\/span><\/p>\n

Cher is bigger than her sequins and Cher impersonations often fail for the lack of Cher\u2019s personality embodied in them. You can slap a gowns on very talented boys and girls, but no dice. Cher is not, as previously claimed (over the last half a century), merely a clothes horse, a hanger, a shallow tower of sequins. She embodies those things and makes meaning of them. But shallow people do not look very deep. And they see shallowness everywhere.<\/span><\/p>\n

What gives someone rock and roll credibility? Is it an outfit? Tight pants? A scarf? A stance? Is it creation of material? Is it hit-making? Is it breaking Billboard records? Is it a greatest hits compilations? Is it longevity with live shows and ticket sales? Is it respect from critics? Is it longevity across mediums and genres? Some would say it is this idea of authenticity. But can that be possible when so much of rock and roll is a pose and a clich\u00e9, a posture of coolness, a sales job.  <\/span><\/p>\n

To me the idea of "authenticity" is a code for the real judgement: is it "cool."<\/span><\/p>\n

Sonny & Cher weren\u2019t accepted as authentically folk, authentically hippies, or authentically rock and roll. Maybe Sonny wasn\u2019t but Cher was. Sonny wasn\u2019t even considered to be a legitimate Hollywood mogul and now, ironically, Cher is considered powerful in Hollywood. What that really means though is they were uncool.<\/span><\/p>\n

And who determines cool? Is it popular audiences, critics, cult followings? Is it a roundtable of select few who decide?<\/span><\/p>\n

Cher has had Billboard hits in give decades, arena shows in multiple decades AND a cult, gay following, records sold, popularization of a music style (the controversial auto-tune), hits that have bled into our mainstream idioms ("the beat goes on<\/a>"<\/span>), a subversive influence in fashion, both in the 60s (flares and furs), the 70s (long, straight hair that thousands of young girls took to emulating with hair ironed on real ironing boards), red carpet fashion, her big circus shows are now imitated by younger pop stars, her tattoos are now ubiquitous on the ass of America…and so on.<\/span><\/p>\n

But to me what makes Cher really cool is her otherness, her inclusion of various underrepresented cultures all in her one self. Not only did Sonny & Cher bring people of color and international cultures to their 70s television show, but Cher embodied those identities in her performances, and she did so with dignity and power. <\/span><\/p>\n

She\u2019s also a living example of a single woman taking control of her career in show business and having the audacity to survive and tell the story. She\u2019s a survivor, making no apologies for any of it, crossing genres, moving from glitz to the realism (in shows and in movies). And that very realism that works in her movies<\/a> is the same authenticity working in her music videos and in her live performances. <\/span><\/p>\n

So can we stop with the authenticity thing?<\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n

Over the years my interest has gravitated to figuring out the gap between what Cher means and how she\u2019s perceived by the rock-and-roll-establishment. Cher says it best herself: \u201cSingers don\u2019t think I\u2019m a singer. Actors don\u2019t think I\u2019m an actor.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Arguably there are fewer women at the top of the music business. Thus,  Brook Marine points out women make up only 13% of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame<\/a>. There should be more.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s been rumored there is this issue of Sonny at play: Cher might be resisting nomination herself, preferring to be inducted as Sonny & Cher. I don\u2019t know if this is true, but she does reference Sonny & Cher whenever she\u2019s confronted with the lack of a nomination. It would seem a likely holdup. Cher has always felt Sonny was entirely responsible for her career. \u201cThere would be no Cher without Sonny\u201d has been Cher\u2019s mantra since the mid-1980s.  And they didn\u2019t call him a Svengali for nothing. He had ideas about their inception and architecture, he created their act, as well as writing some of their music. <\/span><\/p>\n

But Cher brought things to the table, too. She had ideas about their look that Sonny was game to pursue. <\/span><\/p>\n