Rock & Roll Hall of Famers Cheap Trick Sign to Big Machine Records
Jan Wenner and his underlings at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced their newest class of inductees very early Thursday morning (12-17), and the list included Chicago, Deep Purple, Steve Miller, N.W.A., and the power pop outfit originally formed in Rockford, Illinois in 1973, Cheap Trick.
Timed to coincide with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announcement was the Cheap Trick news that they have a new album on the way called Bang Zoom Crazy…Hello. It will be the band’s 17th total album, and their first album in over five years. And it will be released on country music’s fastest-growing major label—Big Machine Records.
But don’t worry, it doesn’t appear at the moment that this is yet another instance of a rock band growing long in the tooth and wanting to “go country” as some worried after hearing the announcement, and something Big Machine Records CEO Scott Borchetta helped facilitate for Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler. If anything, this is another example of Big Machine Records going rock.
“Coinciding with their entry into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I am beyond proud and excited to announce that Cheap Trick are the newest members of the Big Machine Records family,” said Scott Borchetta. “As a band, they’ve never stopped rock’n the free world and they play every night with as much conviction as their first power-pop-punk club shows from the mid ’70’s. I can’t wait for Cheap Trick fans everywhere to have the new album.”
Along with the Steven Tyler signing and a strange country-manned tribute to Mötley Crüe, Scott Borchetta has been letting his hair rock roots show lately. And though Cheap Trick doesn’t really fit in the hair metal or country music classification, if Scott Borchetta thinks he can sell more records than they cost to make, he’s proven he’ll pull the trigger on just about any deal regardless of genre.
After trying to work out a sale of Big Machine to a bigger label such as Warner or Sony earlier this year, Scott Borchetta now seems to be aiming to make his own music empire to rival America’s other mega labels. As the home of Taylor Swift whose now gone pop, the signing of other exclusively pop artists, and now a legacy rock act on the label, Borchetta and Big Machine are showing there’s no boundaries to the label’s reach. Big Machine has also had success with older bands in the past, including the recently Grammy-nominated Mavericks, and with the NASH Icon venture which looks to put older country artists back in the spotlight.
The implications for country with the Cheap Trick signing (if any) are that one of the genre’s largest and fastest-growing labels is full speed ahead with it’s plan to build an empire. And they’re willing to go well out of the country fold to get there.
Devil Anse
December 17, 2015 @ 7:35 pm
It’s getting hard to tell real articles and fake news apart.
Why was NWA inducted? No disrespect to them, but they are not rock music. Next they’ll let Lil Wayne in because of his “rock” album.
martha
December 17, 2015 @ 9:01 pm
They should have closed up the hall of fame when they let Madonna in.
Jack Williams
December 18, 2015 @ 7:51 am
Yep. That’s the one that sticks in my craw the most. I think #2 would be ABBA.
Blackwater
December 17, 2015 @ 10:55 pm
I love NWA, they were great. They also only made two albums. They also did not influence rock n roll music whatsoever. Yes, countless artists also love them too – but they did not make or contribute to rock music whatsoever. RNR HOF is a sham. I mean it’d be like saying some 40 year old clown that calls himself Yelawolf makes contributions to country music. I mean who would say something that stupid?
Lil Dale
December 17, 2015 @ 7:41 pm
#ClintBlackLiveMatters
Melanie
December 17, 2015 @ 7:43 pm
They wouldn’t be the first rap “artists” inducted, and rap is being shived (I meant shoved, but actually shived works quite well hehe) into every genre. As long as they continue their bias against classic prog (barring Rush, who didn’t remain prog at the height of their success), I have no use for them. Maybe they’ll induct Jethro Tull one day, if they think Tull is a metal act, lol.
Scotty J
December 17, 2015 @ 8:31 pm
Rush was inducted into the Rock And Roll HOF in 2013.
Melanie
December 17, 2015 @ 8:48 pm
Yes, that’s why I said “barring Rush”. That may be too archaic/little used word these days (barring-excepting), sorry.
Scotty J
December 17, 2015 @ 8:53 pm
Ok thought you were saying they were still being excluded.
Scottinnj
December 18, 2015 @ 5:38 am
Yes is another prog rock band overlooked again. Even Chris Squire’s passing didn’t raise awareness.
More generally it seems a baby boomer not say gen x. persons museum. I’m hard pressed to argue Steve Miller band has made a greater contribution than The Smiths or The Pixies.
Jack Williams
December 18, 2015 @ 8:49 am
Well, I think the Steve Miller band has been eligible for over 20 years. Same with Chicago. I think they are two uninspired choices, personally.
I think The Smiths get in within the next few years. The Pixies are just barely eligible (years, that is). They weren’t hugely popular, though, so it might be a while, if at all. The Stooges didn’t go in until 2010 and I think they were eligible for over 15 years.
Jack Williams
December 18, 2015 @ 7:23 am
I guess I don’t follow the RRHOF inductions all that closely, as I was surprised a little while back to find out that Yes and Jethro Tull were not in the hall. There does seem to be a RRHOF/rock critic bias against prog rock bands that I find tiresome. I bet Genesis never would have gotten in if not for their ’80s pop success.
RD
December 18, 2015 @ 9:16 am
I heard some rock critic talk about it once and he said that there is definitely a bias against prog bands. ELO, or Jeff Lynne separately are NOT in the RRHOF. That is hard to believe. He is an absolute genius, whether as a solo artist or with ELO or The Traveling Wilburys. Its actually a shock that Rush IS in. They had the double-negative of being a prog band that was regarded as some sort of far-right Ayn Rand devotees.
Melanie
December 18, 2015 @ 10:58 am
I never followed Rolling Stone magazine, but I have read in various places that Jann Wenner despised progressive rock, and said prog groups would get into the R$R Hall Of Sham over his dead body. It’s looking to be true, I can only think that Rush and Genesis slipped through by leaving their prog beginnings behind them. It ticks me off immensely, as I have not heard a classic prog song or album that I would not immediately recognise as rock music, no matter how much the groups incorporated, in a surface way, classical western music. And it certainly didn’t keep Santana out to mix Latin sounds with their rock.
PETE MARSHALL
December 17, 2015 @ 7:58 pm
I do like Cheap Trick and that’s good that they are on Big Machine.
Gena R.
December 17, 2015 @ 10:20 pm
I like them, too — I’m kinda burned out on “I Want You to Want Me” and I wasn’t all that big on “The Flame,” but they have quite a few other songs I could never get tired of (“Come On, Come On,” “Southern Girls,” “Surrender,” “Dream Police,” “Voices,” “If You Want My Love,” “I Can’t Take It,” “Tonight It’s You,” etc.). 😀
In any event, being a power-pop band, their stuff is probably bound to be way more melodic and guitar-driven than all this bro-country and R&B/EDM-based crap that’s happening now…
ElectricOutcast
December 18, 2015 @ 7:22 am
“I”™m kinda burned out on “I Want You to Want Me””
Amen to that, hell I’d rather here their version of “That 70’s Show” theme song than that piece of crap.
Gena R.
December 18, 2015 @ 9:45 am
Oh yeah, I liked their T7S theme — plus it was a Big Star cover (“In the Street”). 🙂
Hayley
December 18, 2015 @ 12:27 am
Trigger, did you know that they have created a “new label” called Big Machine Rocks? I only know this because my music page was followed by Sandi Borchetta.
MH
December 18, 2015 @ 8:15 am
Wanna go out sometime?
Melanie
December 18, 2015 @ 12:35 am
Oh man, I just checked, YES was passed over yet again-wish I hadn’t even checked, I really already knew they wouldn’t make the cut, in spite of being second place in the fan vote with one of the highest tallies in the R$R Hall of Sham’s history. I’m glad to see Deep Purple made it in, but on the other hand, does it really matter, it’s all a big joke. YES should have been there long before Chris Squire passed. Jackazzes. Even Duran Duran has claimed YES as an influence, for pity’s sake.
RD
December 18, 2015 @ 8:55 am
The exclusion of YES and the inclusion of non-rock acts like ABBA, Madonna, or any rap “artist” just shows how useless halls of fame are. Fucking Green Day, Lou Reed, Donna Summer, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Stooges, etc. are in the RRHOF? The Pretenders, U2, Prince, The Clash, Elvis Costello, The Police, The Talking Heads, Queen, Bob Marley, and dozens of other artists were in before Lynyrd Skynyrd? Fuck you. The RRHOF is also heavy on acts like The Lovin’s Spoonful, Buffalo Springfield, The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed, Jefferson Airplane, The Hollies, and lots of Motown groups/singers who really didn’t do much, but are remembered fondly by the burned out hippies who make the decisions.
Melanie
December 18, 2015 @ 11:02 am
Amen brother, our minds completely meet on this. They’re reverse snobs, re melding, very lightly, symphonic music with rock. But no problem with things that aren’t rock at all.
I will admit to being glad when Bob Seger made it in, just because they resisted him so hard.
Melanie
December 18, 2015 @ 12:11 pm
Re Seger-and because he was the best concert I ever attended, bar none, in my youth, at UNO Lakefront Arena-the best because he was so completely generous with his talent, his time, and himself as a person. He was just completely there, encore after encore.
RD
December 18, 2015 @ 12:19 pm
Melanie,
It is VERY interesting that you say that. I like Bob Seger, and while I wouldn’t consider myself a huge fan, I think he is vastly underrated. I have been to hundreds of concerts. I have only seen Bob Seger one time, over twenty years ago. It was, by far, the BEST concert I have ever attended. He was amazing. He had boundless energy and he sounded great. I was blown away, because, as I said, he is not one of my favorite artists. No concert I have ever seen comes close….
RD
December 18, 2015 @ 12:24 pm
I don’t think it is overstating the case to say that Bob Seger is one of the greatest performers of all time. I have never seen any artist, in any genre, that was better.
Melanie
December 18, 2015 @ 1:15 pm
I never attended hundreds, and most were more a “party event” than strictly about the music, at that time. Bob Seger’s concert was strictly about the music-my husband, who is not especially a music fan, or at least more of a “golden oldies”, Leon Redbone, etc, kinda guy, was a huge fan of Bob Seger, and turned me on to him. He was one of the few musical tastes we have in common, and I listened to Live Bullet almost non-stop for years. Plus my husband resembles him, very much, only blue eyes instead of brown, but my husband can’t carry a tune in a bucket and would consider it beneath him to try 🙂
Melanie
December 18, 2015 @ 1:21 pm
I don’t know if it’s truth, joke, myth, or urban legend, but I’ve heard a lot of bands say in interviews, or regarding their live albums, that Detroit is a heckuva audience, so maybe coming up playing to Detroit honed Seger’s live performance skills to that height 🙂
Jack Williams
December 18, 2015 @ 12:30 pm
I’ve never seen Bob Seger live, but Live Bullet is just one great live album.
Melanie
December 19, 2015 @ 9:16 am
One of the best, and it never gets its due, like some of the famous live albums do (ie Allmans at the Fillmore). Seger’s is the first one which made me appreciate live albums (well Frampton’s, but that doesn’t count, because it was the radio version too, IIRC), till then I always preferred the version I’d heard on the radio, even when I didn’t really recognise that it was live. I don’t know all the ins and outs of how various live albums were spliced, edited, etc, but I could tell Live Bullet was live, and I liked it.
Eric
December 18, 2015 @ 1:03 am
Not a bad decision by Borchetta. “The Flame” is one of my favorite 80s songs.
MH
December 18, 2015 @ 8:20 am
NWA is next.
Klancy
December 18, 2015 @ 10:56 am
I’m sorry, I’m still stuck on the fact that N.W.A. is considered “rock”. And people wonder why the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is a joke among music fans.
Fuzzy TwoShirts
December 18, 2015 @ 7:17 pm
and yet we still think Maddie and Tae are good for Country Music.
This is NOT a rant about Maddie and Tae, but about Scott Borchetta.
Maddie and Tae seem like nice girls, and I’m sure Trigger thinks they smell nice, but the simple fact is that Scott Borchetta is pulling the strings, and this is the sort of thing he does.
We can love Maddie and Tae, or we can look at the greater good of Country Music and only support artists that DON’T have Borchetta’s stamp on them, because every time we spend money supporting Maddie and Tae, he takes a cut of that money and uses it to erode Country Music.
And I know about Nash Icon, which he is a part of, and that’s a stupid idea.
Nash Icon is Scott Borchetta’s attempt to put all the naysayers out to pasture by giving them a place to go, so he can have his way. If Nash Icon ever gets off the ground, we’ll never be able to fight for Country Music because every criticism of a bad Country song will be met with “so go listen to Nash Icon.”
We can’t trust this man as far as Stephen Hawking can walk because he is constantly attacking our genre’s very identity.
Jackass
December 21, 2015 @ 9:24 am
NWA- still more country than Luke Bryan