On Oct. 19, students from Baldwin Wallace’s Arts Management and Music Industry associations got to witness one of rock and roll’s greatest events: the Rock Hall Induction Ceremony.
The ceremony, which has been held since 1986, honors the roots, the golden age and modern influences of rock and roll by inducting members of the community, both solo acts and groups, as well as a select producer each year. This year’s class included the likes of Cher, Dave Matthews Band, Foreigner, Peter Frampton and Ozzy Osbourne.
This year, around 40 music industry and arts management students got the honor to attend the ceremony for free. Some of the senior students had the privilege to attend the ceremony a few years back when it was in Cleveland; however, most of the students in attendance were experiencing this ceremony for the first time, including junior arts management student Jacob Seifert.
“The Rock Hall Induction Ceremony of 2023 was the first time I had heard of the induction in general, and also the first time I watched it,” Seifert said. “I remember my family and I were out to dinner, and I was somewhat politely rushing everyone around the end because…I wanted to get home and watch the induction, start to finish.”
Having seen the induction virtually last year, Seifert was able to find a lot of similarities to this year, especially when it comes to inductees. He mentioned how the first female hip hop artist was inducted last year, with this year continuing that trend with Mary J Blige.
Alongside students like Seifert, many of the association staff members had never attended the ceremony until this year, such as junior digital marketing major Gianna Cafasso.
“This was my first time at the induction ceremony,” Cafasso said. “I thought it was incredibly cool to get attend such a special event, and I really enjoyed it.”
One of the biggest draws to this event is the chance to see a wide list of celebrities. Celebrities in attendance included Zendaya, Jack Black and Dave Chappelle.
“I kept thinking about how I might not get to be that close to some of those celebrities ever again and that it was such an amazing opportunity to be there,” Cafasso said.
For music industry and arts management students, this event was a good look into what goes into awards ceremonies, as well as what exactly goes into a large-scale production with a variety of different acts.
“Besides the concert experience alone, I learned so much just by viewing the production,” Seifert said. “It is like seeing a movie being filmed. You never appreciate or even think of everything that goes on in the background of it all.”
Some students got a chance to see backstage, depending on the seats they got.
“Obviously, all these things go on, but a viewer from home would never think of these things until they see it with their own eyes,” Seifert said.
“The induction also provided me with some insight into how much effort and time is put into a musical ceremony/performance like this,” Cafasso said. “I’ve never gotten to see this amount of behind-the-scenes work, and it’s truly somewhat insane to see how much work is happening.”
The 2024 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony is now streaming on Hulu.
