YEAR
2015
INDUCTED BY
Miley Cyrus
CATEGORY
Performers
Joan Jett & The Blackhearts smash genre (and gender) boundaries by fusing punk, glam and heavy metal with ’50s and ’60s rock & roll.
With a fiercely DIY spirit and a disdain for conformity, the band has carved out a career marked by subverted expectations and raucous music.
HALL OF FAME
ESSAY
By Jaan Uhelszki
If you had to sit down and imagine the ideal female rocker, what would she look like?
Tight leather pants, lots of mascara, black (definitely not blond) hair, and she would have to play guitar like Chuck Berry’s long-lost daughter. She wouldn’t look like Madonna or Taylor Swift. Maybe she would look something like Ronnie Spector, a little formidable and dangerous, definitely – androgynous, for sure.
In fact, if you close your eyes and think about it, she would be the spitting image of Joan Jett. Jett has always brought danger, defiance, and fierceness to rock & roll.