2020 Rock & Roll HOF Nominees

[Pierre]

The most popular form of rock at this moment is Hip Hop.

Classic Rock Radio is essentially just White Guys With Guitars (and Hendrix). They don't play ANY black styles of rock at all, not even Stevie Wonder or Prince. It's a sham.

When I said classic rock, I had a restrictive definition of it. Hip-hop, funk, soul and styles derivative of funk or soul were not in my scope. I only used "classic rock" in opposition to "alternative rock". I.e. white guys with guitars, as you said.

[Jirin]

Looks like Hymie still likes to proudly attack anyone whose preferences don’t include as many black artists as him even though his lists never include female artists.

Because of course, anyone who likes one fewer black act than him is racist, but women can’t rock like men can, right?

@Cold Butterfly

OutKast got more popular and critical success than some other rap artists who are shoo in first balloters but haven’t been nominated yet.

You’re going to say it has nothing to do with their lack of attention-getting either in the form of gangster lyrics or narcissism? There’s a major litmus test in hip hop right now for getting critical credit, and songs about apologizing to girl’s mothers for leaving them but promising to be a good father to their grandchild don’t pass it.

[Cold Butterfly]

@Cold Butterfly

OutKast got more popular and critical success than some other rap artists who are shoo in first balloters but haven’t been nominated yet.

You’re going to say it has nothing to do with their lack of attention-getting either in the form of gangster lyrics or narcissism? There’s a major litmus test in hip hop right now for getting critical credit, and songs about apologizing to girl’s mothers for leaving them but promising to be a good father to their grandchild don’t pass it.

No, I just felt like that comment was a slap in the face to a lot of “gangsta rap” in general. In the case of the Notorious B.I.G., i wouldn’t relate him with “narcissism”. Rather an escape to hedonist values as a result of the social condition he was born upon. Which is what many people who have been marginalized in history have done, as a tool to escape from the inequality of everyday life. Growing up, that’s what Biggie lived with in the inner city - a manifestation of sex and drugs in a society which didn’t offer anything else. And his music simply portrayed that life which he and many others sadly had to live (and still have to). And also, i wouldn’t say songs like “Everyday Struggle” and “Suicidal Thoughts” are narcissistic at all.

[mileswide]

You’re going to say it has nothing to do with their lack of attention-getting either in the form of gangster lyrics or narcissism?

I can't see the HoF judges' heads being turned by gangsta lyrics to be honest. 2Pac would have been inducted more on the basis of preaching peace over a Bruce Hornsby piano loop than bragging about sleeping with his rival's wife and threatening to kill him. Said rival is only on the nominees this year as that'll be the only other rapper the Hall panelists have heard of. Outkast's nomination will come...when they go from being 'throwbacks' to being fixtures on oldies radio.

[Hymie]

Looks like Hymie still likes to proudly attack anyone whose preferences don’t include as many black artists as him even though his lists never include female artists.

Not sure where you got that idea from, but my number one record of 1967 is a female record, along with many other female records in my top 100 of that year. There were just ten times as many male artists making records in the era I like.

MY TOP 100 RECORDINGS FROM 1967:
1 ¦ Respect ¦ Aretha Franklin
2 ¦ Sunshine Of Your Love ¦ Cream
3 ¦ Let's Live For Today ¦ Grass Roots
4 ¦ There Is ¦ Dells
5 ¦ Hello Goodbye ¦ Beatles
6 ¦ Penny Lane ¦ Beatles
7 ¦ Nine Pound Steel ¦ Joe Simon
8 ¦ I Heard It Through The Grapevine ¦ Gladys Knight & Pips
9 ¦ My Back Pages ¦ Byrds
10 ¦ Whiter Shade Of Pale ¦ Procol Harum
11 ¦ I'll Turn To Stone ¦ Four Tops
12 ¦ San Francisco ¦ Scott McKenzie
13 ¦ To Love Somebody ¦ Bee Gees
14 ¦ Get Together ¦ Youngbloods
15 ¦ Sweet Soul Music ¦ Arthur Conley
16 ¦ Greasy Spoon ¦ Rufus Thomas
17 ¦ Nobody But Me ¦ Human Beinz
18 ¦ Soul Man ¦ Sam & Dave
19 ¦ Tears Of A Clown ¦ Smokey Robinson & Miracles
20 ¦ Light My Fire ¦ Doors
21 ¦ Groovin' ¦ Young Rascals
22 ¦ Love Me Two Times ¦ Doors
23 ¦ Some Kind Of Wonderful ¦ Soul Brothers Six
24 ¦ Funky Broadway ¦ Wilson Pickett
25 ¦ Dance To The Music ¦ Sly & The Family Stone
26 ¦ Cold Sweat ¦ James Brown
27 ¦ Chain Of Fools ¦ Aretha Franklin
28 ¦ All You Need Is Love ¦ Beatles
29 ¦ Don't Need Your Lovin' ¦ Chocolate Watchband
30 ¦ Different Drum ¦ Stone Poneys
31 ¦ A Day In The Life ¦ Beatles
32 ¦ Break On Through ¦ Doors
33 ¦ Do Right Woman, Do Right Man ¦ Aretha Franklin
34 ¦ She'd Rather Be With Me ¦ Turtles
35 ¦ Gimme Little Sign ¦ Brenton Wood
36 ¦ Mirage ¦ Tommy James & Shondells
37 ¦ Gentle On My Mind ¦ Glen Campbell
38 ¦ Little Bit Of Soul ¦ Music Explosion
39 ¦ The Letter ¦ Box Tops
40 ¦ Expressway To Your Heart ¦ Soul Survivors
41 ¦ Your Precious Love ¦ Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
42 ¦ Carrie-Anne ¦ Hollies
43 ¦ Happy Together ¦ Turtles
44 ¦ New York Mining Disaster 1941 ¦ Bee Gees
45 ¦ Somebody To Love ¦ Jefferson Airplane
46 ¦ Higher And Higher ¦ Jackie Wilson
47 ¦ The Happening ¦ Supremes
48 ¦ The Rain, The Park And Other Things ¦ Cowsills
49 ¦ Nights In White Satin ¦ Moody Blues
50 ¦ Ruby Tuesday ¦ Rolling Stones
51 ¦ Take Me (Just As I Am) ¦ Solomon Burke
52 ¦ Piece Of My Heart ¦ Erma Franklin
53 ¦ You're My Everything ¦ Temptations
54 ¦ Massachusetts ¦ Bee Gees
55 ¦ The Dark End Of The Street ¦ James Carr
56 ¦ Dr. Feelgood ¦ Aretha Franklin
57 ¦ People Are Strange ¦ Doors
58 ¦ (I Wanna) Testify ¦ Parliaments
59 ¦ That Did It ¦ Bobby "Blue" Bland
60 ¦ Western Union ¦ Five Americans
61 ¦ Let's Live For Today ¦ Living Daylights
62 ¦ Run Run Run ¦ Third Rail
63 ¦ Let's Spend The Night Together ¦ Rolling Stones
64 ¦ I Never Loved A Man ¦ Aretha Franklin
65 ¦ Fed Up With The Blues ¦ O.V. Wright
66 ¦ Boogaloo Down Broadway ¦ Fantastic Johnny C
67 ¦ The Oogum Boogum Song ¦ Brenton Wood
68 ¦ Windy ¦ Association
69 ¦ A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You ¦ Monkees
70 ¦ I'm A Man ¦ Spencer Davis Group
71 ¦ Love Is All Around ¦ Troggs
72 ¦ Love You So Much ¦ New Colony Six
73 ¦ Midnight Confessions ¦ Evergreen Blues
74 ¦ Baby, Now That I've Found You ¦ Foundations
75 ¦ All I Need ¦ Temptations
76 ¦ I Wish It Would Rain ¦ Temptations
77 ¦ Green Tambourine ¦ Lemon Pipers
78 ¦ Creeque Alley ¦ Mamas & Papas
79 ¦ Tighten Up ¦ Archie Bell & Drells
80 ¦ Jimmy Mack ¦ Martha & Vandellas
81 ¦ I Second That Emotion ¦ Smokey Robinson & Miracles
82 ¦ At The Top Of The Stairs ¦ Formations
83 ¦ I Think We're Alone Now ¦ Tommy James & Shondells
84 ¦ I'd Rather Go Blind ¦ Etta James
85 ¦ You're All I Need ¦ Bobby "Blue" Bland
86 ¦ That's Why I Love You ¦ Professionals
87 ¦ Darlin' ¦ Beach Boys
88 ¦ In The Morning ¦ Mighty Marvelows
89 ¦ Sweet Inspiration ¦ Sweet Inspirations
90 ¦ Why, Why, Why ¦ Mill Evans
91 ¦ Him Or Me - What's It Gonna Be ¦ Paul Revere & Raiders
92 ¦ Never My Love ¦ Association
93 ¦ Incense And Peppermints ¦ Strawberry Alarm Clock
94 ¦ Jackson ¦ Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood
95 ¦ Respect ¦ Vagrants
96 ¦ The Lady In Black ¦ Fats Domino
97 ¦ Tramp ¦ Otis Redding & Carla Thomas
98 ¦ Judy In Disguise ¦ John Fred & Playboy Band
99 ¦ Two Steps Forward ¦ Muddy Waters
100 ¦ Take It Back ¦ Cream

[Live in Phoenix]

OutKast, along with Oasis, hit that sweet spot of critical and commercial success which so often seems important for the HOF -- yet no nomination. I don't think the HOF would be above waiting a year on a musician, to ensure a headliner (or genre headliner) for next time. Or, maybe the answer is that the Hall is run by old farts who think that there's been almost nothing good to listen to since the Doobie Brothers.

[Hymie]

the Hall is run by old farts who think that there's been almost nothing good to listen to since the Doobie Brothers.

Not only that, but every living inductee gets to vote every year, and many of them feel that way too.

[ordinaryperson]

Current Standings

1. Dave Matthews Band
2. Pat Benatar
3. The Doobie Brothers
4. Soundgarden
5. Judas Priest
6. Depeche Mode
7. Whitney Houston
8. Motorhead
9. Thin Lizzy
10. Nine Inch Nails
11. Todd Rundgren
12. The Notorious B.I.G.
13. T. Rex
14. Kraftwerk
15. Rufus feat. Chaka Khan
16. MC5

It hurts to see how little the amount of votes Kraftwerk has.
Update 26/10/2019: Dave Matthews Band and Judas Priest have now overtaken Depeche Mode.
Update 31/10/2019: Dave Matthews Band has now overtaken Soundgarden.
Update 01/11/2019: Dave Matthews Band has now overtaken The Doobie Brothers
Update 05/11/2019: Dave Matthews Band has now taken the top spot.

[Hymie]

Current Standings

1. Pat Benetar
2. The Doobie Brothers
3. Soundgarden
4. Depeche Mode
5. Judas Priest
6. Dave Matthews Band
7. Whitney Houston
8. Motorhead
9. Thin Lizzy
10. Nine Inch Nails
11. Todd Rundgren
12. The Notorious B.I.G.
13. T. Rex
14. Kraftwerk
15. Rufus feat. Chaka Khan
16. MC5

It hurts to see how little the amount of votes Kraftwerk has.

I assume the vast majority of the votes come from the USA, where most people have never heard of Kraftwerk.

[Rob]

I'm more surprised about Pat Benatar. I thought she was a half-forgotten artist who had a handful of dated if appealing hits during a short period of time and then fell off the earth completely. I feel that at least the three acts that follow (and some lower than that) have more presence in popular culture. I don't mind her, but is her name really still this big? I also suspected that Thin Lizzy would be more prototypical for this audience.

At least I'm happy Whitney Houston is not getting in on this ballot.

[Hymie]

I'm more surprised about Pat Benatar. I thought she was a half-forgotten artist who had a handful of dated if appealing hits during a short period of time and then fell off the earth completely. I feel that at least the three acts that follow (and some lower than that) have more presence in popular culture. I don't mind her, but is her name really still this big? I also suspected that Thin Lizzy would be more prototypical for this audience.

At least I'm happy Whitney Houston is not getting in on this ballot.

Again, most votes are coming from the USA where Think Lizzy was only really known for one hit single and the album it was on. "Jailbreak" was a gold album here, but none of their other albums were big sellers. And Benetar had 15 Top 40 singles, 6 platinum albums and 3 more gold albums in the USA.

[Rob]

Benatar had 15 top 40 singles? I really only know two or three of them.

[Edre Depeche Head]

Classic Rock Radio is essentially just White Guys With Guitars (and Hendrix). They don't play ANY black styles of rock at all, not even Stevie Wonder or Prince. It's a sham.

Totally agree. Even though I’m not huge on many classic rock bands like I used too. I’d like to hear more than Lynyrd Skynrd and Boston on the radio

[Cold Butterfly]

Classic Rock Radio is essentially just White Guys With Guitars (and Hendrix). They don't play ANY black styles of rock at all, not even Stevie Wonder or Prince. It's a sham.

Totally agree. Even though I’m not huge on many classic rock bands like I used too. I’d like to hear more than Lynyrd Skynrd and Boston on the radio

And less of Styx, Def Leppard, Guns N’ Roses, U2, etc.

[Edre Depeche Head]

Classic Rock Radio is essentially just White Guys With Guitars (and Hendrix). They don't play ANY black styles of rock at all, not even Stevie Wonder or Prince. It's a sham.

Totally agree. Even though I’m not huge on many classic rock bands like I used too. I’d like to hear more than Lynyrd Skynrd and Boston on the radio

And less of Styx, Def Leppard, Guns N’ Roses, U2, etc.

Totally. Even though I like Guns N Roses there are other bands to play

[ordinaryperson]

Dave Matthews Band has taken the top spot from Pat Benatar on the fan vote.
This means that the Dave Matthews Band is definitely going to be inducted this year.

[Live in Phoenix]

The top five artists, as selected by the public, will comprise a “fans’ ballot” that will be tallied along with the other ballots to choose the 2020 inductees

It all seems pretty vague. (The top 5 currently is Dave Matthews Band, Pat Benatar, Doobie Brothers, Soundgarden, Judas Priest.)

[ordinaryperson]

The Inductees

Depeche Mode
The Doobie Brothers
Whitney Houston
Nine Inch Nails
The Notorious B.I.G.
T. Rex

[Listyguy]

I've never cared a whole lot about who does or doesn't get inducted, but I must admit I was glad Dave Matthews (who was leading the fan voting) didn't get in.

[Edre Depeche Head]

FINALLY! I may be a Depeche Mode fanboy but I am extremely happy that they got inducted (glad for NIN and Biggie too).

[Nick]

The Inductees

Depeche Mode
The Doobie Brothers
Whitney Houston
Nine Inch Nails
The Notorious B.I.G.
T. Rex

This is actually a great group. Swap out The Doobies and Whitney for Todd Rundgren and Kraftwerk and this would’ve been my exact list. And The Doobie Brothers and Whitney Houston are definitely worthy inductees.

[andyd1010]

The Inductees

Depeche Mode
The Doobie Brothers
Whitney Houston
Nine Inch Nails
The Notorious B.I.G.
T. Rex

This is actually a great group. Swap out The Doobies and Whitney for Todd Rundgren and Kraftwerk and this would’ve been my exact list. And The Doobie Brothers and Whitney Houston are definitely worthy inductees.

Hah, my list had those same four as well, except I would swap out the other two for Soundgarden and Thin Lizzy. But I agree that they're all pretty worthy.

[bootsy]

This is probably the first time I've been a fan of every one of the inductees. Congrats to all.

[Rob]

And here I spoiling the fun with thinking it is a weaker group. Whitney Houston is about as awful as it gets for me, I never understood the appeal of Depeche Mode and The Doobie Brothers are fine without ever transcending the classic rock sound. The other three are great though.

How was the audience vote at the end? Were Dave Matthews and Pat Benatar still leading? Does that mean that they completely ignored the audience vote? Seems like a terrible move.

[Henry]

I have a difficult time seeing Todd or Dave Matthews becoming inductees. But, I think Pat Benatar still has a shot.

[Krurze]

How was the audience vote at the end? Were Dave Matthews and Pat Benatar still leading? Does that mean that they completely ignored the audience vote? Seems like a terrible move.

I don't know about the results of the audience vote, but if I remember it correctly the audience vote counts as one single ballot in the several hundred ballots they collect yearly so the audience poll only has a marginal influence on deciding who gets inducted.

[Rob]

How was the audience vote at the end? Were Dave Matthews and Pat Benatar still leading? Does that mean that they completely ignored the audience vote? Seems like a terrible move.

I don't know about the results of the audience vote, but if I remember it correctly the audience vote counts as one single ballot in the several hundred ballots they collect yearly so the audience poll only has a marginal influence on deciding who gets inducted.

Ah, I thought the #1 from the audience got an automatic induction.

[StevieFan13]

And the inductees are:
The Notorious B.I.G.
The Doobie Brothers
Whitney Houston
Depeche Mode
T. Rex

[Hymie]

Sampson's write up on the inductees.

https://digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best ... -2020.html