2018 Rock Hall nominees

[twonabomber]

The Rock Hall was set to announce the contenders for the Class of 2018 Thursday morning during a Sirius XM broadcast held at the museum, but Rolling Stone revealed the 19 nominees first:

Bon Jovi
Depeche Mode
Dire Straits
Eurythmics
J. Geils Band
Judas Priest
Kate Bush
Link Wray
LL Cool J
MC5
Nina Simone
Radiohead
Rage Against The Machine
Rufus with Chaka Khan
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
The Cars
The Meters
The Moody Blues
The Zombies

The Class of 2018 will be announced in December, with The 33rd Annual Induction Ceremony taking place on April 14 at Cleveland's Public Hall.

[twonabomber]

Tough to pick five to seven acts out of that group. Not hard to pick five to seven I actually like, but predicting what the voters will do.

Bon Jovi will probably win the fan vote. The Moody Blues fans who have been crying for years may be too old to know how to use a computer.

The Rock Hall loves to induct women, so maybe Eurythmics and Kate Bush get in. Tharpe maybe as an early influence.

First ballot acts, either Radiohead or Rage. One part of me says Rage wouldn't even show up, the other says they'd show up just to pontificate.

I've already seen people questioning Priest over Iron Maiden.

Rock Hall will be thinking ratings for the HBO broadcast, so there's LL Cool J.

Local news last night kept predicting NIN and Janet Jackson as nominees and missed on both.

My seven would be Depeche Mode, Dire Straits, The Cars, MC5, Judas Priest, Eurythmics, and J. Geils Band.

[Jérôme Frenchise]

The J. Geils Band has been one of my top fave bands for a very long time. They were kickass killers live in the 1970s and deserve to be reminded of, especially now that John Geils has passed away.
I'd support the MC5, the Meters, Dire Straits and Kate Bush (whose first album, that will turn 30 years old next year, is a real masterpiece in its kind). The five acts I'd pick.

[Terry]

The Rock Hall was set to announce the contenders for the Class of 2018 Thursday morning during a Sirius XM broadcast held at the museum, but Rolling Stone revealed the 19 nominees first:

Bon Jovi
Depeche Mode
Dire Straits
Eurythmics
J. Geils Band
Judas Priest
Kate Bush
Link Wray
LL Cool J
MC5
Nina Simone
Radiohead
Rage Against The Machine
Rufus with Chaka Khan
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
The Cars
The Meters
The Moody Blues
The Zombies

The Class of 2018 will be announced in December, with The 33rd Annual Induction Ceremony taking place on April 14 at Cleveland's Public Hall.

The Cars for sure.
Dire Straits for sure.
The Zombies? They had 2, maybe 3 popular tunes. If The Zombies are inducted, the RnRHoF is truly scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Depeche Mode? Nope.
Eurythmics? Yeah, I'll buy that.
J. Geils for sure.
Judas Priest? I suppose.
Kate Bush? Nope.
Link Wray? Yeah, I suppose.
LL Cool J? Nope.
MC5? Yes.
Nina Simone? Nope.
Radiohead? Nope.
Rage Against The Machine? Nope.
Rufus with Chaka Khan? Maybe Chaka by herself: who gives a shit about Rufus?
Sister Rosetta Tharpe? Never heard of her/it/them. Can't be in the Hall of Fame if I've never heard of you: it's in the name of the place.
The Meters? Quick, name a Meters tune! Nope? Me, either! Next.
The Moody Blues. Meh. Doubtless they'll get in someday, but were it up to me they would stay out.
Bon Jovi. See The Moody Blues.

[So this is love]

Bon Jovi -YES
Depeche Mode - YES
Dire Straits- YES
Eurythmics- YES
J. Geils Band- YES
Judas Priest- YES
Kate Bush- NO
Link Wray- NO
LL Cool J- NO
MC5- NO
Nina Simone- NO
Radiohead- NO
Rage Against The Machine- NO
Rufus with Chaka Khan- NO
Sister Rosetta Tharpe- NO
The Cars- YES
The Meters- NO
The Moody Blues*-YES
The Zombies- NO

[DavidLeeNatra]

Priest...maybe Dire Straits...who gives a fuck?

[Terry]

Priest...maybe Dire Straits...who gives a fuck?

Yeah, pretty much.

The whole institution is just the music industry kissing its own ass.

[twonabomber]

Past inductees get to vote, so I'd guess the guys in Metallica will vote for Priest, and maybe MC5.

A week in and Bon Jovi is supposedly winning the fan vote. That's how Journey and Yes got in. I don't think I'd call Bon Jovi influential though. Sure, they sold a lot of records, but that's not what induction is about.

All the big bands are already in. They could fill in some of the genres that have been passed over, there still hasn't been a lot of New Wave bands that have gotten in. Do they put Duran Duran in? Maybe not for the music, but for the videos. Could be argued that the video boom was "perpetuation of rock and roll." After Nirvana and Pearl Jam, which alt bands get in? Pumpkins? NIN? Manson? Watch, Manson won't get in because he'll be seen as pretty much doing Alice Cooper's act, but Lady Gaga will get in even though she's not doing anything much different than Madonna ever did.

[Seshmeister]

'Cool' music people in Europe fucking worship Radiohead, they would be a no brainer over here although not my bag at all.

[Seshmeister]

The criteria stated for what it's worth is ' include the influence and significance of the artists' contributions to the development and perpetuation of rock and roll.'

I've always thought that should rule out any Soul, Dance, Hip Hop and all sorts of other stuff. Looking at their list and previous inductees they shouldn't call it rock and roll it is meaningless.

It's ended up so wide it should be something like 'The Popular Music Hall Of Fame' or maybe less controversial 'The Contemporary Music Hall of Fame.'

[twonabomber]

The hack writer for the Plain Dealer always mentions how many records an act sells, and I always counter with the influence and development and perpetuation sentence.

I haven't read Guitar World in forever but I really doubt there are any interviewees who claim they have been influenced by Richie Sambora.

[Seshmeister]

The hack writer for the Plain Dealer always mentions how many records an act sells, and I always counter with the influence and development and perpetuation sentence.

I haven't read Guitar World in forever but I really doubt there are any interviewees who claim they have been influenced by Richie Sambora.

I think Bon Jovi did have quite a big influence on the presentation of rock n roll music in fashion and video in that period.

I can't think of anything they did that was original musically but without them would we have had pop metal to the same extent mid to late 80s?

It does seem to be a lot more about album sales, will they turn up and play and how many very expensive tables will they buy at the event.

I don't know a huge amount about this thing apart from 15 years of annual threads here but to me the RRHOF screams fake commercialism in the same way that the Hard Rock Cafe does.

I'm sure it's brings a lot of much needed $$$ and publicity to Cleveland though.

[twonabomber]

From the Rock Hall website:

Since opening in 1995, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has welcomed more than 10 million visitors from around the globe and generated more than $2 billion in economic impact for Northeast Ohio. In 2015, 500,000 people visited the Rock Hall, a figure which represents a 15% attendance bump from the year before. These visitors—90% of whom live outside of Cleveland—help the Rock Hall contribute $107 million in annual economic impact to the region.

I was off work for a couple months in '95, I severed the tendon on my left middle finger. I was already off so I went to the ribbon cutting with some friends. Skipped the concert though. I bought a membership this year. $75 gets me and a guest unlimited visits. I think it's about $20 to get in, so two visits and it's paid for. The membership fee is tax deductible. There are a bunch of special events for members and we get first crack at tickets for the induction ceremony. I may go in April. My friend was a big Dire Straits fan, if they get in we'll go.

The HOF Foundation and the museum/archives are separate entities. Jann Wenner still controls the Foundation. Last time Bon Jovi was on Howard Stern, Jon Bon Jovi said that there is bad blood between him and someone at the Foundation. Who knows if he'd show up. Maybe he'd take a swipe at Wenner and the Foundation in his speech.

Hard Rock Cafe buys memorabilia, so does Experience Music Project. The Rock Hall mostly depends on donations and loaned items. I think they may have started buying items for display, but not to the extent the other two go to. There's a lot of interesting stuff beyond the guitars and stage props, like contracts and hand-written lyric sheets. I want to check out the archives one day, those are across town at Tri C.

[Seshmeister]

You would imagine they would fix it so that they don't have two huge selling acts with crossover appeal like Dire Straits and Bon Jovi in the one year, would make more sense for them to hold one back for a later year.

It pains me a little bit to put them in the same genre but there will be literally millions of people who bought albums by both of them.

[twonabomber]

Van Halen, Prince, and the Police all released their first records in '78. They were all eligible for induction in 2003. The Police made it in on first ballot, first year of eligibility. Prince was the year after, and VH in '07. If they all got in the same year it would have been a hell of a ceremony. Now it seems like the HOF Foundation spreads them out to ensure decent ratings of the induction ceremony.

Dire Straits and Bon Jovi were huge on MTV around the same time, people buying both wouldn't surprise me.