The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has been touting all week that they would be announcing the nominees for the Class of 2018 on Thursday, Oct. 5, at 8 a.m. on a live broadcast on SiriusXM.
Then several online outlets including Rolling Stone shared the list of 19 nominees late on Wednesday, Oct. 4. And while there are plenty of classic rock names on the list, scores of deserving bands are again missing.
Heading the list of rock acts who have made a crucial–but not final–step in the process are, alphabetically, Bon Jovi, the Cars, Dire Straits, Eurythmics, the J. Geils Band, Judas Priest, the Moody Blues and the Zombies.
Also nominated: Radiohead, Depeche Mode, LL Cool J, Kate Bush, MC5, the Meters, Nina Simone, Rufus featuring Chaka Khan, Link Wray, Rage Against the Machine and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
The top vote-getters, from the Rock Hall’s committee and fan voting, will be announced in December. The Class of 2018 will be inducted on April 14 in Cleveland. The fan voting will begin on Oct. 5 and continue through Dec. 5 here.
Ballots will be sent to an international voting body of more than 900 artists, historians and members of the music industry. Factors such as an artist’s musical influence on other artists, length and depth of career and the body of work, innovation and superiority in style and technique are taken into consideration.
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 2018 inductees. Fans will need to login with a Facebook account or email to vote. Voting is capped at one ballot per day.
MIA, yet again, are such favorites as Joe Cocker, Jethro Tull, Bad Company, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, the Doobie Brothers, the Monkees, and on and on.
Related: Our two stories on the biggest Rock Hall omissions: Part 1 and Part 2.
The two most recent Rock Hall classes had included such mainstream rock acts as Journey, Chicago, ELO and Yes, among others, leading many to think that the trend would continue as the HoF looked to offer big names for its broadcast partner HBO. (The initial nominee list for the Class of 2017 also totaled 19 names, which was ultimately whittled down to seven inductees.)
To be eligible for nomination, an individual artist or band must have released its first commercial recording at least 25 years prior to the year of induction. The 2018 nominees had to release their first official recording no later than 1992.
Here’s the Rock Hall’s tweet from earlier this week
This is your last week to speculate. Who’s going to be on our list this Thursday morning? #RockHall2018 pic.twitter.com/TDBbiQjDa9
— Rock Hall (@rockhall) October 2, 2017
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3 Comments
I’ll be thrilled if the way over due Moody Blues are chosen. Better late than never, I guess. Now, about the Doobie Brothers and Jethro Tull……
Doobie Brothers should be in the HoF!!
I see we have what has now become the annual PC required nod to urban non-rock, the “rap artist.” Let’s hear it for L L Cool J, certainly one of the top rockers on my list.