Now that the Class of 2025 has been inducted, we can take a little break before the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announces the nominees for the Class of 2026. And everyone who knows an inkling about music probably can name one to five artists who have yet to be inducted.
Over the years, I have written until I finally threw up about how much the Hall missed out over the years in making it the all-inclusive institution that the music it celebrates truly is. I still believe the classes should be bigger. And those who get in should have at least 60% of the fan votes. But, again, I am a very small fish in a big ocean. In the big scheme of things, at least the current leaders of the Hall are recognizing the problems and are attempting to rectify them. Unfortunately, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame will NEVER be as inclusive as, let’s say, Goldmine magazine’s imaginary Hall of Fame is. Their’s is based upon an artist having multiple Top 40 hits on Billboard‘s Hot 100 singles chart and Top 200 album chart.
Not to mention the daily argument that rock & roll fans have over the definition of rock & roll. Is it limited the artists played on classic rock and alternative rock radio stations, primarily the music of the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties? Or is the music more inclusive due to the multitude of mutations and influences of various narrow forms have on each other? Me? I think by now we all know that I am in the all inclusive camp. My personal collection is full of all kinds of music, though I will admit that I am lacking many records from the Fifties and Sixties. However, I DO own some jazz, country, hip hop, R&B, soul, punk, new wave, pop, etc., besides rock music. I can spot influences within music even though I have absolutely no clue as to how the artist can make his or her instrument make those sounds.
Since the induction, I have been researching many of my favorite Rock Hall websites that keep track of those artists still sitting outside looking in to the Hall. My two favorites are Future Legends of Rock and Not in the Hall of Fame/music. Those two are very thorough with their information and are much better than I am with keeping abreast of Hall news. Not in the Hall has a committee that ranks artists according to many different parameters to determine who deserves induction the most. Their rankings are pretty bang-on. On the other hand, Future Legends is stuffed full of information. They have a voting section for you to vote for your favorite artists for induction. Once you do, you can discover information about the artist along with the predicted percentage of their eventual induction. Additionally, the site has information concerning who is eligible for induction and other Hall news.
So, whenever I get the urge to venture back into this whole Hall of Fame subject, the first place I always go to are those two sites. They are the best.
I have spent the weekend compiling, editing and re-editing a list of 300 artists who all deserve induction into the Hall of Fame. As far as I am concerned, these are all artist who should be in the Hall as a performer, influence, contributor or for musical excellence. I had at one time 364 names, but I had to remove relatively obscure favorites like The Style Council or Dexys Midnight Runners or New Radicals. As much as I love these artists, I cannot in good faith put them ahead of more deserving artists. Still, they all have a home in MY Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
I have identified 300 artists who are all eligible for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2026. Eventually, I will narrow down this huge list of deserving artists down to who I believe are the 50 artists who are most important in the annals of rock & roll in a future blog, including the 15 whom I believe will be nominated and the seven I think will be inducted as performers. But that is in the near future.
Right now, let’s just consider the artists who should be considered for induction. I think you will find this initial list fairly comprehensive. One could make arguments for some of these artists not to be included, while some of you might identify artists who you feel justified in having on a list such as this. That’s what makes this musical art form so compelling to a large majority of three generations, Baby Boomers, Gen X and Millennials. I’m still not sure of rock’s importance in the lives of Gen Z. My list is in alphabetical order.
- Bryan Adams
- Ryan Adams
- Christina Aguilera
- Alice in Chains
- Alicia Keys
- America
- Tori Amos
- Anthrax
- Fiona Apple
- Arrested Development
- Ashford & Simpson
- The B-52’s
- Bachman-Turner Overdrive
- Backstreet Boys
- Bad Brains
- Bad Religion
- Badfinger
- Erykah Badu
- Anita Baker
- Afrika Bambaataa
- The Bangles
- Bauhaus
- Beck
- Big Star
- Björk
- The Black Crowes
- Black Flag
- Blink-182
- Blood, Sweat & Tears
- Kurtis Blow
- Blue Cheer
- Blue Öyster Cult
- Blur
- Bone Thugz-N-Harmony
- Boogie Down Productions
- Boston
- Boyz II Men
- The Breeders
- Garth Brooks
- Jeff Buckley
- Tim Buckley
- Johnny Burnette & the Rock N Roll Trio
- Buzzcocks
- Glen Campbell
- Can
- Captain Beefheart
- Mariah Carey
- The Carpenters
- Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
- Tracy Chapman
- The Chemical Brothers
- Chic
- The Chicks
- Patsy Cline
- Cocteau Twins
- Coldplay
- Ornette Coleman
- Phil Collins
- John Coltrane
- The Commodores
- The Cranberries
- Jim Croce
- The Crystals
- The Cult
- Culture Club
- Cypress Hill
- D’Angelo
- Daft Punk
- Dick Dale
- The Damned
- De La Soul
- Dead Kennedys
- Derek & the Dominos
- Rick Derringer
- Destiny’s Child
- Devo
- Dinosaur Jr.
- Dio
- DMX
- Dr. Dre
- Drive-By Truckers
- Echo & the Bunnymen
- Emerson, Lake & Palmer
- En Vogue
- Brian Eno
- Eric B. & Rakim
- Gloria Estefan
- Faith No More
- Marianne Faithfull
- The Fall
- Fanny
- The Fifth Dimension
- Ella Fitzgerald
- Roberta Flack
- The Flaming Lips
- The Flying Burrito Brothers
- Fugazi
- Fugees
- The Funk Brothers
- Rory Gallagher
- Gang of Four
- Garbage
- Gloria Gaynor
- Gorillaz
- Grand Funk Railroad
- The Grass Roots
- The Guess Who
- Merle Haggard
- Herbie Hancock
- Emmylou Harris
- PJ Harvey
- Donny Hathaway
- Lauryn Hill
- Hole
- The Human League
- Humble Pie
- Hüsker Dü
- Ice Cube
- Billy Idol
- INXS
- Iron Butterfly
- Iron Maiden
- The J. Geils Band
- Joe Jackson
- The Jam
- Rick James
- Tommy James & the Shondells
- Jan & Dean
- Jane’s Addiction
- Jellyfish
- Waylon Jennings
- The Jesus and Mary Chain
- Jethro Tull
- Jewel
- George Jones
- Grace Jones
- Norah Jones
- Rickie Lee Jones
- Joy Division/New Order
- KC & the Sunshine Band
- Ben E. King
- King Crimson
- Korn
- Lenny Kravitz
- Kris Kristofferson
- Fela Kuti
- LaBelle
- Huey Lewis & the News
- Lil Wayne
- Limp Bizkit
- Linkin Park
- Little Feat
- Living Colour
- Los Lobos
- Love
- Loretta Lynne
- Marilyn Manson
- The Marvelettes
- John Mayer
- MC Hammer
- Meat Loaf
- Megadeth
- Natalie Merchant
- The Meters
- Midnight Oil
- Ministry
- Kylie Minogue
- Minutemen
- The Misfits
- Moby
- The Modern Lovers
- Modest Mouse
- The Monkees
- Alanis Morissette
- Giorgio Moroder
- Mötley Crüe
- Mötorhead
- Mott the Hoople
- Muse
- My Bloody Valentine
- My Morning Jacket
- Nas
- Neu!
- The Neville Brothers
- New Edition
- New York Dolls
- Olivia Newton-John
- Harry Nilsson
- No Doubt
- *NSYNC
- Ted Nugent
- Gary Numan
- Oasis
- Sinead O’Connor
- Odetta
- The Offspring
- P!nk
- Pantera
- Gram Parsons
- Pavement
- Pet Shop Boys
- Peter, Paul & Mary
- Liz Phair
- Phish
- Pixies
- The Pogues
- The Pointer Sisters
- Poison
- Iggy Pop
- John Prine
- Procol Harum
- The Prodigy
- The Psychedelic Furs
- Public Image Ltd.
- Suzi Quatro
- Queen Latifah
- Queens of the Stone Age
- Rancid
- The Raspberries
- REO Speedwagon
- The Replacements
- Paul Revere & the Raiders
- Cliff Richard & the Shadows
- Robyn
- The Roots
- Diana Ross
- Rufus
- The Runaways
- Ry Cooder
- Sade
- Joe Satriani
- Boz Scaggs
- Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
- Neil Sedaka
- Selena
- Shakira
- The Shangri-La’s
- Simple Minds
- Siouxsie & the Banshees
- Slade
- Slayer
- Sleater-Kinney
- Slipknot
- The Smashing Pumpkins
- Elliott Smith
- The Smiths
- Snoop Dogg
- Sonic Youth
- The Sonics
- Sparks
- Britney Spears
- The Specials
- Spice Girls
- Squeeze
- Billy Squier
- Steppenwold
- Sufjan Stevens
- Sting
- Stone Roses
- Stone Temple Pilots
- Stray Cats
- The Strokes
- Styx
- Sublime
- Suede
- Sugarcubes
- Suicide
- Sun Ra
- Supertramp
- The Sweet
- System of a Down
- Talk Talk
- Tangerine Dream
- Tears for Fears
- Television
- Thin Lizzy
- Three Dog Night
- TLC
- Tool
- Peter Tosh
- Toots & the Maytals
- The Turtles
- Shania Twain
- Luther Vandross
- Suzanne Vega
- Violent Femmes
- Joe Walsh
- War
- Weezer
- Paul Weller
- Mary Wells
- Barry White
- Wilco
- Lucinda Williams
- Steve Winwood
- Wu-Tang Clan
- X
- XTC
- “Weird Al” Yankovic
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs
My rankings and predictions are coming soon.
If My Records Could Talk 