Last year: Dolly. This year: Willie.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame can honor another country legend in its class of 2023 – Willie Nelson – while 13 other nominated artists continue to expand the hall’s reach beyond the archetypal definition of rock.
The rest of the artists rounding out this year’s tally:
- Kate Bush: The British singer was back in the pop culture headlines last year with the resurrection of her biggest hit, ‘Running Up That Hill’, featured on Netflix’s ‘Stranger Things’.
- Sheryl Raven: His debut album, “Tuesday Music Club”, released in 1993, led to instant stardom with “All I Wanna Do” and a career lasting over three decades.
- Missy Elliot: The rap maven has always been recognized as a creative trailblazer, from her songs (“Work It”) to her videos, including “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly).”
- Iron Maiden: One of metal’s most enduring bands, Iron Maiden were first nominated for Rock Hall in 2021, though they’ve been eligible since 2005.
- division of joy/New order: “Love Will Tear Us Apart” singled out British Dark New Wavers Joy Division; after vocalist Ian Curtis committed suicide, the remaining members formed New Order, which blended their New Wave roots with electronica.
- Cyndi Lauper: His 1983 debut, “She’s So Unusual,” made Lauper an instant household name with seminal hits — and videos — for “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” and “Time After Time.”
- george michael: Following his success on Wham!, Michael forged an impressive solo career that showcased his pop instincts (“Faith”) as well as his interest in jazz (“Kissing a Fool”) and dance (“Fastlove “).
- Rage against the machine: Blending rap, hard rock and outspoken views on politics and social issues, this is the California-based band’s fifth nomination.
- Garden of sound: Charismatic frontman Chris Cornell died in 2017, but the band’s alt-rock-metal brew in Seattle remains highly respected.
- Spinners: Previously nominated in 2011, 2014 and 2015, the R&B hitmakers (“Could It Be I’m Falling in Love,” “I’ll Be Around”) are still on the nominating committee’s mind.
- A tribe called Quest: Considered one of the groundbreaking hip-hop collectives born in Queens, New York, the quartet of Q-Tip, Jarobi White, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and the late Phife Dog will be remembered for their rap classics, including ” Bonita Applebum” and “Check the Rhime”. .”
- The White Stripes: The duo of Jack and Meg White produced their most successful production between 2002 and 2007 – a relatively short span that spawned stadium anthem, “Seven Nation Army” and garage rocker, “Icky Thump”.
- Warren Zevon: The rock singer-songwriter, who died in 2003, will always be known to casual fans for ‘Werewolves of London’, but his real genius came in some of the songs written for other artists, such as ‘Poor Poor Pitiful Me” and “Hurry down the wind.”
Elliott and The White Stripes both got nods in their first year of eligibility – the first commercial recording must have been released at least 25 years before a nomination – while Crow, Lauper, Michael, Nelson, Zevon and Joy Division/New Order make their ballot kick off.
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Rage Against the Machine, A Tribe Called Quest and Bush all picked up nominations last year in a more crowded field of 17 potential entrants.
Michael, who died in 2016 and eligible since 2012, was verified by the late Taylor Hawkins when the Foo Fighters were inducted in 2021.
“I would love to see George Michael in there one day,” Hawkins said, drawing major cheers from that year’s audience.
In recent years, the Rock Hall has been chastised for a relative lack of female inductees. But 2021 (Tina Turner, The Go-Go’s, Carole King) and 2022 (Dolly Parton, Pat Benatar, Carly Simon and Annie Lennox with Eurythmics) have seen an increase in genre diversity – a change also indicative on the 2023 list.
Parton initially declined to be considered for entry, believing that a country artist should not take votes away from mainstream rockers. But she acquiesced once Rock Hall organizers explained the extent of what they consider rock ‘n’ roll. (Parton is currently preparing her first rock album, a direct result of her induction in 2022.)
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This year’s inductees will be announced in May. The ceremony will take place this fall, with a location and date to be determined.
Until April 28, fans can vote online every day at vote.rockhall.com (or in person at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland). The top five artists selected by the public will include a “fan vote” that will be counted along with other ballots to determine the 2023 inductees.
Artists who win the fan vote are frequently inducted, including Duran Duran (2022); Tina Turner (2021); Def Leppard (2019) and Bon Jovi (2018).
Candidate ballots are submitted by an international voting body of more than 1,000 artists, historians and members of the music industry, taking into account each artist’s musical influence, duration and depth career and body of work and superiority in style.
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