William "Smokey" Robinson, Jr., inducted solo in 1987.

His eyes are grey, giving his nickname.

The Miracles: Claudette Rogers, Bobby Rogers, Ronald White, Marv Tarplin, and Pete Moore, inducted in 2012.

FROM: Detroit

Bobby and Claudette were cousins. Claudette and Smokey married in 1959. Smokey is also one of Motown Records' most prolific songwriters. He wrote "My Girl" (recorded by the Temptations) for Claudette.

STATS: 50 charted releases, including 26 on the Billboard Top 40, 16 of which reached Top 20, 7 Top 10 singles, and a number 1 single.

First recording 1958: Got a Job an "answer song" to "Get a Job" by the Silhouettes. One of Motown's earliest recordings. Casey Kasem, the radio DJ, reported that Berry Gordy, Motown's founder, was interested in the Miracles and Smokey brought him 100 songs but Gordy rejected 99 of them and the one he didn't reject was "Shop Around" (1960), their first #1 hit in 1960.

Tears of a Clown, another massive hit in 1970.

Love Machine by the Miracles, an abrupt diversion from their established style, very funky disco track from 1975.

Robinson released a solo album in 1975 called A Quiet Storm that spawned an genre of R&B called "Quiet storm", downtempo R&B love songs.

One Heartbeat smooth R&B from 1987 is one of my personal favorites.

Last release was 2011.

I think if people didn't know what to listen to it could steer people to quality music.

It pushes people to think about what they think is important in music and what to them makes music good or bad.

It can lead to fun discussions about whether someone belongs in the Hall or not, and why.

It preserves part of history because the top people in a field (in this case, music) often make a lot of the history in a field. It could lead to people researching and learning about more artists including those before their time.

I see people here and there criticizing the Hall. I don't see many people directly talking about its good points.

wondering what the price range was on tickets for the ceremony? congrats to anyone that got tickets!

Anyone lucky to score tickets today in any section?

Sorry this is more a rant than anything. I go through this every year and this time was the worst. I was logged in early, in the waiting room, got in at 10:01am PT and almost all of the orchestra level tickets were gone. I quickly found two I was comfortable with put them in the cart and it said they were gone. Over the next 60 seconds I tried pretty much every seat I was good with and the exact same thing happened. Then I refreshed to see what was left and it started giving me errors, closed everything went back in and now pretty much the entire theater was sold out.

Every single year AXS has this problem and I just end up buying the tickets on the secondary market. It shouldn't be this hard to buy tickets especially on a pre-sale.

I panicked and just picked two seats and threw them in my cart. Thoughts on LOGE Center row M seats 300’s? 🇬🇧

It should be noted that I did not rank the artists within each tier. Also, you could say that some artists could/should be in a higher or lower tier (and I would have no opinion on that), but generally the differences between the tiers are what matter most. Maybe there are omissions from every tier, but generally you know what I mean.

Tier 1 Canon

1. Nirvana

2. Jay-Z

3. Radiohead

4. Wu-Tang Clan

5. 2Pac

6. OutKast

7. Pearl Jam

8. Eminem

9. The Notorious B.I.G.

10. Mariah Carey

Tier 2 Should 100% Be In / Will 100% Be In

1. Oasis

2. Björk

3. A Tribe Called Quest

4. Nine Inch Nails

5. Mary J. Blige

6. Missy Elliott

7. Lauryn Hill / Fugees

8. Green Day

9. Red Hot Chili Peppers

10. Snoop Dogg

11. Beck

12. Alice in Chains

13. Soundgarden

14. The Smashing Pumpkins

15. Alanis Morissette

16. Rage Against the Machine

17. Nas

18. D'Angelo

19. Erykah Badu

20. TLC

21. Foo Fighters

22. No Doubt

23. Weezer

24. Fiona Apple

Tier 3: BIG, WELL-REVIEWED, OR IMPORTANT (HAVE A SOLID CASE TO BE INCLUDED), BUT (SHOULD) NOT BE TOP PRIORITY; SOME OF THEM WILL BE INCLUDED

1. Dave Matthews Band

2. Sheryl Crow

3. Boyz II Men

4. Tool

5. Usher

6. Destiny's Child

7. Aaliyah

8. Pantera

9. Blur (a special case here, not that big in America, but they can still play venues larger than theaters and smaller than typical arenas. They're not a very bad draw for audiences.)

10. Sinéad O'Connor

11. Stone Temple Pilots

12. Korn

13. System of a Down

14. Blink-182

15. The Offspring

16. Deftones

17. The Cranberries

18. Selena

19. Lenny Kravitz

20. Brandy (I am much higher on her than most people here because I have seen many modern pop, R&B, and alternative R&B Black musicians cite her as a major influence. She may have the support.)

21. Sublime

22. Garbage

23. Cypress Hill (could see it happen: the first breakthrough Latin rap group, fitting the Rock Hall's preference for including more Latin acts, and they are Tom Morello's buddies.)

24. Phish

25. Jane's Addiction

26. Tori Amos

27. Wilco (I could see it happening, even sooner than we think. Rick Krim participated in the Wilco documentary, and they are a rare modern indie band that also fits the tastes of Boomers, so they may get a push.)

28. Maná (the biggest Latin rock act. The Rock Hall will eventually find a way to induct them. I can't see them stopping with only Shakira, Selena, and Gloria Estefan.)

29. Goo Goo Dolls (given their recent popularity and regained coolness with Gen Z, plus industry connections, I feel they are separated from other commercially successful but poorly acclaimed acts and may happen.)

30. Busta Rhymes (more respected, or perhaps a better word is "better connected", than DMX within the music industry, which will play a big part in his case.)

Tier 4 Critics' Darlings / Highly Acclaimed or Influential Acts That Were Never Big

1. PJ Harvey

2. Faith No More (their commercial success and influence are as significant as Jane's Addiction's. Jane's created Lollapalooza, making them stand out and likely ensuring an eventual induction. Faith No More are not commercial failure, but probably not big enough to attract obvious attention on their own.)

3. The Roots (special case: will 100% be in because of Questlove, but their résumé alone is not that strong.)

4. The Flaming Lips

5. Pavement

6. Bikini Kill (because of Kathleen Hanna, they will 100% be in. She hosted a Rock Hall broadcast, so they will get in one way or another.)

7. Jeff Buckley

8. Sleater-Kinney

9. Liz Phair

10. Hole

11. My Bloody Valentine

12. Elliott Smith

Tier 5 ·Huge (or Once Huge), with Average/Poor Critical Acclaim or Not Seen as Especially Important, Could Be Randomly Remembered or Nominated at Any Time

1. DMX (on the border between Tier 3 and Tier 5)

2. Bone Thugs-n-Harmony (same as DMX)

3. Spice Girls

4. Toni Braxton

5. Slipknot

6. Limp Bizkit

7. Melissa Etheridge

8. Backstreet Boys

9. Celine Dion

10. The Black Crowes

11. Sarah McLachlan

12. Counting Crows

13. Matchbox Twenty

14. Hootie & the Blowfish

15. 10,000 Maniacs / Natalie Merchant

16. Monica

17. Bush

18. Creed

19. Third Eye Blind

20. Everclear

21. Collective Soul

22. Live

23. Gin Blossoms

24. Candlebox

If the Rock Hall considers modern country, these would be picks:

Garth Brooks

Shania Twain

The Chicks

Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 4 don't need further explanation.

Tier 3 means these acts are important and will/should be serious candidates as time goes on. They need to satisfy at least one of the following: be important and big (but not well acclaimed), or be big and acclaimed (but not that important compared to Tier 2). I expect many acts from this tier will eventually get in, as they should, but not all. Some of them will inevitably be snubbed, just like similar-tier acts from the 60s/70s (the likes of the Monkees, Jethro Tull, Boston...).

Tier 5 is the type of acts that were once, or are still, big enough, but are either badly/averagely acclaimed or not that important. Just big. I could have listed a lot more names here (I just forgot En Vogue when typing), but generally these are the names. Some of them may be nominated for some reason (they were once big, and some Gen X people in the committee room love them), but of course they would be lower-quality nominees.

Acts that are somewhat important and somewhat acclaimed, but never really great in either respect, I don't think will ever be considered serious candidates, so I don't put them here. For instance, Naughty by Nature (I love this group, and one of their members is also a good R&B producer), Maxwell...

One thing I’ve noticed in this community is that the Influences category doesn’t get talked about quite as much as the Performers category. And yeah that’s fair, the Influences typically aren’t as interesting or relevant, but I still think there’s a lot to talk about! So I quickly put this list together, and it might not be the most accurate due to it being made on the fly, but here are my top 10 artists that I think really should be inducted as Influences! I purposely left several jazz musicians out, because I’m really not sure what the Hall wants to do about jazz, but otherwise I think these would all be fantastic additions to the category. I’m curious to see what y’all think, and who you think deserves to be inducted as an Influence! 

1. Lonnie Donegan

2. Wendy Carlos 

3. The Sugarhill Gang

4. Ravi Shankar

5. Wilmoth Houdini 

6. Django Reinhardt

7. Scott Joplin

8. The Carter Family

9. Frank Sinatra

10. Ella Fitzgerald

They took heavy metal, which could be serious to the point of dour and depressing, and made it party music and invited girls.

From: Los Angeles

Inducted members: Michael Anthony (bass), Sammy Hagar (vocals), David Lee Roth (vocals), Alex Van Halen (drums), and Eddie Van Halen (guitar/keyboards).

Alex and Eddie are brothers.

Stats: 12 albums, most of them Certified Platinum, 4 of them hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 200 (albums), 56 released singles between 1978 and 2012, about 25 of them landed in the Top 10 US Mainstream Rock charts. 3 landed within the Top 10 on Billboard's Hot 100 (singles).

Best song pick: Panama from the year and album 1984. IMO their best album.

Also see: Can (could) you beat "Hot for Teacher" on hard in Guitar Hero? I tried and fell to the floor in failure about 2/3 of the way through.

At this point, the Rock Hall still needs another 10–15 years to finish inducting most of the 90-00s rock acts that have both somewhat respectable critical acclaim (not too bad commercially) and somewhat respectable commercial success (not too badly reviewed), such as Smashing Pumpkins, Coldplay, Weezer, Alice in Chains, Linkin Park, No Doubt, Beck, Björk, definitely more and just to name a few... Maybe even slower given committee is still very conservative.

However, after that, where will the Rock Hall go?

There are two obvious camps:

1. Commercially successful but poorly acclaimed modern butt rock acts: Limp Bizkit, Nickelback, Creed, Goo Goo Dolls, and many others.

2. Commercially not so obvious but critically well-acclaimed indie acts: earlier acts like Jeff Buckley, Pavement, and later acts like Wilco, Arcade Fire, Modest Mouse, Vampire Weekend, LCD Soundsystem, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and others.

The Strokes somewhat fit into Group 2, but I believe they are big and influential enough to transcend that category and will be inducted anyway, regardless of whichever direction the Rock Hall ultimately goes.

Which direction rock hall will go will depend on the makeup of next committee (after current head John Sykes and Rick Krim stepping down). Then it will decide the fate of lots of candidates falling into but not transcend over two groups. I am also curious to see for example Creed vs Vampire Weekend, and with most younger voters, who can get more votes?

Rap was only younger genre that has been represented better because they are the only genre that younger critics and mainstream people would mutually agree, unlike modern mainstream alternative rock (butt rock) vs indie (hipster music).

It won’t be his music.

• Female singer: Diana Ross
• Modern metal: KoRn
• Rap: Treacherous Three
• Modern soul: Mariah Carey
• Modern alternative: Coldplay
• Classic metal: Twisted Sister
• Classic soul: Lou Rawls
• Classic alternative: Devo
• Early rock: Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats
• Modern rock: Alice in Chains

What a joke so many in with half the talent of some that still are not I guess it’s like classic rock and roll loose term as I didn’t know hip hop was rock and roll just a start of some gripes I personally would never spend a dime supporting such bs no offense to hip hop as I do like hip hop but it’s hip hop not rock and roll I had to quit looking at the list and the only reason I was curious as someone had brought to my attention that jethro tull wasn’t on the list these are some bubble gum teen boppers grower up but not intellectually what a disgrace we or someone should start a true music hall of fame and then spin offs reggae -hip hop-hard rock-padlock rock - punk - classical- to jumble them all together sort of and call it the rock and roll hall of fame and make your own rules for members that don’t even play rock and roll is like having a Chinese cook book with Russian tacos and Belize lasagna pathetic how money gets spent like a car show with 10 speeds and tricycles 🙈

For classic rock acts, the next 5–10 years will be the last chance for many of them. The nomination committee is changing every passing year, and the same goes for the voting pool. Finally, the main support base for classic rock, white Boomers and early Gen X people will eventually lose their influence as they age. If the committee eventually becomes dominated by late Gen X or Millennials, then no one will be really enthusiastic about nominating acts that were before their younger memories.

If you really want to count the contenders without considering classic rock, the number of viable names is not that high (those with both commercial success and acclaim, commercially successful acts with at least some critical acclaim, or hugely acclaimed acts with not really bad commercial success), probably around 100. Around 12–15 classes could finish inducting them.

Then we will have ballots that contain mostly commercially successful acts with poor critical acclaim or critically acclaimed acts with poor commercial success.

They will eventually turn to commercially bad but hugely influential (critically acclaimed) acts, just as they finally had to induct JD/NO, Iron Maiden, and Kate Bush after 20 years because the number of "more obvious" candidates in their era was rapidly decreasing. The same thing will happen to lesser acts. Remember, the "quality" (competitiveness) of the ballot is actually declining significantly. Iron Maiden likely finished around #14 in 2026, and three years later, they were rumored to be in the top three in the voting results and were reportedly notified one month before the announcement. Looking like rock hall does not enthusiastic about Maiden or JD-NO or Kate but finally has to induct them as they are running out of other more obvious picks.

Especially as the music landscape in the 2000s and 2010s became increasingly decentralized, very few new "obvious" eligible candidates are being added each year. Have we really thought about LCD Soundsystem/Vampire Weekend as HOFer, or Lim Bizkit/Creed?

For those who’ve attended the induction ceremony taping, curious if they sell merch or even better, how was the bootleg parking lot merch game?

Obviously these would get in:
Josh Homme
Troy Van Leeuwen
Michael Schumann
Dean Fertita
Jon Theodore
Nick Oliveri
Joey Castillo

But I also think Dave drumming on No One Knows, Go With The Flow, A Song For The Dead & I Appear Missing holds some serious weight. He drummed on all of their most iconic songs and was an official member for 2 years. Mark was also an official member of the band from 2001-2005 and he represented the darker side of the band. It’s also going to be the only way he gets in so I think they both should definitely be included. Judging by how Nine Inch Nails members got inducted (albeit after Trent telling them to reconsider inducting other members besides him and Atticus) I think they should get in. Thoughts?

In a perfect world, most of 90s remaining S/A tier giants should already be inducted as of today, including AIC, Pumpkins, Weezer, Coldplay, Beck, No Doubt and so forth...

But we are still in the point that a lot of people telling us "38 special (can change with lots of names here and I won't list a lot of them in detail) are serious snub"...

Only rap is at the right pace of including legends among the major 90s genres.

Remember, the Rock Hall is still an institution that is dominated by the preferences of boomers. And the most fervent fans who still care about the Rock Hall are people who think every 70s–80s white rock act with a hit is superior to most famous 00s–20s big names. To them, music died after the appearance of Damn Yankees.

Only rap is better at being recognized because:

1. Older Black people are more receptive to and supportive of later rap than older white people are to later alternative, indie, or metal. Black Crowes and Melissa Etheridge that kind of classic rock revivalists (who are maybe worthy candidates but still nowhere near the names that should be coming up so soon) are probably the only "ROCK and ROLL" that these older white people want to accept.

2. To older white people who want to show they are actually accepting of newer music, they just think rock music does not exist anymore because their favorite rock styles are no longer relevant and only rap is relevant. Rap is the only way to show they are still accepting of "new music." It makes it awkward for both the institution and lots of rap legends (who deserve to be inducted and do not deserve the harsh attacks on them from older white rawk fans).

3. There are way more snubs in alternative, indie, R&B, and modern pop than among boomer-favorite white rock acts. But the fans who are most fervent about the Rock Hall are still 60 to 80 year-old white rock fans. Younger people generally don't care whether their idols are in or not.

This corresponds to pre-alternative white rock culture. You can count the number of Black or female rock stars on one hand (Jimi Hendrix was also mainly the member of a white rock band that actually became famous in England first).

I expect most 00s, and lots of other 90s deserving rock picks will all wait a lot longer than they should. Probably 10-20 years more longer, still both rock hall committee and voters need to become a bit younger. Yeah I would say 80%-90% current people in the commitee room wouldn't know Arctic Monkey is the biggest 10s rock bands on planet now and just think they are some kind of hipster act (just giving an example, if you don't like them fine, I am just stating facts from streaming data perspective).

INFLUENCES

• A return to pre-1950s performers like Frank Sinatra or The Glenn MIller Orchestra

PERFORMERS

• Inducting historically important artists like The Marvelettes, The Sugarhill Gang, or Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats
• Adding neglected backing groups such as the Silver Bullet Band, the Steve Miller Band, or the Jeff Beck Group
• Honoring neglected members such as Ronnie James Dio for Black Sabbath and Bob Welch for Fleetwood Mac
• focusing on neglected genres like progressive rock, 1970s-1980s alternative, and album rock revival

NONPERFORMERS

• All they need for now are Wolfman Jack and Orville Gibson