Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame's 2020 nominees include Whitney Houston, Nine Inch Nails, Notorious B.I.G., and more
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The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame has announced the coming year’s crop of nominees, including late music icons Whitney Houston and Notorious B.I.G., as well as Depeche Mode, Soundgarden, T. Rex, and Pat Benatar. NPR revealed the full list of potential 2020 inductees, which also includes Nine Inch Nails—a particularly interesting development given Trent Reznor’s previous comments about the band’s snubs in 2017 and 2018. Speaking with Stereogum last year, Reznor said he “honestly couldn’t give less of a shit” about being nominated. Later that year, the Nine Inch Nails frontman gave a speech honoring The Cure’s induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. “I remember distinctly saying to myself, among other things, how can I even take this awards ceremony seriously if they’ll open their doors to X, Y and Z and not acknowledge the Cure,” Reznor said. “Let’s just say I’ve never been as happy to eat my words as I was tonight.”
The 2020 inductees will officially be announced in January, with the ceremony taking place on May 2. Of the artists included in this year’s list, nine are first-time nominees. Check out the full list below:
- Pat Benatar
- Dave Matthews Band
- Depeche Mode
- The Doobie Brothers
- Whitney Houston
- Judas Priest
- Kraftwerk
- MC5
- Motörhead
- Nine Inch Nails
- The Notorious B.I.G.
- Rufus featuring Chaka Khan
- Todd Rundgren
- Soundgarden
- T.Rex
- Thin Lizzy
64 Comments
The Dave Matthews Band?!?!?!
Just UGH on that one. I hated them back then and I still hate them now.
Yup.
Do his performances always resemble an elaborate series of strokes?
More like Dave Matthews Bland!More like Crapwerk!
More like Pat Benaturd!More like Nine Inch Fails!
Don’t forget the Dookie Brothers and Depeche Commode.
Well you can’t just SAY Depeche Commode and not link to the Dead Milkmen song….
Ha, I know that song but never consciously realized they made that joke (although I presumably subconsciously stole it).
I knew I wasn’t the only one having that reaction.
Still no Weird Al, huh?
It’s a shame, but unfortunately he’s still viewed as a novelty act, which is somewhat absurd. What novelty act has that kind of longevity. Plus he’s had a Top 40 hit in the 80s, 90s, 2000s and 2010s. The only other artists to achieve that feat are Michael Jackson, Madonna and U2. And let’s not forget that Weird Al parodies are a rite of passage. Kurt Cobain said he knew Nirvana had made it when Weird Al did a parody of them.
It’s a little ridiculous that Kraftwerk aren’t in already, considering how influential they are (and yes, they’re obviously not “rock and roll” but that’s increasingly true of the acts that get added).It’s also absurd that Rundgren isn’t in there but Frank Zappa is, considering he’s basically the Zappa who’s not a novelty act.
Rundgren absolutely deserves to get in. Besides his own work he also produced a ton of great stuff including the NY Dolls eponymous debut.
I can live without the New York Dolls, but the first Sparks album coupled with Bat Out Of Hell and Skylarking is a pretty great legacy as a producer.
Oddly, I feel the reverse. I’ve never understood the ballyhoo about Sparks in any way, and isn’t Bat out of Hell the Meatloaf album? Which to me is just Bruce Springsteen’s music as performed in a very Broadway manner.I genuinely love that first Dolls album, especially in the context of when it came out.
I don’t love everything Sparks did, but their debut album is great psych-pop; check out “Fletcher Honorama” for a cool creepy little song. Meatloaf isn’t someone I’m often in the mood for, but I think that album is hugely successful at what it’s going for (which Rundgren deserves some credit for) and when you are in the mood it’s great.
In fairness to the NY Dolls I haven’t listened to that album in years – always thought it was one of those things that was more influential than good, but I could be wrong.
Agreed that the Meatloaf album is successful at what it went for (and commercially, of course). I always forget that Rundgren was involved in that. Also, that Sparks song isn’t as bad as I was thinking it was going to be. Parts of it remind me of Big Star’s 3rd album. You ever Rundgren’s side project “Utopia”? They have some interesting stuff to say the least, including the batshit crazy “Disco Jets” album which was ahead of it’s time in that it literally has a “Space Trucker” song on it!
I like the Utopia album Ra and have been meaning to hear more of them. But Rundgren’s discography is so big and so all-over-the-place that there’s a ton of his stuff I haven’t listened to or haven’t really digested that I think I would like.
Yup!
I CAN’T live without the New York Dolls.
I was going to say if you induct Kraftwerk you’ll also have to take ABBA and Miles Davis, but it turns out they’re both already in.So it’s really just a “Music In General Hall of Fame” at this point. Or more specifically “Musical Acts That Are Willing To Cough Up Lots Of Money To Have Their Ego Stroked Hall of Fame”.
-Whitney-NIN-Soundgarden-Motorhead-MC5Any other list is wrong. Sorry.I am old. Have seen thousands of bands live (thank festivals), and hands down, worst live performance I have ever seen was Depeche Mode. Beyond awful and terrible. I will start a grassroots campaign to keep them out.
That’s so strange. I’ve seen them a couple times and both times have been great, plus a great deal of their studio output is amazing and influential.Sorry you saw a bad show that one time…
I hate everything I’ve heard by Depeche Mode (Erasure, which shared a founder with DM, are much better), but they’re popular and influential enough (for some reason) that I can’t really argue with their induction.
Depeche Mode are one of the greatest musical acts of all time, but they’ve only really had a strangers-going-opposite-ways-on-passing-trains relationship with rock music. The occasional guitar line and a shirtless, tattooed singer do not a rock group make.
Janet Jackson, NWA, Tupac are all in the Hall of Fame, so I don’t believe main genre affiliation haven’t been a requisite for some time. I would argue though that Depeche mode has had much more of a relationship with rock than you state. True, for much of their early career they were very much synthpop, after bringing in strings mid-career (Personal Jesus) I would consider their relation with rock music more along the lines of heavy flirtation or a Friday night thing rather than strangers. I think the influence they’ve had on the rock genre alone speaks to that.
I will truthfully admit that they are not my favorite, so an inherent bias if you will. Nor did I see them at the height of their powers. I have seen some of my favorites perform poorly, and seen some that I was less interested in perform great. But their performance really stood out as spectacularly, awfully bad. Of course, one man’s opinion. And I clearly cannot deny their popularity in the 80s; I spent many a school dance holding up a wall while DM blasted out of top-of-the-line Radio Shack speakers.
Whitney Houston was a hugely gifted singer, but she was in NO WAY rock and roll. She was Rosemary Clooney for the 1990s.
Don’t six make it in? Get Thin Lizzy on that list too, for Christ’s sakes.
It makes me sad that T Rex is considered to be “and more”.
Yeah, I don’t really like them but they still seem well-deserving by being arguably the most notable practitioners of a fairly popular subgenre, and genuinely popular for at least a short stretch. Though then again, the Hall tends to not induct artists who were really big in the UK but only modestly successful in the US (e.g. The Smiths aren’t in, which I find weird).
The RRHOF has a long backlist of British performers/groups from the 70s/80s that they’ve ignored but the recent inclusion of the Cure and Roxy Music suggests they are warming up to British acts who weren’t as big in the U.S. as fellow inductees Def Leppard. So maybe T.Rex stands a chance – I’m at least hopeful for Thin Lizzy. The Smiths, alas, will likely be hampered by Morrissey’s bizarre views and behavior.
The Damned & Hawkwind seem to be glaring omissions at this point..
Yeah, Roxy Music were the most glaring omission for me before they got in (besides maybe The Cars).
My boyfriend is a huge fan of the Smiths and Morrissey. He cusses and carries on every time that the nominations come out and The Smiths are left out. I’m just asking out of curiosity, because I’m not a fan—What bizarre views and behavior are you referencing? I know that he’s very much vegetarian and private about his sexuality. (That’s why the boyfriend loves him. . . I don’t care, I just don’t like his music.)
Morrissey has expressed some pretty far right political opinions in recent years: https://www.dallasobserver.com/music/we-tried-to-decipher-morrisseys-true-mind-by-looking-at-his-lyrics-against-his-statements-11701160. He was even accused of sharing a white supremacist video recently.
We can trace a lot back to Marc Bolan. He was really the progenitor of a lot of things: freak folk, punk, glam rock (70s, not hair metal) and modern garage rock. If not for Bolan we wouldn’t have got the Bowie everyone remembers, Ziggy Stardust.
Okay everybody, who likes the Doobie Brothers? ‘Cause we’ve got one of them!
I’ll stand up for the Doobie Brothers. They should absolutely be in with their catalog of hits and I just voted for them in the People’s Choice poll the RRHOF has.
And once again no Warren Zevon, but by all means let put Chaka Khan on the ballot.
Yes, by all means!
Warren Zevon deserves to be there, but I won’t stand for you disparaging Chaka Khan!
So basically you’re telling @kuklux “I feel for you, but ain’t nobody gonna stand for your talking shit ‘bout Chaka!”
I hope someone remembers to check under Rerun’s jacket for any recording devices if the Doobie Brothers perform at the induction ceremony.
just as long as Wayne Kramer and who ever they get to back him (the Damned??, who can also sit in for Motorhead as they are a related act) get to play American Ruse at their induction…
I’ve given up on them ever inducting Link Wray.
The only instrumental song banned from radio play for being obscene, as well as one of the first users of distortion.
He put the “Heavy” in Heavy Metal as far as I’m concerned. Way under-rated.
I need T.Rex, but I got TV!
About time for Pat Benatar. I mean, she’s Pat Benatar with her amazing classically trained voice and her badass attitude.
I have no idea why anyone even remotely cares about the RRHOF. All halls of fame are really just tourist traps, but I at least kind of understand sports halls of fame because the standards are relatively close to objective (championships, statistics, etc.) and the help to preserve the history of the games once the inductee’s career is over. Popular music is sooooo subjective and the only statistics (i.e. record sales) have no correlation to quality so it makes no sense to laud one musician over another (I say Morphine is the best band of all time, and logically there’s no way to argue against me). If you want to remember an artist, just listen to their records. I’m sure most musicians would rather have people continue to listen to their records rather than have a Things Remembered plaque in a low-rent Hard Rock Cafe with crappier French fries.
Sure it’s a tourist trap. But what else are you gonna do in Cleveland? Watch the Browns?
A hall of fame should be for people/teams/etc. that made a substantial contribution to the world. Meaning, without this person, team, etc. we wouldn’t have whatever. The contribution should be more than delling “x” number of tickets. Eventually, pretty much every musical act will be in the Hall, so it will be completely meaningless.
Still waiting for King Crimson.
How the Hell did they manage not to induct Beck? I mean, the man wrote the Becktionary, for cryin’ out loud!
The fact that Motörhead & Judas Priest aren’t already in the Hall of Fame tells you everything you need to know about that bullshit place. Iron Maiden isn’t in there, either. To have careers of such length & influence yet not be recognized is just shameful.
At least they had the decency not to nominate Chic this year. It’s mean to keep nominating them when everybody knows the inductees are determined by a room full of obese 65 yo white guys in “disco sucks” t-shirts.
LL Cool J has also been nominated multiple times and still hasn’t gotten in. Looks like he wasn’t nominated this year, though.
Whitney, Judas Priest, Notorius B.I.G or Motorhead, any other winner will be just a crap winner tbh.
Which came first–the Ministry or the NIN?
They really need to start using bigger apostrophes around the “Rock and Roll” part of the Hall of Fame. Maybe just call it the “These people sold a lot of records” Hall of Fame?
Jann Wenner’s yearly circlejerk
No one should care about the R&RHOF.That said, Thin Lizzy should have been inducted immediately following Phil Lynott’s death. The fact that they still aren’t 33 years later is an abomination!
Finally, Pat Benatar!