ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME 2024 NOMINEES ANNOUNCED

As you may already have heard, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has released the 2024 version of its annual list of nominees for induction.

Every year, when these get announced, I am surprised by a couple of things: the bands and artists being nominated for the first time (because I thought would have been inducted ages ago) and others who I wonder if they really should be included at all.  I say this because the music is from a different genre, i.e. hip-hop.  I'm not saying hip-hop is bad in any way, I just am surprised that it's included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, when I believe that hip-hop has it's own similar hall of fame and frankly, I don't see many, if any, rock stars included.  But that's just my opinion.

So, I'll move on to the list, and I'll start with the artists that are being nominated for the first time.  For those not aware, to be eligible for nomination and, subsequently, induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the first album by an artist or band has to be at least 25 years old.  (That being said, some of these first time nominees have been eligible for almost 2x that, as you will see):

• Mariah Carey 
• Cher
  
• Foreigner
• Peter Frampton
• Kool & the Gang
• Lenny Kravitz 
• Oasis
• Sinead O'Connor 
• Ozzy Osbourne 
  
• Sade

The other artists and bands are carry overs from earlier nominations, and they include:

• Mary J. Blige
• Dave Matthews Band
• Eric B. & Rakim
• Jane's Addiction
• A Tribe Called Quest

Now a number of these artists, again, I'm surprised haven't been inducted already, and these include Foreigner, Cher, Ozzy Osbourne, Peter Frampton and Kool & the Gang.  Moreover, as mentioned above, I'm surprised that it took this long to be nominated in the first place, because most of these acts have been eligible since the 1990s-early 2000s.  Although, with Ozzy - he has been inducted as a member of Black Sabbath - this is his first nomination as a solo artist.

Secondly, I'm amazed that some of the artists that were nominated in the past haven't yet been inducted,  i.e. Jane's Addiction and Dave Matthew's Band. It's almost shocking (no Jane's Addiction pun intended there) that neither received enough votes for induction.

From the list above, here are my thoughts on who shouldn't be nominated:  Mary J. Blige, Eric B. & Rakim, and A Tribe Called Quest - simply because, again, they are hip-hop artists which have their own hall of fame.  I also don't think Sade should be nominated.  And that's a hard one for me to say, as that band and singer are some of my favorite musical artists of all time.  However, while they had a couple of cross over hits onto the pop music charts of the mid-late 1980s, they're really considered more a smooth jazz/R&B group.  

However, Kool & the Gang - I do feel they belong,  Although, they were mostly associated with disco and R&B, they had countless pop music cross over hits and something like a 10 piece band with songs that certainly featured many influences of rock and roll.  Furthermore, they were the opening act for one of Van Halen's most recent tours.

So, there you go, the complete list of nominees for this year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with some minor commentary by yours truly.  The actual induction will take place in April.