About the 2026 Inductees,  Sean wrote:
"I don't really think today's 50–60-year-old white Gen X voters will push very hard to nominate them."
I guess I can see that. A lot of Gen X'ers biggest association with them is when they beat Metallica for the Grammy.
"And I have a feeling that the industry-exec in suits types might actually like Styx more than Boston."
I buy that too. Tom Scholz was always suing record companies and it doesn't seem he played nicely with others.
"No one would thought Peter as serious candidate before 2023. Peter Frampton is basically a one-album wonder. Rick Springfield is also forgotten despite having other hits and a substantial body of work, but almost everything people associate with Peter Frampton comes from one live album."
Big difference between 3 radio hits than 1, and I also heard "Lines on My Face" a lot on my classic rock radio station, so I'd say it's 4 actually. Does any Springfield song other than "Jessie's Girl" get radio play anywhere ever? It didn't even become a classic rock radio staple.
"Rick Springfield is a hard-working guy with a respectable, long career"
I've just never seen anyone even attempt to argue he had a legacy though. Then again, I do remember when 15 or 20 years ago, people were campaigning for solo Steve Perry to get inducted here...
"Being nominated two years in a row makes me think that either some powerful people in the room really want them in, or they were already pretty close to the finish line."
I think it's just because Karen Glauber is pushing them for some reason. A lot of rock bands were inducted this year and I think the rock fans know they don't measure up as much.
"There is almost zero chance they would be nominated two years in a row and then suddenly be forgotten."
J. Geils Band never got in and that's what Black Crowes are.
"And voters finally are here now after 22 years of them being eligible."
New Order actually had hits though. Not many in America, but enough. Most of the American underground bands didn't have hits.
"Also, I feel that it was the It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley documentary that directly pushed Jeff onto the ballot"
Okay, didn't know he had a documentary. That does explain it.
"unless they are not inductable at all (such as Zevon)"
Not convinced he wasn't inductable. They only nominated him once. If they tried him three times like Rundgren, I bet he would've.
"Grand Funk Railroad and Three Dog Night now exiting 'classic rock radio,'"
I agree Grand Funk is a diminishing classic rock pillar like ELP or something, but I don't remember Three Dog Night ever getting played on classic rock radio growing up. They were more oldies. I think classic rock radio in general didn't like people who didn't predominantly write their own hits. I heard "One" a few times but that was it.
"he barely wrote his own solo material"
The music you mean? There are tons of artists who write their own lyrics and some collaborator writes the music. It's the same thing for Bryan Adams and his collaborators also, right?
"I doubt that any thrash/groove metal acts will be inducted, namely Slayer, Megadeth, Pantera. All three are worthy, but are they inductable even if they somehow get nominated on the ballot?"
At the moment, this feels like a genre that has support in the side categories, so I think some of them do get in. Grohl and Morello are fighting for hard rock and metal, but they don't seem to fight for anything non-hard rock or metal and I wish they'd try to fight for more punk or underground.
"So honoring them together won't allow both to be properly honored and likely that would mean The Fugees/The Score gets less attention."
Yeah, but they seem to always prefer inducting solo artists and snubbing groups and that's been a problem from the very beginning with Smokey Robinson. And it's continued with Steve Miller because they just didn't want to decide which of the zillion members in his band to induct and Lionel Richie even though the Commodores stuff is more respected. It seems like if there's a debate between the solo act and the band these days (Rufus/Chaka Khan is another one), they always go for the solo artst.
"If I had to nominate one, I'd recommend nominating Fugees instead next time, because the problem with Lauryn Hill remains the same: some voters won't vote for her because she only has thin material (one album), and that won't suddenly change after one year."
I think the only problem is she was considered too new.
"For example, The Go-Go's basically have only one important album, with several more filler albums after that, and yet that makes them a surefire inductee requiring only one nomination (retty sure most voters didn't take Belinda Carlisle's solo work into account for their resume at all , they only considered the band's work, can easily go back to the 2021 nomination pages to prove). But Lauryn/the Fugees may struggle, because voters think their output is pretty thin. Yet if Lauryn/the Fugees had just added, say, 3–4 average filler albums, their resume would suddenly look better and make them more "votable"? That doesn't make sense to me."
The Go-Gos were older and that's it I think, but I do see what you're saying in the other part. There DO seem to be a lot of people who care more about longevity than amount of quality material: this is probably why Foreigner was preferred over Boston and Bad Company was preferred over The Guess Who, because they had a longer run of hits across albums even if the gaps in their radio airplay weren't that wide. It does seem like if somebody spreads out their 10 radio hits over 6 albums, that artist is more likely to be respected than someone who had 10 radio hits over 2 or 3 albums, even though the latter indicates a higher peak. |
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