The only relevant date to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is the year an artist released their first recording. That simple metric has provided the foundation for how Future Rock Legends has been organized. But the year an artist begins isn't necessarily when they had their greatest impact. While artists who debuted at the beginning of the 2000s only became eligible last year, there have already been 15+ artists inducted into the Hall of Fame who made a significant impact in that decade.

As you might expect, the percentage of "defining artists" inducted in the Rock Hall increases the further you go back in time (66% of 1950s artists have been inducted). The Rock Hall has taken some heat for being slow to induct 90s artists, but looking at who made an impact during that decade, it doesn't look so bad. (There is still a lot of work to do of course.)


In addition to the defining artists, we've listed a list of albums and songs using data pulled from other parts of our site. It may not have everything, but it provides an overall flavor for what remains relevant from that decade.

Here is a link to the list of decades.