Fame Nominees
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame revealed the nominees for the Rock Hall Class of 2023 on Wednesday, Feb. 1, announcing the 14 (or 15, depending on your perspective) acts eligible for induction into Rock Hall this year.
The following artists are nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2023: rock art author Kate Bush; roots hitmaker Sheryl Crow; hip-hop iconoclast Missy Elliott; metal legends Iron Maiden; post-punk-turned-dance-rock pioneers Joy Division/New Order; quirky pop icon Cyndi Lauper;
pop titan George Michael; country GOAT Willie Nelson; rap-metal firebrands Rage Against the Machine; pioneers of grunge Soundgarden; soulful vocal pros The Spinners; alternative hip-hop forefathers A Tribe Called Quest; garage blues revivalists The White Stripes; and caustic singer-songwriter Warren Zevon.
Fame Nominees
Of those nominees, eight (or arguably nine – more on that later) are rookies (Sheryl Crow, Missy Elliott, Joy Division/New Order, Cyndi Lauper, George Michael, Willie Nelson, The White Stripes and Warren Zevon) , and two of the acts receive the nomination in their first year of eligibility (The White Stripes and Missy Elliott).
To be eligible for the RRHOF, an artist’s first commercial release must be cat least 25 years prior to the year of nomination. For those with encyclopedic musical knowledge who think, “Wait, Missy’s debut After the fly soup released in 1997, and the first White Stripes single was released in 1998 – how does it work?
There is a reason for this. The nominating committee at Rock Hall recently began meeting in the same year inductees are honored, as opposed to the year before. That means 2023 is kind of a “catch-up year” for artists whose first release was in 1997 or 1998.
But going forward, when it comes to Rock Hall nominations, you can subtract 25 from the year of induction to determine eligibility.
As for the aforementioned question of how many artists are nominated for Rock Hall induction in 2023, it comes down to the singular entry of two bands, Joy Division and New Order. For the uninitiated,
Joy Division were a British rock band that helped punk evolve into post-punk from 1976 to 1980; after vocalist Ian Curtis committed suicide in the early 1980s, the remaining members (Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris) banded together as New Order, added a keyboard player (Gillian Gilbert), and set the pattern for the dance-rock and alternative dance. music.
While some might quibble about inducting the two groups as one, there is precedent: The Rock Hall previously inducted Parliament/Funkadelic together in 1997; the (Young) Rascals, also in 1997; and Small Faces/Faces as a single entity in 2012.
The inductees will be revealed in May, with the induction ceremony taking place this fall. The top five artists selected by fan vote will be counted with ballots from Rock Hall’s international voting body to determine the Class of 2023. Fans can vote online every day until April 28 on ballot. rockhall.com or IRL at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland.
“This remarkable list of nominees reflects the diversity of artists and music that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame honors and celebrates,” said John Sykes, Chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation. “These artists created their own sounds that marked generations and influenced countless others who followed in their footsteps.”
