Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominees Announced

Ray Charles, Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and most recently, the Red Hot Chili Peppers. All five influential acts helped shape Rock and Roll throughout the years. All five artists are also in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Located in Cleveland Ohio, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame currently has 186 members. Starting in 1986, every member of the Hall has helped Rock evolve into what it is today. This year 15 nominees hope to get elected come April.

The 2013 nominees include Rush, Deep Purple, Heart, Chic, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Albert King, Kraftwerk, the Marvelette’s, the Meters, Randy Newman, N.W.A. Procol, Harum, Public Enemy and Donna Summer.

To be eligible for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 25 years must pass after an artist’s first release. To get into the hall, the artist must first be nominated. According to the Hall’s website, the nominating committee is composed of rock and roll historians who select the nominees each year. Ballots are then sent to around 1,000 different rock experts. Nominees who receive the highest number of votes, and more than 50 percent of the vote are then inducted. The Hall typically inducts around five to seven artists each year.

This year, the nominees are more varied than in years past. The nominees can be broken up into sections. First come the classic rock bands (Rush, Deep Purple, Procol Harum), blues (Albert King, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band), female rockers (Heart, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts), disco (Chic, Donna Summer), rap groups (Public Enemy, N.W.A.), a singer-songwriter (Randy Newman), a little Motown/ R&B (Marvelettes, The Meters) and even some German electronic (Kraftwerk).

So who has the best chance to be inducted this year? That would be Rush. The band released their debut album in 1974 and is still going strong. Ranking 79th in U.S. album sales, the band comes in third behind only the Beatles and the Rolling Stones for most consecutive gold or platinum studio albums by a rock band. If any nominee is a shoe in, it is these guys.

Next up is Deep Purple. Considered by some to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock, the band has sold over 100 million albums worldwide. They are best known for their song “Smoke on the Water.”

All the nominees have deserving reasons to be nominated, and with such a varying degree of artists with no real giant name as a guaranteed lock to get into the Hall, it is anyone’s guess as to who will be inducted.

Everyone has an opinion concerning who deserves to be in the Hall, leaving some unhappy. This year, for the first time, fans will get a say for who should get inducted. Any time from today up until Dec. 5, fans can vote on RollingStone.com for the nominees they want to be inducted. The top five vote getters will be put on a fans ballot that will count as one of the ballots that will determine the Class of 2013.

Some may look at the ballot and wonder what rap and disco have to do with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but at the end of the day, all of the nominees left their mark on the genre. The induction ceremony will take place on April 18, 2013.