Beck, Duran Duran, Eminem, Dolly Parton, Lionel Richie, Carly Simon and A Tribe Called Quest are making their first appearances as potential inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in nominations for the class of 2022 that were announced Wednesday morning.
These seven join 10 more artists who have been previously nominated in the last few years and are being put on the ballot again: Pat Benatar, Kate Bush, Devo, Eurythmics, Judas Priest, Fela Kuti, MC5, the New York Dolls, Rage Against the Machine and Dionne Warwick.
The Hall announced this year’s field on Rock Hall social channels and live on SiriusXM Volume channel 106’s “Feedback” morning show with hosts Nik Carter and Lori Majewski. Results of the voting are set to be revealed in May. The date and venue for the fall ceremony will be announced at a later date.
Among the seven first-time nominees, Eminem is the only one landing a nomination in his first year of eligibility. Performers become eligible 25 years after their first commercial recording, and Eminem’s debut album, “Infinite,” came out in late 1996 — although not many fans own a copy, since it was an LP and cassette the aspiring rapper sold out of the back of his car, prior to joining Interscope. Parton is the first-timer who had to wait the longest to get a nomination; her first recordings came out in the early ’60s, so the country-pop superstar has been eligible since the late 1980s.
Most of the 10 returning nominees have been through this suspense a few times before. Among the current crop, MC5 has had the most near-misses; this marks the 1960s group’s sixth time on the ballot. For Rage Against the Machine, it’s the fourth time in contention; the group was up for it just last year. Kate Bush, the New York Dolls, Devo and Judas Priest are each taking a third time at being nominated. But it’s only the second time up for Judas Priest, Fela Kuti, Pat Benatar, Dionne Warwick and Eurythmics. Of the returning nominees, all were last nominated either last year or the year before, with the exception of Eurythmics, who last made the ballot in 2018.
Of the 17 nominees up for induction, a total of 5-7 will be voted in this year, according to Hall reps.
That number will ultimately swell when the final inductees are announced in May, as additional honorees who weren’t on the ballot are added in non-performer categories. In 2021, there were a total of 13 inductees, only six of whom were picked from the ballot (Tina Turner, Carole King, the Go-Go’s, Jay-Z, Foo Fighters and Todd Rundgren). Seven more who got in via the non-competitive Early Influence, Musical Excellence and Ahmet Ertegun Award categories (including Kraftwerk and LL Cool J, who’d previously been contenders on the regular ballot).
Per tradition, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame will offer fans the opportunity to participate in the induction selection process with the 2022 “induction fan vote.” Starting today through April 29, fans can vote every day at vote.rockhall, or at the museum in Cleveland. The top five artists, as selected by the public, will comprise a “fans’ ballot” that will be tallied along with the industry pros’ ballots in selecting the 2022 inductees.
No one will be able to complain of a lack of diversity among this year’s nominees list … although it’s to be expected that some rock fans will gripe, as they annually do, that the crop is too diverse, since “rock and roll” is again seen as a big tent with room for hip-hop, country, pop singer-songwriters and Afrobeat as well as rock sub-genres like metal and glam-rock.
“This year’s ballot recognizes a diverse group of incredible artists, each who has had a profound impact on the sound of youth culture,” said John Sykes, chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation. “Their music not only moved generations, but also influenced the sound of countless artists that followed.”
Nominee ballots are sent to an international voting body of more than 1,000 artists, historians and members of the music industry.
