Nominations for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2026 are out. One can vote for up to seven artists each day. Yes, it doesn’t much matter, but it entertains me. No, I don’t care if artist A or band B is “rock and roll.”
There are two guys, now deceased, neither of whom had been nominated before. Jeff Buckley drowned at the age of 30 in 1997. His father Tim died at 28 of a drug overdose. But Jeff singing the definitive version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah isn’t enough for me. I’m afraid NO.
By comparison, Luther Vandross, who died in 2005 at the age of 54, was a prolific arranger and producer, as well as singer and songwriter. He worked with David Bowie, Dionne Warwick, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, and most of the New Edition, among many others, starting in the 1970s. A definite YES (1).
YES to Joy Division/New Order (2) and Black Crowes (3), who have been nominated before. I have some JD; I understand the JD/NO pairing but it’s weird. There are two or three Black Crowes albums in my collection.
NO to Phil Collins, who is in with Genesis; I have never been fond of folks being inducted two or three times. especially when it blocks a spot for someone else. However, I like him well enough to have three of his solo albums. Last I checked, he had a huge (50,000) lead in the fan vote.
Is Forever
By the same logic YES to Wu-Tang Clan (4), not just for their collective work but their various spinoffs. They are worthy of a fictionalized bio series. The lawn sign Wu-Tang Is Forever has been a thing for over a half a decade. And they are touring in 2026. Sad news: the Wu-Tang Clan‘s Oliver “Power” Grant, 55, passed away from pancreatic cancer on Feb. 24, 2026.
Is one album worthy of induction? The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is a critically acclaimed album, which I own. Yet I’m going with NO this time.
But I have one Sade album, yet she is a YES (5), in part because she’s the earlier act. Yes, I have an elder bias.
The fact that I have three of their albums makes INXS a YES (6).
I’ve admitted this before: I hate that Mariah Carey overuses her five-octave range. And also, she’s the queen of Christmas; feh. I have her greatest hits album, but NO.
I could not name an Iron Maiden song, and the group never stuck in my mind. They never made the pop charts, which is not a requirement to vote for them. Still, NO.
So, this leaves me with, in roughly chronological order, by when they first charted: Billy Idol, who has been nominated before, and who I voted for in past years; New Edition, who I recently saw; Melissa Etheridge – I have two of her albums; Oasis – I have the one album most people have; P!NK – someone burned me one of her CDs, and I liked it well enough; and Shakira, who I know mostly from the ending of Zootopia movies.
The 7th YES goes to New Edition, over Idol and Etheridge, based not only on the group’s success but also on the impact of the solo and BBD spinoffs. Call it recency bias.
Final thing: the Hall needs Estelle Axton!
Among all the “cool,” snarky kids writing about the “bad” music of the 1980s, the oeuvre of Phil Collins often shows up. In The Worst Rock ‘n Roll Records of All Time (1991), Collins appears with Paul McCartney and Duran Duran as one of the worst artists. Only Billy Joel fared worse. There are lots of truly horrific artists in the decade. Yet Phil bashing became de rigeur.