Oh, By the Way, Here Are Our Nominees: The 2024 Rock Hall Ballot

Welp, that happened. This past Saturday, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced its nominees for the class of 2024. Call me an outlier, call me irrelevant (most likely), but I’ve never been so underwhelmed.

Before we talk about the class, we need to talk about how this whole thing was handled, or better to say not handled. Based on the past couple of years with the current schedule, veteran Hall watchers expected the announcement on Wednesday the 7^th, or the following week at the latest. The 7^th came and went with nary a peep from the Hall, and there was no buildup on its social accounts (incidentally, the Hall hadn’t tweeted since Jan. 23).

On Thursday, Eric B. and Rakim’s manager announced that the act had gotten its second nom, and it took a fill 24 hours for the Hall to post in the fourth panel of its Instagram story that “something big” was happening. The video was from Taylor Swift’s induction of Carole King from 2021, leading some media outlets to guess that the announcement was something Swift-related. Maybe the fact that they felt they had to use Taylor Swift to grab eyeballs should’ve told us something. The leaks kept coming: as Friday night rolled around, Rolling Stone leaked Ozzy, Cher, and Mariah and then took the post down.

And as late as Saturday morning, most of us had no idea what time to expect it. Those of us who get Hall emails had seen nothing, and from what I’ve been told, members hadn’t either. I’d already mentally checked out by this point – around 8:20 I finally remembered to check: nothing. If it wasn’t for Future Rock Legends, I’d have never known it was at 11:30.

Finally, there was the ballot, with Lenny Kravitz’ name misspelled in his bio and the Oasis band lineup fiddled with after the announcement. Some things never change. (Nom Com members: If you’re advocating for an act with more than one member, take a minute to look them up on Wikipedia, or get a copy of Rock Chronicles by David Roberts and find out exactly who’s been in the band when and have a lineup ready.) It took a while for anything to show up on the Hall’s accounts, and as of Sunday there’s still no evidence of an organized campaign around the ballot – no interviews, nada.

Seriously, what in the HELL is going on at the Rock Hall? If this is all their PR department can do, they should all be canned. Or have they already been canned and the janitor’s doing it now?

Even if you’re not in the industry, you know that you don’t break a big announcement on a weekend. Every single step of this has been a complete screw up, and it’s unfathomable – this is the kickoff for their big event, their reason for being, for crying out loud. If they can’t be bothered to care, why should we? And you call yourself “Rock’s highest honor”?

So that brings us to the class itself. Nothing about it makes me Sheryl Crow levels of angry, and when I look at it name by name, I’m actually pleased about almost half of them. But overall…whatever.

In an odd way, it manages to be surprising and totally predictable at the same time, which is actually quite a feat. There was a lot of agreement among those doing predictions, but most of those names aren’t here. But the names that are here make a lot of sense. They’re surprising, but safe. They fit the narrative for an organization with a shiny new partnership with Disney. We’re not going to see anything again that’s totally unexpected, that tells us the Nom Com wants to challenge us.

So without further ado:

Ozzy Osbourne: Oddly, this may be the name that I’m most chuffed about. I’m not a giant fan, but his solo career is undeniable and it’s good to see this while he’s still with us and could possibly attend if not perform. He has an excellent chance of being a FYN.

Sinead O’Connor: It’s deserved, and I’m happy to see her name, but that being said, this feels performative. She’s not currently in the top of the fan vote but I think she has a good chance.

Peter Frampton: He’s loved in the industry and a deserved shoo-in.

Sade: Possibly the biggest surprise for me, and while I think it may take a nomination or two for them to get in, it’s a joy to see them here. Any discussion of the 80s has to take in the jazz undercurrent.

Kool and the Gang: At one time we thought there was no more room at the Hall for R&B veterans, until the Spinners got their long-overdue nod. This too was a long time in coming and very deserved.

Mary J. Blige: The Queen of hip-hop soul is back, as she should be, but this ballot may not be the right one for her, unfortunately.

Cher: Look, people:I was lip synching “Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves” into a hairbrush last night let’s just say a long time ago. The woman is a goddess and a cultural touchstone. She’ll probably get in, whether she wants it or not, and the fabulousness quotient of the Hall will rise exponentially. Even if she makes good on her determination not to show, her segment of the ceremony has the potential to be amazing. And I’ll look forward to it. That being said, there are so many artists I’d put in this spot.

Mariah Carey: We’ve all wondered she’d have her moment, and now it’s here. She more than qualifies, and I think she’ll go right in. I recognize her bona fides, but I’m not a fan.

Dave Matthews Band: Matthews charmed everyone last year with his inductionspeech for Willie Nelson, and you could say karma owes them after being left off despite a resounding fan vote win in 2020. The industry seems ready to recognize their resume, and the fact that this ballot is very light on anything even tangential to rock could work in their favor.

Oasis: God, I hate this band.But they were one of the biggest bands of their time with two albums considered classics. We’ll have to wait and see if the fact that they’re British works against them.   

Foreigner: I feel about Foreigner similar to how I feel about Journey: I like them, and they’re good at what they do, but do they deserve to be in the Hall? Ahmet Ertegun called them his most important signing. And Lou Gramm is one of the great vocalists of the m odern era. But they’re not the juggernaut Journey . While they’ll do well in the fan vote due to again, the shortage of rock, I don’t see them making the cut this year.

Jane’s Addiction, Eric B. and Rakim, A Tribe Called Quest: I can’t in honesty evaluate any of them; they’re just outside my wheelhouse. Intellectually, I accept the arguments, but at least in ATCQ’s case I don’t see them getting in through the vote this time either.

Lenny Kravitz: I like Lenny. He’s coolerthan most mere mortals will ever be. He’s had a good, journeyman-like career. But that’s it. Nope. But again, the paucity of rock on this ballot could help him. It’s good to have representation of Black rock artists. But Jon Butcher would like a word.

My first take on seeing the ballot as a whole was that it was sloppily put together: In Mariah, Sade, and Mary J. Blige, you‘re got three women who are not by any means the same, but their “lanes” are adjacent and they could, however unfairly cancel each other out. Same for Eric B./Rakim and ATCQ for voters who don’t do their homework, which we know happens.

But maybe there’s a method to the madness: the female names are all big ones, and already news outlets are posting pictures of Cher, Mariah, and Sinead and talking about how women are making a big showing. It’d be hard to slice the ballot in a way that would exclude all of them, or artists of color, so in the wake of the Wenner scandal, the optics look good – on the surface. As Evelyn McDonnell noted, all the women nominated are solo acts, men still far outnumber them because of the band factor. It’s harder to find women in band situations, and that’s a whole separate story, but there are some that should be in the conversation. We’re back to all dudes in the hip hop category, instead of carrying the momentum from Missy Elliot’s induction forward.

I knew eventually my irrelevance would take me out of this game, but I thought it would be a little more gradual. There aren’t enough artists on here that I’m passionate about, and the Hall can’t do its job well enough to convince me right now I should give a shit. At this point, I’m waiting for the categories. Beyond that, I don’t know. I haven’t listened to any podcasts or read any news stories because I wanted to go through my own reaction first, so I don’t know if I’m alone. But sadly, I’ll bet I’m not.