The rankings below are made on the basis of the appropriateness of each artist’s induction, not their baseline quality or my personal fondness for the artists in question. Along the way we’ll look at the hall’s origins and how it has evolved, with comments from members of the selection committees past and present. The question is, how well has the hall functioned? Has it done its job well, within its ridiculous premise? What follows is a list of all of the regular inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, listed in order from best to worst. There is nothing less rock and roll than a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The idea of a bunch of self-satisfied music-industry fat cats in tuxedos having rock stars assemble for a command performance once a year is precisely the sort of thing rock was created to be the antidote to.
There shouldn’t be a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This year’s inductees - the Zombies, Janet Jackson, Radiohead, Roxy Music, the Cure, Def Leppard, and Stevie Nicks - have been added to the list.
It’s been updated (with new interviews with nominating committee members) and revised for this year’s ceremony, which takes place this week at the Barclays Center on March 29. This list was originally published before the 2018 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.