NEWS: 2020 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Nominees Announced

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has announced its nominees for the class of 2020. This will be the first class to be inducted following the departure of Rolling Stone co-founder Jann Wenner , who announced that he would leave his post as the chairman of the Rock Hall Foundation on January 1, 2020.

Wenner was one of the key components of launching the concept of the Hall of Fame in 1986. However, as Jeff Tamarkin so instinctually pointed out in his recent criticism of the Rock Hall in the pages of this here publication, don’t expect his retirement from the board to change any of the roadblocks that have kept some of the greatest names in recorded music from being inducted.

“It’s no longer the artists of the ’50s and ’60s, and we have to have a board with knowledge that speaks to that,” warned new Hall of Fame Chairman John Sykes in a September interview with the L.A. Times, a longtime industry vet who currently holds the position of President at at terrestrial radio world eater IHeartMedia, promising that rapper the Notorious B.I.G. will indeed be one of the seven names to get the honors next year despite being ballot eligible for the very first time. That Todd Rundgren is pretty much the only artist from the 60s represented on the ballot, not to mention nobody from the 50s (though a multitude of acts from rock’s baby years are still unaccounted for) is troubling indeed, however.

Below is the complete list of the next nominating class. Please leave your Top 7 acts you feel should be inducted in 2020 in the comments below.

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2020 Nominees:

Pat Benatar
Dave Matthews Band
Depeche Mode
The Doobie Brothers
Whitney Houston
Judas Priest
Kraftwerk
MC5
Motörhead
Nine Inch Nails
The Notorious B.I.G.
Rufus featuring Chaka Khan
Todd Rundgren
Soundgarden
T.Rex
Thin Lizzy

VIDEO: Rock & Roll Hall of Fame President and CEO Greg Harris announces the nominees for the Class of 2020