This Random Rants with Annemarie, we are discussing everything Rock and Roll. For Martin Luther King Jr. Day this year, my friends and I visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in downtown Cleveland. The museums are free nationwide on this day, so it was prime time to go. It was absolutely amazing seeing all the exhibits and we had a great time. One strange thing I noticed was they had an abundance of David Bowie and Freddie Mercury merchandise in the gift shop, but there was not an exhibit dedicated to either of them. Not one piece of memorabilia. I found it so strange that they were profiting off of both of them, yet had no exhibits for them. This spurred me to look more into what artists are in the Rock Hall and who are not. 

According to the official Rock Hall, the requirements an artist must meet to be eligible for induction are: have released their first record 25 years earlier, have created music whose originality, impact and influence has changed the course of rock & roll and demonstrated a meaningful contribution to the “development and perpetuation of rock & roll.” For the voting process, News 5 Cleveland summarized it as “Nominee ballots will be sent to a voting body of more than 1,000 artists, historians and members of the music industry who will consider each artist’s musical impact and influence, length and depth of career and body of work, and innovation and superiority of style and technique, according to a news release from the Rock Hall.”

With that in mind, let us look at artists I think have been overlooked and should be in the Rock Hall.  

What surprised me was Freddie Mercury is technically in the Rock Hall from Queen, but he is not in it as a solo artist. That man is an icon and deserves to be in it. For a band that has been overlooked, I am going to present to you: Foreigner. Foreigner is a very prominent rock band that has been around since 1976. They have been eligible for a while, and have contributed to rock and roll with hit songs like “Jukebox Hero,” “Cold as Ice” and “I Wanna Know What Love Is,” which have become anthems for many. 

Another band I think should be in the Rock Hall is Iron Maiden. They have been nominated twice but are still not officially inducted. If any band has been officially nominated I think they belong in the Rock Hall. The process of being nominated takes forever, so for them to be nominated twice yet not be inducted is almost an insult at this point. Soundgarden and The Smiths are also in this category with two nominations, but I think the artist that’s been overlooked the most is Chic. Chic has been nominated a total of 11 times since they became eligible for nomination in 2003.

My personal list of bands and artists that I believe should be in the Rock Hall include Ozzy Osbourne as a solo artist, The Offspring, The Smiths, Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins and Devo. All of these artists are very monumental in the history of Rock and Roll in my opinion. Interestingly, an artist can have a display in the Rock Hall but not be inducted into the Hall of Fame. When I was there I saw things for Styx, Devo and REO Speedwagon, yet none of them were in the Rock Hall. They also had some memorabilia of Harry Styles and Taylor Swift, yet neither of them will be eligible for a while. The Rock Hall is a little bit of an enigma but hopefully, after this article, both you and I have a better understanding of how it all works. 

Update: So, when I originally wrote this article the nominees for 2024 were not out yet. They have now been released — after I finished this article. Perks of being a journalist, right? Anyway, the nominees for 2024 are:

Mary J. Blige

Mariah Carey (first-time nominee)

Cher (first-time nominee)

Dave Matthews Band

Eric B. & Rakim

Foreigner (first-time nominee)

Peter Frampton (first-time nominee)

Jane’s Addiction

Kool & the Gang (first-time nominee)

Lenny Kravitz (first-time nominee)

Oasis (first-time nominee)

Sinéad O’Connor (first-time nominee)

Ozzy Osbourne (first-time nominee)

Sade (first-time nominee)

A Tribe Called Quest

Looks like they somehow read this article before it came out. Inductees for this class of 2024 will be announced in late April with the induction ceremony in Cleveland this fall. What’s shocking to me is that Foreigner, Ozzy and Cher are all first-time nominees. Of the 15 nominated, 10 are first-time nominees. It’s also bittersweet to see Sinéad O’Connor being nominated posthumously after her tragic death in July 2023 at age 56. It’s a great way to honor her, but I wish she were there to see it. From what I have seen from my research into the Rock Hall, they normally induct 9 or 10 out of the 15 nominees. With that in mind, I think that Foreigner, Dave Matthews Band, Ozzy Osbourne, Sinéad O’Connor and Cher are all shoo-ins for induction. For the rest? That is anybody’s game at this point. They all deserve to be in there, the whole downside of this process is there will be at least a few artists who don’t get in when they deserve to. But that’s good for me because I wouldn’t have had an article to write if that were the case.

Good luck to all the nominees, and if Ozzy doesn’t get in this round, I will riot. 

Annemarie Karabinus is an opinion writer. Contact her at [email protected].