Photo by Heather Kaplan, Julia Drummond, and Debi Del Grande.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has revealed the nominees for its class of 2019. They include Radiohead, Rage Against The Machine, Janet Jackson, Roxy Music, Stevie Nicks, The Cure, and Def Leppard.
Other finalists include Todd Rundgren, Rufus and Chaka Khan, LL Cool J, The Zombies, Devo, John Prine, MC5, and Kraftwerk.
The top five vote-getters, as determined by a group of artists, historians, and music industry members, as well as a fan vote, will be announced in December. They will then be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during a ceremony held in April 2019 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. HBO will broadcast the ceremony later in the year.
(Read: A Running List of Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Omissions)
In order for an artist to be eligible for the Hall of Fame, their first recording must have been released at least 25 years ago or earlier. Devo, Roxy Music, Stevie Nicks, Todd Rundgren, John Prine, and Def Leppard have all been nominated for the first time.
However, no artists eligible for the first time this year were nominated, a list which includes OutKast, Beck, Jeff Buckley, The Roots, Dave Matthews Band, and Snoop Dogg. Additionally, previous nominees omitted from this year’s list include Kate Bush, Nine Inch Nails, The Smiths, The Replacements, Depeche Mode, Bad Brains, and Eurythmics, among others.
Radiohead, who were first nominated in 2018, have expressed a disinterest in a potential induction. “I don’t care,” Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood responded when asked about the band’s potential enshrinement in an interview last year. Guitarist Ed O’Brien added, “I don’t want to be rude about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because for a lot of people it means something, but culturally I don’t understand it. I think it might be a quintessential American thing.”
Last year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class included Nina Simone, Bon Jovi, The Cars, Dire Straits, and The Moody Blues.