The list is in, time to love/hate on it - https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/...142002957.html.
Here's who we've got:
Pat Benatar - Saw her play a small club in Newark, DE when I was a kid just at the moment when she broke big (my friend's brother worked the door and we got to watch from the side of the stage). Also immortalized by three different girls in Fast Times at Ridgemont High dressing like her. Automatic entry.
Dave Matthews Band - Also saw him play small clubs before he broke big, mostly because it was the only thing happening in Harrisonburg, VA that night. Not my jam. His fiddle player's band was better. Feel like they should have to engage Blues Traveler in a death match before their entry receives serious consideration.
Depeche Mode - Hopefully the Cure started what will be an avalanche Brit electro/goth/new wave entrants. Depeche Mode was about the 123rd-best member of that movement.
The Doobie Brothers - Only if they get get inducted with a specific Michael McDonald exclusion. He goes to the Easy Listening Hall of Fame.
Whitney Houston - I've been pretty supportive of R&B vocalists in the past, but if they do Houston they have to do Mariah Carey, and we can't have that.
Judas Priest - The RnRHOF followed Rolling Stone in being late on heavy metal. Never got it. Still doesn't get it. Yet even a complete simpleton knows Priest is the template for all heavy metal that followed them. Like, get with the program.
Kraftwerk - This should be an easy yes. Electronica blossomed into something huge and these guys were ground zero for it.
MC5 - They didn't make that much music and their influence is debatable (most of their influence in secondhand via bands that influenced others after being partially influenced by the MC5). Yet they did put Samuel L. Jackson's favorite word on wax.
Motorhead - We've already been deprived of the greatest HOF induction speech in history because Lemmy's dead. Congratulations RnRHOF on not getting your act together sooner. It's going to take 100 musicians to approximate the level of racket three guys in Motorhead would have made. I nominate Springsteen to stand in for Lemmy on the singing. If both Motorhead and Priest make it, it's the heaviest induction ceremony ever. It they cancel each other out, I suggest a riot in Cleveland.
Nine Inch Nails - Used to go to parties in Alphabet City in NYC where Trent Reznor would show up. He'd sort of stand in a corner by himself. Better play "Broken" if they get in.
The Notorious B.I.G. - Got to figure he goes in, right? Brian O'Grady for the induction speech.
Rufus featuring Chaka Khan - All day every day before Whitney Houston.
Todd Rundgren - There's two nominees coming up that make Rundgren's chances seem impossibly long. Nothing against the guy, but serious oversights need to be corrected.
Soundgarden - Same basic lane as NiN. Maybe they get more of a sympathy vote because of Chris Cornell's suicide. I assume they get in some day, but there's also a pile of bands here that influenced them.
T.Rex - I'm a sucker for glam. The Roxy's finally got in last year. T.Rex was inarguably the bigger band. I'd say better too, but that's a matter of taste. No amount of "20th Century Boy" is too much.
Thin Lizzy - Henry Rollins will do the induction speech if Thin Lizzy makes the cut. He will fight anyone who says otherwise (and then maybe get Black Flag in there). Bought my son a TL best of seven years ago and he still has it on heavy rotation. I will drink whiskey from a jar if they make it.