nominations Inducted into the 2023 Class of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the list features George MichaelAnd Kate BushAnd Missy Elliottthe White linesand Sheryl Crow, Iron Maiden, Joy Division/New Order, Cyndi Lauper, Willie Nelson, Rage Against the Machine, Soundgarden, Spinners, A Tribe Called Quest, and Warren Zevon. The top vote-getters will be announced in May and entered in the fall.
“This impressive list of Nominees reflects the diversity of artists and music that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame honors and celebrates,” said John Sykes, Chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation. “These artists created their own voices that have influenced generations and influenced countless others who have followed in their footsteps.”
To be eligible for this year’s ballot, each nominee’s first single or album had to be released in 1998 or earlier. Eight of the candidates (Sheryl Crow, Missy Elliott, Joy Division/New Order, Cyndi Lauper, George Michael, Willie Nelson, The White Stripes, and Warren Zevon) are on the ballot for the first time. Missy Elliott and the White Stripes appear in her first year of eligibility.
This is the fifth nomination for Rage Against The Machine, the fourth for Kate Bush and the Deer, and the second for Iron Maiden and A Tribe Called Quest.
The inclusion of Joy Division and New Order as one act might seem strange since they are technically two different bands. But New Order was formed by the three surviving members of Joy Division almost immediately after frontman Ian Curtis committed suicide in 1980. The only difference was the addition of keyboardist Gillian Gilbert a few months later. (In 2012, the Hall of Fame inducted Small Faces and Faces as a unit even though they have different singers and somewhat different voices. It’s easy to say that Joy Division and New Order have more DNA in common than these two groups.)
The Hall of Fame is one of the few places outside of a courtroom where bitterly separated band members are forced back into the same room. This led to amazing reunions over the years of sleeper bands like Cream, Led Zeppelin, Talking Heads, The Police and The Doors. This chapter presents an opportunity for New Order to perform with former guitarist Peter Hook for the first time since 2006 and to play Jack White and Meg White together again as the White Stripes for the first time since the last episode of Late Night with Conan O’Brien in 2009.
It’s also a chance for the surviving members of A Tribe Called Quest and Soundgarden to play together again. Rage Against the Machine is on indefinite hiatus as forward Zac de la Rocha recovers from a severe left Achilles tendon rupture he suffered during night two of the group’s 2022 reunion tour, but it’s possible they could play as well.
The Class of 2023 will be chosen by a group of more than 1,000 artists, historians, and members of the music industry chosen by the Rock Hall as electors. In recent years, the Hall of Fame has awarded the Musical Excellence Award, the Ahmet Ertegun Award, and the Early Influence Award to a wide range of artists who did not appear on the ballot. In 2022, seven works from the ballot were officially entered, and another seven were awarded further prizes.
The final Hall of Fame induction ceremony took place on November 5, 2022, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. There is no information about where it will be held this year.