Steve Miller stated: “From the Space Cowboy, the Joker, Maurice and the Gangster of Luv and everybody who has played with us through the years, thank you to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and to all the fans who voted for us”. The spirit of N.W.A. exists in nearly every corner of pop culture in 2015.
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Dr. Dre (left) and Ice Cube, two members of N.W.A., subject of the movie “Straight Outta Compton”, promote the film in April.
Artists are eligible for inclusion in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25 years after the release of their first recording.
I have always done what I love to do, so to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is unreal. But regardless of that controversy, all of the bands and people to be added next year pass the smell test, having contributed significant music to the history of their particular niches.
The 2016 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place April 8 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. This year marked Cheap Trick, Chicago, and Steve Miller’s first time on the ballot. But with this set of inductees, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame feels like it’s gone even further into the already heavily anointed music past.
Three of the inductees, Cheap Trick, Chicago and Miller, had been nominated for the very first time, but they have been eligible for many years.
“It’s kind of like baseball players and that hall of fame; if they wait too long, people forget about the players from the past”, Nielsen says. The band’s classic tunes include “Surrender”, “I Want You To Want Me”, “Dream Police” and the #1 hit, “The Flame”. Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore was a stalwart in a hard rock act that competed with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath for the loyalty of metalheads.
After being passed over three times, the influential Compton rap group rode a wave of critical and popular acclaim generated by its hit biopic this year to finally win over Rock Hall voters, who also included Cheap Trick, Chicago, Deep Purple and Steve Miller in its 2016 class.
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The 2016 Rock Hall induction class includes artists with 40 years of performance experience, some ’70s rock bands and the OGs of gangsta rap. Nine Inch Nails, Janet Jackson, the Smiths and Yes are among the acts who made it onto the short list without securing an induction.
