Who Leads the Early Fan Voting for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?
Although I’ve come to the opinion that the whole Rock and Roll Hall of Fame thing is a bit of a scam run by an old boy’s club, I can’t help being interested in who gets voted in each year. It’s a failing, I know.
There are a couple of components to the voting process. There’s the open fan vote (an illusion to make people think that fans actually have a say in this) and then the final closed voting by members of the Hall. We’re told that the fan voting forms a weighted component to the final vote, which you can believe if you want.
Here are the early numbers in the fan vote courtesy Vintage Vinyl News.
- Chicago – 23.52% (37364484 votes)
- The Cars – 16.19% (25724029 votes)
- Yes – 16.17% (25692136 votes)
- Steve Miller – 15.97% (25373371 votes)
- Deep Purple – 15.95% (25338263 votes)
- Janet Jackson – 5.91% (9389838 votes)
- Cheap Trick – 1.29% (2041761 votes)
- The Spinners – 1.25% (1992688 votes)
- Chaka Khan – 1.14% (1806633 votes)
- Chic – 0.83% (1311302 votes)
- The J.B.’s – 0.58% (925427 votes)
- N.W.A – 0.39% (626289 votes)
- Nine Inch Nails – 0.31% (489181 votes)
- The Smiths – 0.27% (431746 votes)
- Los Lobos – 0.23% (360381 votes)
Take note of what we see here so we can compare it to the list of inductees that will come out in December.
The Cars? Really? Then again, fans are encouraged to “vote often,” so it looks like there’s some kind of campaign going on here.
It’s unfortunate that the RRHOF feels the need to induct people every year. Sometimes the answer should be “none of the above”. No offence to inductees like Heart, Kiss, Rush and Aerosmith but IMO these are middling artists… although Rush and Kiss deserve to be recognized for their longevity and other innovations. As much as I love the Smiths, I don’t think their body of work is substantial enough to be included.
Nile Rogers should go in as an individual though.