If this past year has taught us anything, it’s that representation matters, and for the first time possibly ever, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2021 has a pretty diverse group of inductees -- not only by genre, but by race and gender, too.
This year’s class includes Tina Turner, Carole King, Jay-Z, The Go-Go’s, Foo Fighters and Todd Rundgren.
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So, without further ado, let’s break down some of the biggest surprises and snubs from this year’s induction class.
Women!
Finally, we have a Rock Hall inductee list in which half of the inductees are women! We’ve had years where there have been two artists that are women in an induction class, but never has there been three.
On top of having female representation, Turner and King make history by becoming the second and third female artists to be inducted into the Hall of Fame twice, following Steve Nicks, who became the first in 2019.
Double inductees
Like we mentioned above, King (who was inducted as a songwriter) and Turner (who was inducted as Ike and Tina) will be inducted again this year. The other double inductee on this year’s ballot is Dave Grohl.
Grohl, who obviously is the frontman of Foo Fighters, was inducted a few years back with Nirvana.
Lots of artists didn’t make the cut
As always, not every artist is going to become an inductee, and the list of talent who didn’t make the cut is painful.
Mary J. Blige, Iron Maiden, Chaka Khan, Dionne Warwick, Kate Bush and Devo are just a few of the nominees who will have to wait another year to be included.
The fan vote kind of works
It would be cool if the Rock Hall explained how much of the fan vote weighs in to how nominees are picked. Three of the five artists who will be inducted were at the top of the fan vote, but Iron Maiden and Fela Kuti were also in the top five, but they didn’t make it into the Hall of Fame.
Does that mean that the actual industry voters completely snubbed them?
It’s better than last year, though. Only one artist from the top five of the fan vote ended up inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Were you surprised by any of this year’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductions? Let us know in the comments below.
