Top 100 Rock Hall Prospects Project: 2024 Update
I hope my readers are having a great 2024 so far. Things have been very good and busy for me but I’m staying afloat. I recently started a second podcast with my friend Jordan Raycine called Needle Drops, which analyzes the use of pre-existing songs to accompany iconic moments in contemporary film. Readers might not know this about me, but my academic background is rooted in film and media studies. When the opportunity for this podcast was presented to us, I thought it was the perfect combination of movies and music. We’ve already published 3 episodes so far and subscribe to the show on your favorite streaming service. I also recently published an episode for my other podcast Rock in Retrospect. We did our annual Rock Hall Nominees Predictions draft, and it was such a fun episode to record. My guests/friends all bring their A-game anytime we record these types of Rock Hall-themed episodes.
I’ve been going back-and-forth writing this post. Exactly one month ago, I published my predictions for the 2024 class and this 2024 updated rankings post has been on my mind. I’m not exactly sure if it has to do with my busy schedule or the fact that there hasn’t been a ton of Rock Hall-centered news as of late. Nominations for the 2024 class should be arriving any day now and I wanted to sit down and put pencil to paper (or in this case, type up my thoughts). When I wrote my Top 100 Rock Hall Prospects Project nearly 4 years ago, it took me on a wonderful journey to listening and reading about artists who deserve more serious consideration for an induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. There is, as always, a lot to consider when I determine the rankings. The Rock Hall only lists “Musical Excellence” as the main criterion for consideration, but that is far too subjective. This is one of the primary reasons the Rock Hall has a branding problem as they often cannot explain or justify their decisions and logic for nominating and inducting artists while excluding others. My rankings are based on the impact of an artist’s legacy (influence and all), cultural ubiquity and relevance, sales and popularity, and lastly current trends of the ballots and eventual classes. In other words, I consider those who are the game changers, the rebels, the genre-definers and the cultural icons that make up this thing called rock and roll. The inductees for every class are your all-stars, the ones you call on when someone asks for an artist who defined an era, genre or movement. To me, that is what the Rock Hall inductees should ideally be.
The first I want to get out of the way – these are my personal rankings and never would I claim this to be definitive. That’s honestly the beauty of the list as it’s fluid and constantly changing. There are artists who were ranked very low in its initial iterations (or completely left off the list) that are now ranked very high. Times change and people do as well (myself included). Artists can gain momentum for a nomination (or induction) by making their music relevant to the current generation, winning other major industry awards, collaborating with other Hall of Famers, making highly publicized comments about the Rock Hall and, perhaps most importantly, playing nice with the Hall (aka, showing up a ceremony). Whether we all like to admit it or not, the Rock Hall is a game of politics and there’s a lot of decisions made that seem calculated, but that is (sadly) to be expected. The members of the nomination committee have a seemingly impossible task creating ballots every year but let’s not forget for a single second that this is the music business. The committee members have their motives and reasonings to put artists on the ballot. Whether it’s due to personal relationships, a particular fondness for eras and genres, or simply making a profit from all the publicity a nominee could make, these are all things that must be considered when discussing the Rock Hall. It’s not always something I love to think about, but it must be on my mind if I am looking at this thing from a plausible perspective. In other words, I often take a more populist POV on the Rock Hall and there’s nothing wrong with that.
For this year’s rankings, I decided to take a much bolder, perhaps more radical, shifting of the list. With the relatively low chance of an artist getting nominated in their first year of eligibility this year, I think this will be, in many ways, a catch-up year for the committee members. 2024 will likely serve to get some pet projects (past nominees) back on the ballot as well trying to capitalize on big-name talents who haven’t been on a ballot previously. The lack of slam dunk first-year nominees this year most definitely influenced my rankings.
For an artist to be considered on the 2024 updated list, they must have released their first record/album in or before 1998. Essentially a full 25 years after their first recording. Artists such as Coldplay, The White Stripes, Britney Spears, Lauryn Hill, Sia, Muse and System of a Down are all eligible to be added to the list. Some of these artists made this year’s updated rankings! A disclaimer that must be addressed: the nomination committee made a one-time adjustment to combine those artists who debuted in 1997 and 1998. This was due to the schedule change when the pandemic hit years ago and getting them “back on track” so to speak. This was something that wasn’t really on the minds of those who follow the Rock Hall last year with their predictions and commentary but, in hindsight, this makes total sense. With regards to my Prospects Project rankings, I made necessary changes and adjustments to reflect it.
Newly eligible artists, released their first recordings in 1999 and are now eligible starting in 2024, are disqualified from this year’s updated rankings. This is because they haven’t been passed over or yet to be considered by the members of the nomination committee. These artists include John Mayer, 50 Cent, Lil Wayne, and Jennifer Lopez. It’s worth noting that artists who appeared on past iterations of the list are eligible to return and those who have been eligible and never appeared. As I mentioned earlier, my rankings every year are fluid and constantly changing.
I say this every year but it’s worth mentioning again: it doesn’t matter if an artist has been previously nominated or if they wind up receiving induction in a side category. Those decisions, particularly the latter, are out of my control and that’s something I accept as someone who follows and analyzes the Rock Hall. If an artist is honored in a side category, that is totally fine with me. At the end of the day, 95% of the population does not care which category an artist is inducted in and, really, it’s a game of semantics. They will always be referred to as “Rock and Roll Hall of Famer….” for the rest of their lives and that’s really all that counts. The reason this list and rankings exist is to record who I think deserves this award the most and to provoke conversations and dialogue about the state of the Rock Hall before heading into nomination season.
Also on the rankings: please don’t get too hung up on them. Everyone’s entitled to their opinions and this list is most definitely not for everyone. But I never claim for mine to be definitive, so, yes, please let me know what you think of the list. I will open the comments section but all I ask is that you keep them respectful and fair-minded. I won’t tolerate anything negative or derogatory and I have zero issues removing comments (or turning off the comments section if it gets out of hand). You can always send me an email too.
I didn’t have the time or energy to go through the list and add commentary. Artists who’s named are bolded are new or returned to the list.
Here’s my revised rankings for the Top 100 Rock Hall Prospects Project (2024 Edition):
Cher (Inducted in 2024)
Mariah Carey
Coldplay
Outkast
Cyndi Lauper
The B-52’s
Soundgarden
Kool & the Gang (Inducted in 2024)
The White Stripes
Iron Maiden
Dionne Warwick (Inducted in 2024)
Mary J. Blige (Inducted in 2024)
Joy Division/New Order
Diana Ross
Sinead O’Connor
Beck
A Tribe Called Quest (Inducted in 2024)
Warren Zevon
Dave Matthews Band (Inducted in 2024)
The Smiths
INXS
Salt N Pepa
Jimmy Buffett (Inducted in 2024)
Snoop Dogg
Jane’s Addiction
Roberta Flack
Smashing Pumpkins
Alanis Morissette
Devo
Gloria Estefan/Miami Sound Machine
Phil Collins
Sade
New York Dolls
TLC
Ice-T
Billy Idol
Queen Latifah
Peter Frampton (Inducted in 2024)
Eric B. & Rakim
Garth Brooks
Tracy Chapman
Dr. Dre
Oasis
Wu-Tang Clan
MC5 (Inducted in 2024)
Tori Amos
Motorhead
Pixies
De La Soul
Lenny Kravitz
Ozzy Osbourne (Inducted in 2024)
No Doubt
War
The Monkees
The Replacements
Jethro Tull
Barry White
Foreigner (Inducted in 2024)
Sonic Youth
Bad Company
Lauryn Hill
Weezer
Alice in Chains
Pet Shop Boys
Big Star
Thin Lizzy
Fela Kuti
Tears for Fears
Patti LaBelle
Daft Punk
Sting
Motley Crue
Rick James
The Pointer Sisters
Joe Cocker
Bryan Adams
Bjork
The Bangles
Luther Vandross
PJ Harvey
Destiny’s Child
Melissa Etheridge
Siouxsie and the Banshees
King Crimson
Britney Spears
Herbie Hancock
Black Flag
Aaliyah
D’Angelo
Fiona Apple
Phish
The Black Crowes
Blink-182
Carpenters
Tool
Shania Twain
Peter Tosh
Living Colour
Pavement
Nas
For context, here are past blogs about the Prospects Project:
Introduction (written in 2020)
2020/2021, 2022 and 2023 Rankings
Here are the 14 artists removed from the 2023 rankings (in order of ranking): Kate Bush (#5, Inducted), Rage Against the Machine (#10, Inducted), Chaka Khan (#11, Inducted), Wille Nelson (#14, Inducted), George Michael (#16, Inducted), Sheryl Crow (#20, Inducted), The Spinners (#41, Inducted), Harry Nilsson (#77), X (#85), Selena (#88), Dead Kennedys (#93), Toots and the Maytals (#94), Slayer (#99), Eryhah Badu (#100)
Here are the 14 artists added to the 2024 rankings (in order of ranking): Coldplay (#3), The White Stripes (#9), Peter Frampton (#38), Garth Brooks (#40), Ozzy Osbourne (#51), Lauryn Hill (#61), Destiny’s Child (#81), Britney Spears (#85), D’Angelo (#89), Phish (#91), The Black Crowes (#92), Blink-182 (#93), Tool (#95, Re-Entry), Living Colour (#98)
