Guns N' Roses Nominated to Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame

New York Times
Guns N’ Roses, the hard rock band whose glory days were in the 1980s, and Eric B. & Rakim, one of the most influential rap groups of that era, were among the 15 artists nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next year, the hall announced this morning. Both were nominated in their first year of eligibility.

The other artists who are receiving their first nominations include Freddie King, the Cure, Heart, the Spinners and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. The list also contains several acts that have been nominated before, among them the Beastie Boys, Donovan, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and War.

The nominees were chosen by 40 critics and musicologists who serve on the hall’s nominating committee. The ballots will now be sent to a larger group of 500 critics, musicians and industry professionals who vote on them. Every year, the hall inducts at least five artists or groups from the list. The choices are announced in late November and a ceremony will be held to honor the inductees on April 14. Next year, the ceremony will be held at the Cleveland Convention Center, as it was in 2008.

The nomination of Guns N’ Roses did not come as a surprise. The Los Angeles hard rock band brought a raw sound back to the charts in the late 1980s when pop was dominated by dance music, laying the groundwork for the grunge movement that followed. They were superstars when the original band stopped touring in 1994, having left behind a large catalog of hits, including “Welcome to the Jungle” and “Sweet Child O’ Mine.”

Eric B. & Rakim –- the rap duo from Queens — are credited with raising the bar for rappers when they released their debut single, “Eric B is President,” in 1986. It was a hard-hitting James Brown sample over which Rakim rapped dense lyrics, packing lines with internal rhymes, meters and wordplay that have influenced most of the top rappers since then. Only two other hip-hop acts are in the hall of fame — Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, and Run-D.M.C.

Artists become eligible for the hall of fame 25 years after their debut album or single. Many musicians have careers that span more than three decades, so some hall-of-famers are still touring and recording.

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