He left the chairmanship in 2020 but had stayed on as a member of the hall’s nominating committee. What follows is a list of all of the regular inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, listed in order from best to worst. Along the way we’ll look at the hall’s origins and how it has evolved, with comments from members of the selection committees past and present. (My interview with Wenner was conducted years before his comments in the Times.) The list is revised each year changes in rankings and things like the resolution of hall oversights are duly noted where appropriate. The rankings below are for the most part made on the basis of the appropriateness of each artist’s induction based on stated hall criteria, not their baseline quality or my personal fondness for the artists in question. Were the acts influential? Were they the first? Are they simply brilliant at whatever it is they do? (There are a few bands I personally like a lot on the bottom half of the list.) I know there aren’t enough women more on that anon. Individual inductees with previous careers in bands (Lou Reed, Paul McCartney, etc.) are ranked on the basis of their solo work alone.
That’s why Stevie Nicks, for example, is ranked where she is her solo career - i.e., aside from her work in Fleetwood Mac, which was great and for which she’s already in the hall - is marginal.