Electronic pioneers Kraftwerk, poetic rockers The Smiths and gangsta rappers N.W.A. are among the contenders to enter the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in nominations announced on Thursday.
Other nominees included Sting and the late Lou Reed, whose influential original bands — The Police and The Velvet Underground — were already inducted as groups into the Hall of Fame based in Cleveland.
The nominations, which often trigger strong opinions among fans, will be submitted to 700 music specialists who will pick five artists for induction next year.
Fans can also play a small role by voting by December 9, with their most popular choice comprising a ballot.
“Rock and roll incorporates the styles of so many different kinds of music and that’s what makes this group of nominees — and this art form — so powerful and unique,” Joel Peresman, president and CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, said in a statement.
Kraftwerk spearheaded synthesizer music in the 1970s as the Germans dehumanised themselves on stage, appearing motionless in costume with tracks such as We Are the Robots and The Man-Machine.
The Smiths, together as a band for merely five years until 1987, captivated a massive fan base as Morrissey’s broodingly introspective words merged with Johnny Marr’s intricate post-punk guitar.
N.W.A. — or Niggaz With Attitudes — shocked many listeners in the late 1980s with brash accounts of life on the streets, including F*** Tha Police. The band spawned solo acts Ice Cube, Easy-E and Dr. Dre, who later became one of music’s richest people as a producer and entrepreneur.
N.W.A would be among a growing number of hip-hop acts in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame after New York-based pioneers Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five became the first inductees from the genre in 2007.
Legendary electric blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan, whose brief career ended in a 1990 plane wreck, was also nominated along with the late blues singer Paul Butterfield and his band.
Two bands from the glory days of Motown were nominated — the all-woman quartet The Marvelettes, who performed the 1961 classic Please Mr. Postman, and The Spinners, who later became known for the so-called Philadelphia sound of smoother soul music.
Other nominees included Bill Withers, the soul singer known for his hit Lean On Me; disco icons Chic, whose dancer number Le Freak was a global sensation in 1978; California funksters War, and hard rockers Joan Jett & The Blackhearts — who would presumably perform their song I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll if inducted.
Comparatively recent acts among the nominees were later-generation US punks Green Day and the fury-driven industrial rockers Nine Inch Nails.
To be nominated, an artist needs to have released a first single or album at least 25 years earlier.
