The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has revealed the names of 16 artists or other musical figures who will be inducted in 2024. It’s a diverse list that stretches from R&B/rock pioneer Big Mama Thornton to pop superstars Cher and Dionne Warwick, and from ’70s-rooted rockers like Peter Frampton, Foreigner and Ozzy Osbourne to ’90s icons the Dave Matthews Band, Mary J. Blige and A Tribe Called Quest.
Surprisingly, Jimmy Buffett pops up among the inductees — unexpected because not only was the late singer/songwriter not on the ballot this year, but he had never even been nominated before. But the Rock Hall’s committee was clearly in a sentimental mood after his death seven months ago, and took the liberty of ushering Buffett in via a separate, non-voted category, for “musical excellence.”
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That honorary category is also the side door through which the committee installed two other performers who had been nominated before without ever being selected by voters: Warwick and MC5. The latter group had been nominated six times without ever being voted in (only Chic had been nominated more times and remained shut out); with the “musical excellence” classification, the Rock Hall finally took matters into its own hands in installing the influential 1960s quintet.
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For the first time, the inductees were announced as part of an “American Idol” broadcast, during a Sunday night episode themed around the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Following is the complete list of inductees for 2024:
Performer Category:
- Mary J. Blige
- Cher
- Dave Matthews Band
- Foreigner
- Peter Frampton
- Kool & The Gang
- Ozzy Osbourne
- A Tribe Called Quest
Musical Influence Award:
- Alexis Korner
- John Mayall
- Big Mama Thornton
Musical Excellence Award:
- Jimmy Buffett
- MC5
- Dionne Warwick
- Norman Whitfield
Ahmet Ertegun Award:
- Suzanne de Passe
The eight “performer” inductees are the ones selected by a ballot sent out to the Hall’s voters after the 15 nominees were announced on Feb. 10.
That leaves seven nominees from this year who will have to wait for another crack at getting in: Mariah Carey, Jane’s Addiction, Sade, Sinead O’Connor, Oasis, Lenny Kravitz and the duo Eric B. and Rakim.
One question mark now is how Cher will react to her induction. Just last December, in an appearance on “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” she said, “You know what, I wouldn’t be in it now if they gave me a million dollars … I’m never going to change my mind. They can just go you-know-what themselves.” At that point, though, she had never received so much as a nomination, so the odds favor her changing her tune on that vow, now that she got voted in her first time actually appearing on the ballot.
Five out of the eight voted in this year were first-time nominees: Osbourne, Cher, Frampton, Foreigner and Kool & the Gang.
A Tribe Called Quest got in on the hip-hop collective’s third time on the ballot (and their third year in a row being nominated). Blige and Matthews both got in on their second try (she was previously up for it in 2021; DMB had a prior nod in 2020).
Frampton, for his part, beyond the merits of having had one of the biggest albums of all time, may be a sentimental favorite this year, due to his being in the acknowledged twilight of his musical career. He has been out on a farewell tour off and on since 2019, following his diagnosis with the debilitating disease inclusion body myositisin 2015. The rocker just wrapped up the last round of dates he had scheduled, although he has not said there won’t be more.
It does not come as much surprise that Oasis did not make it in, after the defunct group’s singer, Liam Gallagher, went out of his way to disparage the Hall as an institution after the nomination (perhaps preemptively, given that no one considered the band an automatic first-ballot shoo-in). More surprising, to some, may be the fact that O’Connor did not make the voters’ cut, even after a wave of newfound appreciation for her following her death last July.
Osbourne becomes a second-time inductee this year; his group Black Sabbath was voted in all the way back in 2006. Sometimes there is contention over whether singers who are already in the Hall of Fame, as group members, really need to be pushed to the front of the line as solo artists, too, ahead of other contenders. In any case, voters decided that Osbourne’s post-Sabbath career established him as one of rock’s major icons, even apart from his initial round of influence and success as a frontman.
De Passe is getting her flowers for a career that included a long stint as one of the major players at Motown, developing the Jackson 5 into superstars and signing the Commodores, among other triumphs, before becoming a film and TV executive. She was profiled by Variety about her long and wide-ranging career in 2022.
Motown is also being celebrated with the induction of Whitfield, a songwriter and producer whose astonishing catalog of hits in the ’60s and ’70s included “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” “Just My Imagination,” “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” “War,” “Ball of Confusion,” “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” “(I Know) I’m Losing You,” “I Wish It Would Rain,” “I Can’t Get Next to You” and “Car Wash.” He died in 2008.
Coming on under the “musical influences” umbrella, Alexis Korner may be the name among this year’s inductees that is least known to contemporary music fans. He was a major player in the British blues scene of the 1960s and became a popular broadcaster as well; he died in 1984 at age 55. With John Mayall also being selected by the committee for the same honor, it’s an unexpected banner year for British blues-rockers.
