It’s that time of year when music halls of fame make their big announcements. And since everyone tends to have their own definition of musical greatness and who embodies it, people have opinions.
I’ve grown accustomed to hearing fellow writers, artists and fans alike make their cases for performers they feel have been overlooked by these institutions.
There are three in particular that I’m thinking of: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Musicians Hall of Fame. Right now, they’re each at different points in their processes of nominating and inducting new members.
- The Musicians Hall rolled out its list in February, and will hold its ceremony at the end of April.
- The Rock Hall was the next to announce, in its case naming 17 nominees and inviting fans to cast ballots until May 3.
- The Country Hall held a press conference highlighting its class of 2026 in March.
The discourse that swirls around all of them tells me that some people don’t really know how they work.
I’ve got you: in this edition of my Key Changes column, I’ll give you the background and the present-day lowdown on the Musicians Hall, the Country Hall and the Rock Hall. I’ll even do a bit of comparison.
What should we know about the origins of these institutions?
Of these three, the CMHOF has been around the longest. It was founded in Nashville by the Country Music Association in 1961. This may be hard to imagine at a time when country music is such a dominant presence in popular music, but back then the CMA was doing a lot of work to boost the status of country music. And creating a hall of fame, along with a museum, helped establish wide-ranging regional and stylistic variants of country music as a unified genre with a long and culturally significant history. If you want more on that, I recommend reading Diane Pecknold’s book “The Selling Sound.”
The Rock Hall and its museum was created in Cleveland in the mid 1980s by powerful music industry figures, most notably Jann Wenner, founder of Rolling Stone magazine. He built the publication around his perception of rock genius as the domain of white men, and for a long time, he steered the hall of fame with that same mentality. He intended it to enshrine the likes of Bob Dylan, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
The Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum initially opened in the mid-2000s, but had to take a break to relocate. The fact that its founders, the late Joe Chambers and Linda Chambers, had a background in session work and instrument sales profoundly influenced its mission and scope. It wasn’t strictly fame that qualified musicians for induction, but their contributions in the recording studio.
How open are they about their selection processes?
The decision-making of all three is anonymous, to a degree. Linda Chambers told me in an email that members of the musicians union are among those who weigh in, along with other music business heavyweights.
The Country Hall, which remains the province of the CMA, enlists industry veterans for its committees and broader voting body, without disclosing names. They’re serious about that.
The Rock Hall follows similar principles, though some prominent members of the nominating committee — Questlove, Dave Grohl and Sheryl Crow, for instance — are known to the public. Plus, inductees get to vote.
But so does the public. The fan vote is unique to the Rock Hall, though it’s ultimately counted as just one vote. That doesn’t carry much weight alongside more than 1,000 official votes — but it does make it feel like the people have a say. And they can also buy tickets to attend the induction, which isn’t a given for these institutions. The Country Hall’s annual medallion ceremony is an invite-only affair.
What stands out when you compare the membership of these halls side by side?
One thing they all have in common is that they failed to induct any women at the start.
And their Black membership makes up a smaller percentage than it should, given the leading role that Black innovators have played in American music across the board. So, their efforts to define who belongs in the canon have, in many ways, mirrored the music industry’s own barriers and biases.
But as the most public-facing institution, and the one that positions itself as the ultimate authority on what matters in popular music, the Rock Hall has had its recent reckonings. In 2023, after making some inflammatory but revealing statements, Jann Wenner himself was pushed out.
What do you make of this year’s candidates and inductees?
After the Musicians Hall hosts its ceremony in late April, Dolly Parton will be in all three. That’s hardly the only overlap among their membership, but each institution emphasizes different reasons for recognizing the same performers.
The Country Hall limits itself to just three inductees a year. And in 2026, we can see how much it has to stretch to cover roughly a century of music-making with so few selections. This year’s veteran inductees are the Stanley Brothers, who made their mark as bluegrass progenitors in the late 1940s and have both passed. That’s an effort to correct an omission.
The inductee from the contemporary era, on the other hand, is Tim McGraw, who broke through in the mid 90s and still scores the occasional radio hit. The third category rotates — this year it honors a songwriter, Paul Overstreet, who penned songs now recognized as neo-traditional classics.
Some of the first-time nominees on the Rock Hall’s list show the influence of the zeitgeist. I don’t think it’s far-fetched to say that Sade may have finally received her nod thanks to so many younger artists citing her sleek, languid R&B aesthetic. And the same with Luther Vandross; I bet Kendrick Lamar and SZA sampling his hit didn’t hurt when it came to this recognition. Before this nomination, Vandross had already been eligible for the Rock Hall for a couple of decades. Maybe this is finally his year.
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM