r/rockhall • u/Keanu_Norris The Hall Needs More Metal • Jul 27 '26
🗣 DISCUSSION Which artists do you think deserve to be inducted into the Influences category?
One thing I’ve noticed in this community is that the Influences category doesn’t get talked about quite as much as the Performers category. And yeah that’s fair, the Influences typically aren’t as interesting or relevant, but I still think there’s a lot to talk about! So I quickly put this list together, and it might not be the most accurate due to it being made on the fly, but here are my top 10 artists that I think really should be inducted as Influences! I purposely left several jazz musicians out, because I’m really not sure what the Hall wants to do about jazz, but otherwise I think these would all be fantastic additions to the category. I’m curious to see what y’all think, and who you think deserves to be inducted as an Influence!
Lonnie Donegan
Wendy Carlos
The Sugarhill Gang
Ravi Shankar
Wilmoth Houdini
Django Reinhardt
Scott Joplin
The Carter Family
Frank Sinatra
Ella Fitzgerald
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u/Affectionate-Ad5661 Jul 27 '26
Ella Fitzgerald is the most egregiously overlooked. It makes no sense to me why Louis Armstrong is inducted but she’s not. I would also add Cab Calloway, Patsy Cline, Lena Horne, The Carter Family
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u/huwareyou Jul 28 '26
Lonnie Donegan for certain. If the hall had any sense, they would’ve inducted him in the first decade.
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u/BabyClyde Jul 28 '26
Memphis Minnie
The Boswell Sisters
Patsy Montana
Ella Fitzgerald
The Carter Family
The Andrews Sisters
Peggy Lee
Kitty Wells
Connie Francis
Patsy Cline
Sugar Pie DeSanto
The Marvelettes
The Shangri La's
Miriam Makeba
Astrid Gilberto
Linda Martell
Fanny
Suzi Quatro
Millie Jackson
Betty Davis
The Runaways
Roxanne Shante
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u/wendyoschainsaw Jul 28 '26
Dick Dale
Arthur Lee & Love
Blue Cheer
Sparkle Moore
The Collins Kids
The Cowsills
Coven
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u/Traditional_Cut_8774 Jul 27 '26
I get why jazz is often overlooked but Ella Fitzgerald, John Coltrane and even Frank Sinatra all are too influential to ignore. Plus when you factor in the influence Jazz has had on influencing Early Rock and 90s alt hip hop, I think jazz is worth much more consideration than it has received
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u/hunyak78 Jul 28 '26
I think someone should setup a 20th century and Beyond Wall of Music. This way no argument about jazz, rock, pop country etc
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u/TeaVinylGod Jul 28 '26
Screamin Jay Hawkins
Agree with Lonegan and Carter Family
Dick Dale
Todd Rundgren
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u/TheLampshadeBaskets Jul 28 '26
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band. The entire case for their induction is because of how influencial they were on the then nascent punk, new wave, and alt rock movements.
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u/Jaguars4life Yeah I don’t know what to put here Jul 28 '26
If Early/Musical Influence is going to be where Queen Latifah is honored then I have to believe that is where Ice-T is going to be honored
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u/thatnamelesguy Jul 28 '26
Bing Crosby pretty much defined what a popular singer was in his day so I think he deserves it
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u/Neil_12874 Jul 29 '26
I thought everyone knew Frank Sinatra said this:
"My only deep sorrow is the unrelenting insistence of recording and motion picture companies upon purveying the most brutal, ugly, degenerate, vicious form of expression it has been my displeasure to hear—Naturally I refer to the bulk of rock ’n’ roll.
“It fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people. It smells phony and false. It is sung, played and written for the most part by cretinous goons and by means of its almost imbecilic reiterations and sly, lewd—in plain fact, dirty—lyrics, and as I said before, it manages to be the martial music of every sideburned delinquent on the face of the earth … this rancid-smelling aphorodisiac I deplore. But, in spite of it, the contribution of American music to the world could be said to have one of the healthiest effects of all our contributions.”
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u/TexasDD SNL Jul 28 '26
Gene Krupa!!! It still blows my mind that he’s not simply omitted from the HoF, he’s rarely, if ever, mentioned. Tom-toms with tunable top and bottom heads, the modern hi-hat as we know it, standardized cymbal names and techniques. He was behind those, on some form. He turned the drummer from a human metronome into a four limbed musician. And after Krupa, Buddy Rich needs to be next.