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To be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is among the most coveted honors in popular music. It’s a distinction that places the greatest of the greats in an entirely different conversation, separating the wheat from the chaff. Not only are artists themselves eagerly anticipating the award, fans want to see their faves recognized too — and they’ll do anything in their power to make it happen. But there might not be all that much power to begin with.
Established in 1983, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame held its first induction ceremony in 1986, honoring rock progenitors like Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and Elvis Presley. The foundation has shined a spotlight on many more artists since then, including this year’s inductees: Oasis, Wu-Tang Clan, Phil Collins, Joy Division/New Order, Sade, Iron Maiden, Billy Idol, and Luther Vandross.
If you’ve ever wondered how the Rock Hall works, inductees are chosen by an international voting body of more than 1,200 experts, including previous inductees as well as historians and other members of the music industry. Selections are also impacted by the aggregate results of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s annual online fan vote, which was introduced in 2012. “The Fan Vote joins the ballots of more than a thousand historians, music industry professionals, and artists to select each year’s induction class,” the Rock Hall website says on the page for its 2012 inductees.
This year, ’80s R&B boy band New Edition amassed 1,022,683 fan votes, the most among all the artists nominated. Surely that must count significantly toward the band becoming a final inductee, right? Wrong.
Every fan vote is compiled into one single ballot, which is then added to the official voting pool. Yes, you read that correctly: one single ballot. The votes of over 1 million people account for 0.08% of the entire selection process. If you really wanna get funky, a single fan vote toward New Edition amounts to 0.00000008%. I wonder if fans think that was time well spent?
“The fan vote is not automatic entry into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” Rock Hall President and CEO Greg Harris told WKYC Studios on April 13th. “The idea is that the fan vote can be weighted because you have a lot of social media followers, a large, contemporary fan base and it makes it a challenge for artists that maybe are no longer active and don’t have that same type of following.”
New Edition isn’t the only band to be left in the cold, despite the efforts of their fans. Phish also had the same outcome last year: after winning the 2025 fan vote, the band missed out on that year’s induction, and this one’s, too. Similarly, Dave Matthews Band won the 2020 Rock Hall fan ballot, but wasn’t selected for induction until the class of 2024. While these are the only fan vote winners who didn’t get in the year they received the most votes, it may indicate a trend, especially considering the last two fan vote winners aren’t in the Hall.
To be clear, the fan vote is probably working just fine from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s perspective. They’re giving fans an opportunity to participate without shelling out too much power. In contemporary times, there’s always the possibility that bots and fake votes are a part of the equation. The foundation is likely protecting itself against claims of bought entries.
From the perspective of the fans, I don’t think this is quite the participation they were hoping for. At best, their votes are being used for engagement and to collect email addresses. It’s not insidious, but it’s not the most ideal outcome for those who think they’re partaking in a transformative experience for their fave.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s fan vote is broken. The question might not be, can it be fixed, but was it ever meant to work?
English (US) · 