Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame "As It Should Be" - 2002, Part Three - The Inductees

Six artists were inducted into the Hall Of Fame in 2002, and while that's enough to take care of my ASAP candidates, it only allows the top non-ASAP candidate to sneak in this year while the rest will have to wait for future years, when it will get much more difficult due to the Hall's recent unofficial policy change of only allowing five new artists every year.


The following "Class Of 2002" were inducted in their first year of eligibility:

Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers - The Heartbreakers are quite possibly the greatest American rock n roll band and by far the most consistent band in all of rock history. There has never been a bad Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers album and each one contains a set of brilliant songs with great lyrics, brilliant guitarwork and the ability to hop from one genre to another while rarely even coming up with a bad song let alone several.

The Ramones - The Ramones didn't invent punk. Punk has it's roots in Detroit in the late 60's and could even be traced far enough back to the Mod movement of the early 60's, particularly The Who. That being said, no band was more important in the consolidation of punk from a series of ideas into a genre in and of itself than The Ramones. The British punk bands were inspired by The Ramones and the New York scene would have never made it without them. The Ramones had the simplest sound imaginable: lean, straight forward and short. Most of their songs sounded exactly alike and they rarely topped three minutes. Despite all that they remain the coolest and purest of all rock bands.

The Talking Heads - 1977 was also a great year for alternative rock as The Talking Heads brought art rock to the mainstream, briding the gap between the underground scene and classic rock in a way that no band since the Velvet Underground had. Their music was weird and yet still radio-friendly, unique and representing a high level of quality thanks to the leadership of the genius David Byrne.

The Sex Pistols - Inspired by the success of the Ramones, The Sex Pistols were put together and instantly became the British voice of punk rebellion, clawing at the eyes of the UK establishment and spitting in the face of the music industry while still managing to create music that was brilliant and well put together.

John Mellencamp - 1977 also saw the debut of one of the great singer-songwriters of the 70's, John Mellencamp. John's gone by many commercially inspired names, but when his record label started taking him seriously they settled on his actual name. Mellencamp is forever stuck in the shadow of Bruce Springsteen, but since he was the best of the "imitators", it was hardly a bad place to be, as it allowed him to create a long string of great albums that continues to this day.

The Jam - The Jam are something of a forgotten New Wave band since Classic Rock radio chooses to ignore them, but they were among the most important and best bands of the late 70's, cranking out great song after great song before breaking up a few decades later.