Rock Hall of Fame Picks Its New Class

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is out with its 2020 inductees, with six groups or individual artists making the cut, reports Billboard:

• Who's in: Whitney Houston, Nine Inch Nails, the Notorious B.I.G., Depeche Mode, the Doobie Brothers, and T. Rex.
• Who didn't make it: Others on the ballot were Pat Benatar, Dave Matthews Band, Judas Priest, Kraftwerk, MC5, Motörhead, Rufus featuring Chaka Khan, Todd Rundgren, Soundgarden, and Thin Lizzy. (DMB won the "fans' ballot but didn't get enough votes from critics, previous winners, and music execs," notes the Wall Street Journal.)
• An observation: The hall "has a long history of favoring guitar-based bands over ones that utilize synthesizers, but the presence of Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails in this class seems to suggest that things are changing," writes Andy Greene at Rolling Stone.
• Posthumous: Houston, Notorious B.I.G. (who was killed in 1997), two members of the Doobie Brothers, and all but one member of T. Rex will be inducted posthumously.

(More Rock and Roll Hall of Fame stories.)