The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Class Of 2015 Nominees Are Announced: Sting, Green Day Included

Green Day, Nine Inch Nails, and The Smiths are among the nominees for the 2015 class of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees. For the third year in a row, fans will get to have a say in who gets enshrined.

In order to be eligible for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a performer or group has to have begun their recording career 25 years before; this means that the 2015 class has to have begun in 1989 or earlier, according to the New York Daily News. That means this is the first year of eligibility for Green Day and Nine Inch Nails.

Other nominees for the 2015 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class include Lou Reed — who is already included as a member of The Velvet Underground, and whose nomination comes near the one-year anniversary of his death at 71, according to this Inquisitr report — Sting (who is already included as a member of The Police), 70s-era soul icon Bill Withers, and blues legend Stevie Ray Vaughan, according to Fox News. Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Chic, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, Kraftwerk, The Marvellettes, N.W.A., The Spinners, and War round out the list.

Joel Peresman, the head of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, said, via CNN, that this year’s eclectic mix of nominees reflects the Hall’s commitment to honoring a wide variety of musical styles that exist under the banner of Rock and Roll.

“[The list of 2015 nominees] represent[s] the myriad places where rock and roll converges with blues, electronic, dance, Motown, R&B, funk and other genres. Rock and roll incorporates the styles of so many different kinds of music and that’s what makes this group of nominees — and this art form — so powerful and unique.”

For the third year in a row, fans will have the opportunity to cast a vote for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees: cast your vote here, via Rolling Stone. The fans’ collective votes will count as one single vote, to join the approximately 700 other votes cast by musicians, writers, and other members of the Rock and Roll community, according to Fox News.

The final tally of votes will be announced in December, and the 2015 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees will be enshrined into the Hall at a ceremony in Cleveland in April.

Whom do you like for the 2015 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Cast your own vote below.

[Image courtesy of: MRS Global]