The Rock and Roll of Fame Class of 2016 has been announced, and, as expected with the annual induction of music luminaries to the triangular glass pyramid in Cleveland, Ohio, also comes a list that is no less polarizing and possibly even semi-controversial, just as it has been in years past.

This year’s roster includes Cheap Trick, Chicago, Steve Miller, incendiary rappers N.W.A, and finally getting a nod in the hall, Deep Purple. Official induction ceremonies will take place on Friday April 8th, 2016 at The Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, New York, marking the second time the ceremonies will be taking place at the Center. HBO will then as it is wont to do, broadcast the ceremonies sometime that spring.

It’s that annual time again for either Cause Celebre or teeth-gritting derision depending on one’s taste, as the latest roster of inductees into Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has been announced. And as par for its course, the list spans the semantics and even transcends it, of the rock and roll idiom. For 2015, the inductees include Joan Jett, Green Day, Lou Reed, and Ringo Starr, amongst others.

The true backbeat to The Beatles, with his nasal-inflected voice, puckish charm, and one of the most underrated drummers of all time, Ringo Starr leads the pack of the Class of 2015 with the Award For Musical Excellence. Having drummed on the entire Beatles catalog (save for a few tracks where Paul McCartney took the drum seat) and sporting a solo career that was varied at best, but chock full of top ten and even number one hits during the early 1970s (“Photograph,” “You’re Sixteen,” “It Don’t Come Easy,” etc.), Starr, who still feverishly tours and keeps active well into his 70s, rounds out the last of the solo Beatles to be inducted, and while some may cry default that he got in as a solo artist just because of his prior pedigree, there’s no way one Richard Starkey (his real name) could have been left out, standing near the cold harbor outside the hall. Favoritism seems to be the order of the day in terms of the Hall’s voting committee and their strangely stringent tenets of what garners inclusion to its walls of fame, Ringo Starr notwithstanding.

It’s that time of year again when the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame puts forth its nominees for induction into its hallowed halls. Maybe it’s just me, but I have to say, this year’s ballot is the least exciting one that I can recall.

Perhaps the biggest surprises are the inclusion of Green Day and Nine Inch Nails, both of which released their first albums in 1989, meaning that they have just passed the 25-year qualification for eligibility. Also, in the “How are they not already in?” category we have Stevie Ray Vaughn, War, Kraftwerk, and The Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Rounding out the list of nominees is: N.W.A, The Smiths, Lou Reed (solo work), Sting (solo work),Chic, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, The Marvelettes, The Spinners, and Bill Withers.

The inductees for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland, Ohio have been announced today, and while there are some on the roster who are fully deserving of induction into the hallowed hall, once again (and this is actually becoming somewhat of an annual tradition), key bands were left off the list for final induction.

The final inductees are as follows: Seattle’s Nirvana, who opened the floodgates of grunge, post-punk and somehow became as successful as any of the superstar rock groups the band eschewed; Hall and Oates and solo artist Linda Ronstadt, who got her start way back when in The Stone Poneys with the chart hit “Different Drum” (which was written by Monkee Michael Nesmith); shock rock party band to the highest level foursome Kiss, whose “army” of fans have been more than patient regarding the band getting in the hall; prog-rock maven Peter Gabriel, who had success first as an early member of Genesis and then kind of mainstreaming that sound slightly to carve out an eclectic solo career as well; and memorable folk singer Cat Stevens, who after charting an assembly line of introspective hits in the early 1970s, pretty much sold all the trappings that success gave him and charted a completely different life for himself thereafter, one mainly fueled by religious activity.

The latest roll call of the 2014 nominees for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was announced earlier this week, and as usual, the list is full of some names that are questionable, and ultimately some that are long overdue for possible inclusion in the triangular edifice, like Kiss, Deep Purple, and Yes.

Nirvana seems to be the forerunner here and the absolute shoe-in to the Hall. The defunct grunge trio, which disbanded almost 20 years ago after the death of their front man, flanneled-laden Kurt Cobain, was on the apex of the entire Grunge sound movement which shot large bullet holes through the hair metal and pop music that permeated radios and CD players coast to coast when it first burst onto the scene in the early 1990s. More than just a success story, Nirvana opened an entire new lifestyle for teens in subdivisions, urban societies and pretty much every other demographic with their hard edged, yet simplistic post punk attack.