Whitney Houston, B.I.G. To Be Inducted In Rock Hall Class Of 2020

CLEVELAND — Meet the 2020 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees: Whitney Houston, the Doobie Brothers, Notorious B.I.G., T. Rex, Nine Inch Nails and Depeche Mode. This year's class will be celebrated during a ceremony in Cleveland on May 2.

The 2020 induction ceremony will be held at the Public Auditorium. It will feature live musical performances and special guests, and will be broadcast live on HBO. Tickets for the induction ceremony go on sale to Rock Hall members Feb. 25 and will be made available to the public Feb. 27.

As always, the 2020 class announcement was met with a mix of jubilation and criticism. Fans of the inductees celebrated the wisdom of the selection committee. Fans of Pat Benatar, Thin Lizzy, Dave Matthews Band, Judas Priest, Soundgarden and Motörhead were left waiting for 2021.

The general thread of critique this year was the same as last year's: too many bands and artists were chosen who aren't actually "rock" music. On Twitter, the most common targets of criticism were Whitney Houston and Notorious B.I.G., artists commonly associated with R&B and hip-hop.

Some music fans were also concerned that the fan vote appeared to be meaningless. For the first time since the Rock Hall instituted a fan vote, the winner of the vote was not subsequently inducted.

The Dave Matthews Band received the most votes by far, topping 1 million. Pat Benatar came in second with 880,000 votes. Four of the top five vote recipients were not inducted.