The official announcement from the Rock Hall Foundation of the 2007 nominees contains some interesting new information about the induction process.

The Rock Hall Museum's website has long listed the number of rock experts in the voting body at about 1000. However, according to this year's press release, that number has been cut in half to "over 500 voters." The voting body consists primarily of living Hall of Famers, which by rough count would be around 350, as long as each member of an inducted group receives a ballot (if not, the number would be closer to 130). The rest of the voters are made up of record company executives, rock critics, producers, broadcasters, and other industry professionals.

So what happened to the 500 former voters? If you are a former voter, let us know.

By nominating just nine artists for 2007, this marks the first time in the Rock Hall's 20 year history that it has nominated fewer than 13 artists. It's unstated whether or not this is a permanent change in the process, but it clearly gives even more influence to the Nominating Committee.

The press release also openly states that just five out of the nine nominees will be inducted. This is the first year they have announced a predetermined number of inductees before the voters get their ballots. As to how this effects the rule that nominees need a majority of 'yes' votes to be inducted is still vague. It's possible that voters are required to vote 'yes' for a minimum number of artists on the ballot, which would insure five artists would get above 50% of the vote.

(By the way, we would love to be a fly on the wall when the Sex Pistols receive their first ballot from the Hall of Fame this week.)

myREM.com: like the synergy of Patti Smith and R.E.M. getting in together
Whitney Matheson: is pulling for Stipe, Smith and Iggy
Make the Rock Hall Weird: Weird Al shut out again, but gaining momentum
EW.com: Links to YouTube videos for each nominee
Charles Crossley, Jr.: Counts up the number of dead nominees this year
Pop Machine: Michael Stipe threatened to keep R.E.M. out of the Hall until the Monkees are inducted?
Tom Lane: no love for Van Hagar
The 5th_Estate: has a little something against Chic

It's looking like our prediction of a Van Halen reunion on stage at the 2007 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is close to becoming a reality. Last week, just before Van Halen was nominated for the Rock Hall, there was this rumor from MelodicRock.com:

I have information from a highly placed source that Van Halen will likely tour in 2007 with David Lee Roth as frontman.

Negotiations are currently underway to re-unite Van Halen with their original frontman for a tour in 2007 that will take in Amercia and possibly other territories. While nothing in the world of Van Halen is set until the band walk out on stage, I can confirm that negotiations between all parties have been underway for some time, trying to put together a big 2007 re-union tour.

One would presume the tour will feature classic VH era songs only. What I do not yet know is whether this plan includes exiled bass player Michael Anthony.

Next year would be an ideal time for Van Halen to reunite for a tour to take advantage of the publicity surrounding their likely induction into the Rock Hall. As Aerosmith and Mötley Crüe have shown with their tour this year, there is a lot of money to be made by appealing to 80's hard rock fans.

Today we learned that the 2007 inductees will be announced in January and the induction ceremony will be held on March 12th at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. Billboard.com states that there will be five inductees, but how can the Rock Hall be sure that five artists will receive the requisite 50 percent of the vote? It's possible that many of these repeat nominees received more than 50% of the vote in years past, but were still beaten out by other Hall of Famers, so the Rock Hall is confident they will be voted in this year. Or maybe there are new rules that came in with the new director. We can just add this new twist to all of the other changes at the Rock Hall Foundation this year.

There is a new chair of the shrunken Nominating Committee -- longtime Rock Hall insider and Bruce Springsteen manager -- Jon Landau. Based on the selections this year (which look a lot like last year), the rumors of the Nominating Committee getting younger were probably false. It's unlikely there are many new members who could bring a different perspective to the proceedings. Even if there are some fresh voices, the 'old guard' clearly still has the most influence over the nominations.

The official Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominations for 2007 were announced today. There are only three first time nominees this year -- R.E.M., Van Halen, and the Ronettes. This is the first year of eligibility for R.E.M., and it's no surprise they have been nominated since they are both popular and critical favorites. Van Halen finally gets nominated in their fourth year of eligibility, and the Ronettes had been waiting since 1988 for a nod.

The rest of the 2007 ballot looks very familiar to last year's ballot. The Stooges, Grandmaster Flash, Patti Smith, Chic, Joe Tex, and the Dave Clark Five didn't make the cut last year (and have been nominated a total of 23 times over the years), but have all been nominated again.

The Rock Hall Foundation Nominating Committee only selected nine artists this year instead of the fifteen or so they have been nominating in recent years. By reducing the number of nominees the voters have to choose from, the Nominating Committee is clearly flexing its muscles and essentially saying to the voters, "you will vote these artists in whether you like it or not."

With all of the talk about the turnover on the Nominating Committee, including a new Foundation director, the new guard seems awfully similar to the old guard.

To comment on the nominations, check out the 2007 Nominees page.

This unlikely trio will be inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame this year. Also honored will be Rod Stewart, Dusty Springfield, Brian Wilson, and Beatles producer George Martin.

The UK Music Hall of Fame was founded in 2004 and certainly seems to take itself much less seriously than its U.S. cousin. For example, Robbie Williams (!) was inducted in 2004, beating out Radiohead, Nirvana, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, because fan voting was a part of the process that inaugural year. The Hall of Fame was created to honor the artists who are considered integral parts of "UK music culture."

So does being honored by the UK Music Hall of Fame increase an artist's chances for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? As this article mentions, Jon Bon Jovi doesn't hold out much hope:

I'd be lying if I said it wouldn't be nice, but you know, that's a boys club too. And the people that run it, they've got their own little agenda. So the truth of the matter is the greatest compliment that I've had is the idea that twenty years and a hundred million albums later -- that's much cooler than anything else.

The good folks at JoeLong2Cleveland (who are trying to get Joe Long of the Four Seasons inducted into the Rock Hall with the founding members), have posted a letter from Terry Stewart, the President of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. The letter explains how the Rock Hall process theoretically works:

Nomination and induction into the Hall of Fame is not about popularity, records sales, which label the group is on, or anything other than the process below. The love for, the evaluation of, and the impact of any artist are subjective questions to be answered by the nominators and the voters. Unlike baseball, football, basketball or hockey, statistics are not relevant. Please read below:

The entire nomination and induction process is coordinated by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation in New York City. Individuals can be inducted in four categories: Performer, Early Influence, Non-Performer and Side-Men. The only formal criteria for the performance category is that an artist has to have had their first record 25 years ago. That said, candidates are reviewed and discussed relative to their impact on this music that we broadly call rock and roll. The innovation and influence of these artists is also critical. Gold records, number one hits, and million sellers are really not appropriate standards for evaluation.

The formal selection of Performers begins with an extensive panel of journalists, historians, previous inductees, noted musicians, industry heads, etc. In turn, those nominated are sent to a committee of more than 800 people around the world (journalists, historians, music industry management, all previous inductees, musicians, etc.) who vote. Those receiving the highest number of votes and more than 50% of the votes cast are inducted into the Hall. Usually, this means five to seven new performing members each year. So you can see the road to being inducted is an arduous one and for the most part, removed from the realm of influences or politics.

The key phrase in there is "innovation and influence." If that doesn't describe the artist you support, it's probably unlikely they'll make it in. It's also interesting to note that they actively reject record sales data as a criteria for induction.