Tina Turner, Jay-Z and Carole King among 2021 Cleveland Rock Hall inductees as Chaka Khan is snubbed for a second time since 2016....The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame class of inductees has become more diverse over the years....This year's ceremony will be held live in Cleveland, Ohio and will air at a later date on HBO and HBO Max...By editor Kathy Wray Coleman of Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's Black and alternative digital news leaders

The 2021 Rock Hall class includes Tina Turner, rapper Jay-Z and Carole King, among others

The late Whitney Houston and the late The Notorious B.I.G. were both among the 2020 Rock Hall Class of inductees, which also included Depeche Mode, The Doobie Brothers,  Nine Inch Nails, T. Rex, and artist managers Jon Landau and Irving Azoff 

Grammy winning Black R&B artists Janet Jackson (left) and Chaka Khan were among 15 nominees, either by consideration as a group or individual, slated for possible induction in 2016 to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, a landmark music history museum located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. But they were snubbed  as were Black artists in general that year,  all but one group, and women were snubbed entirely. A third of the 15 2016  nominees were Since then the Rock Hall inductee classes have become more diverse. Jackson was later inducted in 2019.

Clevelandurbannews.com and-Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com,

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, associate publisher

CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Cleveland-based Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has chosen its inductees for the class of 2021 amid a still existing pandemic with R&B legend Tina Turner, rapper Jay-Z and singer-songwriter Carole King making the cut among other inductees and R&B artist Chaka Khan, also dubbed the "Queen of Funk," getting snubbed.

A 10-time Grammy Award winner, Khan was snubbed for a second time since 2016, the year a third of the 15 nominees were Black and no women were chosen and only one Black group, N.W.A, was inducted.

Janet Jackson was not chosen that year either, she and Khan the only female nominees that year, though Jackson was later inducted in 2019. 

Since then the inductees have become more diverse, including The Notorious B.I.G. and the great Whitney Houston, members of the 2020 Rock Hall class along with Depeche Mode, The Doobie Brothers,  Nine Inch Nails, T. Rex, and artist managers Jon Landau and Irving Azoff.

Others chosen this year in the performer category are hard rock act Foo Fighters, the Go-Go's, and  instrumentalist and producer Todd Rundgren.

There were 16 nominees this year, and Mary K. Blige and Dionne Warwick were also among them, though, neither of them, among others, made this year's cut. 

The 36th Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will take place for the first time in the city of Cleveland and live on Saturday, Oct 30, 2021 at 8 p.m. ET at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse coupled with a radio simulcast on SiriusXM’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Radio channel 310. 

It will air at a later date on HBO and stream on HBO Max. 

Tickets go on sale to the public in July.  

To be eligible for induction, artists are required to have released their first record 25 years prior to induction. Learn more about the qualifications and categories here: rockhall.com/inductees/categories

  

Select Rock Hall donors and members get exclusive induction ticket opportunities. Donate or join by June 30, 2021 to be eligible. 

Visit rockhall.com/join to learn more.

Last year's ceremony was virtual and prerecorded, and later aired on HBO, and had it had it gone forward as an in-person gathering as planned before the pandemic it would have marked a first time change in location from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York to Public Auditorium in Cleveland.

This year Cleveland will get to host the prestigious event, but at where the Cavaliers play at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse rather than at Public Auditorium.

Both Tina Turner, who won the online ballot vote as to this year's nominees, and Carole King have been inducted at least twice before, Turner for her work as the Ike and Tina Turner group.

Turner and King follow Stevie Nicks as the only women to be inducted multiple times.

In determining this year's class of inductees, and some previous year inductees, ballots were sent to an international voting body of more than 1,200 artists, including current living inductees, historians and members of the music industry and actors such as an artist’s musical influence on other artists, length and depth of career and the body of work, innovation and superiority in style and technique are taken into consideration.

The full list of the 2021 honorees is as follows: 

Performer Category:
Foo Fighters
The Go-Go’s
JAY-Z
Carole King
Todd Rundgren
Tina Turner

Ahmet Ertegun Award:
Clarence Avant

Musical Excellence Award:
LL Cool J
Billy Preston
Randy Rhoads

Early Influence Award:
Kraftwerk
Gil Scott-Heron
Charley Patton

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, associate publisher. Coleman is a Black political, legal and investigative reporter who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post in Cleveland, Ohio, and under two publishers and several editors

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black and alternative digital newspaper and Black blog.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com.