The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced its 2025 nominees earlier this year, and the inductees will be known in late April. There is currently a fan vote happening, and you can join in. The issue is if you are a fan of one of the bands below, you have little hope.
Without outright putting it in writing, the Rock Hall seemingly has unspoken guidelines. One is that if you are a great metal band, you are probably not going to get in. Some metal bands will, but most other deserving ones will not.
If you don't come from the United States (at least past the mid-1970s), you probably are going to have a harder time getting in as well. Those are the breaks. The eight bands below feel your pain.
These bands continue to be snubbed by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Iron Maiden
The truth is that maybe the Rock Hall just knows that Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson hates what the Hall stands for and does not want to induct the band. Maybe they will make a mess of the ceremony if the metal gods ever get included. But, if that is so, the Rock Hall has muted itself.
There is little doubt that a true rock and roll Hall of Fame must enshrine Iron Maiden. If the 130 million records sold don't draw a voter in, then maybe the impression they have made on many younger bands should. No matter how one views the band, leaving Maiden out only strains the worthiness of the Hall itself.
Alice in Chains
Maybe the Hall feels they have done grunge justice by inducting Pearl Jam and Nirvana. The other bands, especially two of the Big Four (Alice in Chains and Soundgarden), should simply move on. Maybe Alice did not produce enough music before Layne Staley's unexpected death, and that limits how people see them.
REO Speedwagon
This one is a joke. One can argue whether Speedwagon should be enshrined or not, but they should at least be nominated. They haven't yet. But brethren Foreigner made it into the Hall last year, and there is no way Foreigner is that much better than Speedwagon. REO had 13 top-40 hits, and still plays on. Well, until recently.
Styx
Styx is in the same boat as REO Speedwagon, only Styx has likely a better argument to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They have sold more records (54 million to REO's 40 million). Plus, Foreigner had nine top-10 hits, but Styx had eight. They are extremely comparable, and if Foreigner is in, so should Styx be.
Motörhead
Lemmy Kilmister and his mates should likely get in for influences on how other metal bands approached their music and stage shows, if not only for their music. The truth is that the Rock Hall simply does not like metal. It prefers, for the most part, safer and more pop sounds. Motörhead is probably too rough around the edges for the Hall but that is the Hall's loss.
Mötley Crüe
One does not have to be a big fan of the Crüe to appreciate the effect they had on music in the late 1980s. The difference between them and other hair metal bands, like Poison, is that Mötley Crüe actually consistently put out real rock records and were not in existence to simply mock what metal was. Are they the best band ever? No, but they were the best hair metal band ever.
Boston
There is little doubt that bands such as the Smashing Pumpkins do not exist without the way Boston made albums. The wall of sound effect was real. Maybe Boston has not made the Rock Hall yet, though, because they took too much time in between album releases at their peak. The first two, including the self-titled debut that has sold 20 million units worldwide, appeared before 1978. Their third wasn't until 1986. By the fourth album, people had moved on.
The Smiths
Morrissey, Johnny Marr, and their two bandmates are never going to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Their greatest sin is likely their full-on Englishness. The Hall appears to be more American-centric (if Oasis was from New York instead of the UK, they would already be in, for instance). Still, there is little argument the Smiths influenced too many alternative bands to come, and they should be in on influence alone.