Rolling Stone, Billboard and MTV on the RR Nominations

Here’s what Rollingstone.com says about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominations:
Madonna, the Beastie Boys, the Dave Clark Five, Leonard Cohen, Afrika Bambaataa, John Mellencamp, the Ventures, Donna Summer and Chic have been nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next year.

Five acts will make it into the Hall of Fame in 2008. Madonna and the Beastie Boys are on the ballot on their first year of eligibility; this year’s nominees had to release their first single no later than 1982, the year that Madonna’s “Everybody” and the Beasties’ punk EP Polly Wog Stew came out. The other first-time nominees are Cohen, Bambaataa, Summer and the Ventures.

From Rolling Stone.

This is the report by Billboard.com:

Madonna, the Beastie Boys, John Mellencamp and Leonard Cohen lead a wildly disparate class of nominees for 2008 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

They join Afrika Bambaataa, Chic, the Ventures, Donna Summer and the Dave Clark Five on the ballot. Five acts will be inducted March 10, 2008, at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City.

For eligibility, artists had to release their first single no later than 1982 – the year “Everybody” was released. Last year’s inductees were R.E.M., Van Halen, Patti Smith, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and the Ronettes.

From Billboard.

And this is MTV News:

Take a bow, Madonna, and ch-ch-check it out, Beastie Boys – you’ve been nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In addition to Madge and the Beasties, hip-hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa, veteran rocker John Mellencamp, disco queen Donna Summer, jazz/funk band Chic, English-beat group the Dave Clark Five, surf instrumentalists the Ventures and moody singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen are also up for the high honor, it was announced Thursday, September 27.

While nine artists are being considered for inclusion into the Hall, five will be honored at the induction ceremony, to be held March 10 at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

To be eligible for nomination this year, an artist must have issued their first single or LP no later than 1982.

It was that year, in fact, that Madonna signed a singles deal with Sire Records and put out her first tune, “Everybody,” on April 24.

Making a huge impact in the clubs as well as on MTV – which launched a year earlier – she became the top female performer of the ’80s – and eventually, according to Guinness World Records, the most successful female artist of all time.

While Madge was revving up her career in 1982, so were the Beasties Boys – although at the time, they were a hardcore-punk band (previously named the Young Aborigines), not a hip-hop troupe. The NYC act issued its punk EP, Polly Wog Stew, that year – but then, with the help of producer Rick Rubin, the Boys Entering Anarchistic States Towards Internal Excellence made the transition into a rap unit. And the rest, they say, is history.

For years, the Beasties have been fighting for their right to party – now they, Madonna and others are fighting for a chance to get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

From MTV.com.