1983. Your friendly moderator is now a freshman in high school with very silly hair. Still, let's try to conduct this year's HOA election with dignity.

Choose the ten most deserving artists, based on records released through the end of 1982.

You may want to check out the top 100 eligible candidates. For a reminder of who’s already been inducted, see the results thread.

For your ballot to be eligible, submit a ranked list of your ten most deserving artists.

***IMPORTANT!***
Also, for your top FIVE artists (at least), you must explain why they deserve to be in the HOA. You may recycle your comments from past elections if you wish, but I want us to have a context for WHY we're selecting these artists. Ballots without comments for the top five will NOT be counted!

In addition, you have the option to nominate up to three people for the Backstage Wing. This isn't required.

Deadline for ballots is Sunday, February 1, at 6:00 pm US Central time (midnight GMT).

Voting is now open.

Post-punk, funk and funk-punk…


01. THE CURE: along with Joy Division and Siouxie, the main name of post-punk or goth-rock. A style based in dark ambiances, gloomy dirges, atmospheric textures, echoed drums and layers of guitars. But Robert Smith, leader of the band and also guitar-player of The Banshees, hides a pop heart as showcased in their first album and in their very last single, “Let’s Go to Bed”.
My favourite album: Faith (1981).
My Top 5 Songs: Boys Don’t Cry (1979), All Cats Are Grey (1981), A Forest (1980), A Strange Day (1982), Let’s Go to Bed (1982).

02. MICHAEL JACKSON: the brightest star on music firmament, the first black artist featured on MTV, the best selling act of today (he’s breaking all the previous records with his latest album “Thriller” , the creator of a new cross-over style with its mix of black and white, of funk and pop-rock.
My favourite album: Thriller (1982).
My Top 3 Songs: Billie Jean (1982), Beat It (1982), Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough (1979).

03. SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES: the pioneer of goth-rock. She was part of the Brownley Contingent following the Sex Pistols but when she began to make her own music she opted for a darker and disturbing sound. And there’s her largely influential haircut, make-up and clothes too.
My favourite album: Juju (1981).
My Top 3 Songs: Israel (1980), Hong Kong Garden (197 , Spellbound (1981).

04. GANG OF FOUR: apart of the gothic looks, the post-punk is defined by the mixture of angular cold sounds coming from the punk and curvaceous hot sounds coming from the funk. Any band before or since exemplifies better this funk-punk sound than Gang of Four.
My favourite album: Entertainment! (1979).
My Top 3 Songs: Damaged Goods (1979), To Hell With Poverty (1981), Anthrax (1979).

05. ALASKA Y LOS PEGAMOIDES: the most representative band of the “movida madrileña”, the colourful sound of the Spain of today. The dissensions amidst the band lead to its dissolution in 1982: Carlos Berlanga went to form Dinarama following his kitsch-pop tendencies and Eduardo Benavente formed Parálisis Permanente to develop his goth-rock inclinations.
My favourite album: Grandes éxitos (1982).
My Top 3 Songs (although I haven’t found a You Tube video for my favourite one, “El hospital” : Bailando (1982), Horror en el hipermercado (1980), Quiero ser un bote de Colón (1981).

06. PRINCE.
07. THE SPECIALS.
08. ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN.
09. MADNESS.
10. TOM WAITS.


And a special edition of the backstage wing (today: UK independent labels part 1):
01. GEOFF TRAVIS: the founder of Rough Trade Records, home of post-punk bands willing to find new paths for pop music, creating an exciting new sound showcased in the compilation “Wanna Buy a Bridge?”. The label output includes avant-post-punk bands as Cabaret Voltaire, Swell Maps, The Pop Group, The Fall, This Heat, Pere Ubu, Wire or Television Personalities but also more sophisticated bands as Scritti Politti, Young Marble Giants, Robert Wyatt, Weekend, The Go-Betweens, Aztec Camera or The Pale Fountains. Favourite song: YOUNG MARBLE GIANTS Colossal Youth (1980).
02. IAIN McNAY: the founder of Cherry Red records, an independent label that began releasing post-punk from both sides of the Atlantic sea (Dead Kenedys, Destroy All Monsters, The Monochrome Set) to end developing a very own bitter-sweet pop sound with bands as The Marine Girls or Everything But the Girl, showcased in the compilation “Pillows and Prayers”. Favourite song: EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL On My Mind (1982).
03. DANIEL MILLER: the founder of Mute Records, home of the explorers of the Kraftwerk-influenced synth sounds, with bands as Fad Gadget, Deutsch-Americanische Freundschaft, Throbbing Gristle, Yazoo or Depeche Mode. Favourite song: YAZOO Only You (1982).

1. LOVE - With Michael pushing hard from behind (pun intended), how long can they stay at the top. Excellent album, that Forever Changes. One of the best.

2. MICHAEL JACKSON - The biggest star in music right about now. A music and dance machine. He's black! He's white! And sounds both colours too.

3. PRINCE - The sexiest pocket sized man ever. At least in his own mind. The music is funky, funky, sexy and funky.

4. THE CURE - Emo before emo even was a word. Nowadays emo isn't a word one would like to be associated with (unless, of course, one is emo), but The Cure still sounds amazing.

5. VIOLENT FEMMES - The best album of the 80s, I think. That's a reason good enough for anything.

6. JEFFERSON AIRPLANE
7. GANG OF FOUR
8. GRANDMASTER FLASH
9. BUZZCOCKS
10. THE HUMAN LEAGUE

1. X – Now with three amazing albums on the shelves!!!
2. PATSY CLINE – Shouldn’t we have one female country singer in the HOF?
3. WILLIE NELSON – An icon.
4. THE SUPREMES – Motown’s big singles band is starting to get a groundswell of support here. Bump them up a few notches and they’re in.
5. DJANGO REINHARDT – One of the most influential guitarists (and he did it with only three working fingers on his left hand).
6. T. REX
7. BUZZCOCKS
8. TOM WAITS
9. PAUL SIMON
10. THE ZOMBIES – (Just in case any new voters come along.)

I think I'll be switching out a lot of these artists soon.

1.Michael JACKSON : the obvious pick of the year. I remember my first party in 1982 or 1983, and this strange 45RPM record with this man I had never heard of before, posing with the baby tiger. Later I discovered everything he'd done before, fantastic songs like "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough".

2.Tom WAITS : in 1982, Tom Waits does a (pretty dispensable) soundtrack for Coppola's "One From The Heart". But that's when he meets his wife and then achieves this fantastic Frankenstein-like metamorphosis that will bear its fruits in 1983.

3.PRINCE : 1999 is almost every Prince fan's favourite, and is the first of Prince's big hits.

4.Django REINHARDT : maybe this year ? He would really deserve it.

5.The EAGLES : in 1982, they're my favourite band with Elton John and Supertramp (yes, I know)

6.Dick ANNEGARN : it's been 4 years now that Dick has burned his bridges and left show business. He's living on a péniche (a sort of barge) turned into a café-boulangerie (French bakery shop) on the river Marne, in the suburbs of Paris, with no social security and still makes records out of the majors circuit.
7.TELEPHONE
8.Philip GLASS
9.Jimmie RODGERS
10.GRATEFUL DEAD

Sorry, I forgot the Cure !

my real list is

1. M Jackson
2. T Waits
3. Prince
4. Django Reinhardt
5. Eagles
6. THE CURE
7. Dick Annegarn
8. Téléphone
9. Philip Glass
10.Jimmie Rodgers

and, backstage : Eric CLAPTON : if his recordings as a bandleader don't seem to make it, he could be remembered as a great musician that played for numerous artists and bands

1. Warren Zevon
2. Jackson Browne
3. John Cale
4. Todd Rundgren
5. George Jones
6. Prince
7. Michael Jackson
8. Hall & Oates
9. Cheap Trick
10. Randy Newman

backstage

1. Hoagy Carmichael
2. Norman Whitfield
3. Eddie Kramer

1. Michael Jackson - I agree with many that "Off the Wall" is actually better, but man, do I love "Billie Jean". That song alone brings him to #1.
2. Prince - If The Boss was the savior of rock 'n roll, this guy's the one that saved funk. Now that he finally had his breakthrough with "1999" (and recorded stellar song "Little Red Corvette"), he's in my top three.
3. Cream - I'm still trying to get Clapton in this way, with his best band. Backstage might not be such a bad way, but I find it hard calling him a session musician.
4. Janis Joplin - She would turn 40 this year, if it wasn't for heroin.
5. Eagles - Can't argue with the Dude. Or can I? I'm not really that fond of White Russians either.
6. Deep Purple
7. Chic
8. The Supremes
9. The Cure
10. Jefferson Airplane

Backstage:
1. Quincy Jones - At this point the most powerful producer of all time. "Thriller" brings him to the top, for this year only.
2. Leonard Chess
3. Dj Kool Herc

1. Prince- OK, there's no denying it anymore. Prince is the messiah of the 80s and his reign is forever established with 1999.

2. The Cure- Pornography is one of the bleakest and most oppressive albums ever, and provides a riveting bookend to their Dark Trilogy.

3. Eurythmics- No album in 1982, but several singles (the quirky, funky "This Is the House", the sinister "The Walk" and the classic "Love Is a Stranger") and awesome B-sides keep them here. Click here for my take on their first 4 albums!

4. Grace Jones- Any other artist would have a strong case for number 1 with a winning trilogy such as Warm Leatherette, Nightclubbing and Living My Life. The competition is just too great this year.

5. Siouxsie and the Banshees- I'm ashamed that I haven't listed them before this, especially since Kaleidoscope (1980) and Juju (1981) are my favorites. With the gorgeous A Kiss in the Dreamhouse, they proved again that they could blow my mind. Since they don't seem to have much of a following, I'll follow Honorio's lead and post 3 tracks: the sluttly, smutty strut of "Red Light" (1980), the terrifying insight into a serial killer's mind in "Night Shift" (1981), and the breathtaking, erotic "Melt!" (1982)

6. Donna Summer

7. Can

8. Chic

9. Joan Jett

10. Kim Wilde- I know she won't get any votes, but she deserves to! Her debut and especially Select are awesome pop albums.

1. X. One of the sweetest sounds I know is that of John Doe and Exene harmonizing.
2. THE SPECIALS. This surprises me—I didn’t think they’d still be outside the HOA by the time the English Beat rolled around.
3. T. REX. I’m going to start easing him out, unfortunately…
4. WILLIE NELSON. He only jumps Patsy this year because, frankly, he’s still working. Sorry, Patsy.
5. PRINCE. It’s crazy sick how much I listened to the album 1999 in high school.
6. PATSY CLINE
7. BUZZCOCKS
8. RICHARD AND LINDA THOMPSON. Shoot Out the Lights is a fantastic album that nobody seems to remember; I’d put them here just for “Wall of Death” and “Don’t Renege on Our Love” alone.
9. R.E.M. Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s true that through 1982 they are still pretty raw-sounding (all their releases so far were recorded in Mitch Easter’s dinky li’l studio), and they’ve released a grand total of seven songs (one single and one EP). But six of those songs are great (“Stumble,” on Chronic Town, is merely good). When a rookie homers in six of his first seven at-bats, I take notice.
10. MADNESS. Widely misunderstood as a goofy novelty act. Well, ok, they WERE a goofy novelty act (not that there’s anything wrong with that), but they were an amazingly tight combo.

I also thought about the Cure, Violent Femmes, Peter Gabriel, XTC and Laurie Anderson. And I very nearly gave the #10 slot to ABC…I was never all that keen on synth-pop, but Martin Fry clearly did it better than almost anyone else. Good old-fashioned songwriting chops, I think.

I briefly considered Michael, but I doubt he’s gonna need the help, and I have more good artists than I have spaces on my ballot right now.

Backstage:
1. IAN COPELAND
2. LEONARD CHESS

T. Rex may reappear on my ballot if enough of my votes get through. The 80s are my era, I guess.

XTC is also bubbling under on my ballot.

I am considering a protest vote for the Jackson 5 (you know, because he was so much better back then).

Lvoing the groundswell for Django. Worried that there are only two slots for him to fit in, with the Jackson/Prince landslides.

1. Django Reinhardt -So I flipped Chic and Django last year to push what seemed to be the more viable Chic, and now Django seems more likely to get in. This is more where I would actually rank them.

2. Chic - Flipped with Django for strategic purposes. C'mon people. Let's show that we're more knowledgable than those fools with the real R 'n R HOA.

3. Crosby, Stills, Nash (& Young)

4. Prince - Can't say I love the album 1999 as much as a number of you. There has never been a better opening two songs, though.

5. Patsy Cline - Never thought she'd climb this high.

6. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five - Yeah, this vote is based on only two singles. And they're not really even by the same artist. But they are the twin signal posts of hip hop (at least in terms of recording... this sh*t had been done live for a long time now). Grandmaster Flash told the DJ's to go this direction. Melle Mel told the MC's to go that direction.

7. The Staple Singers -

8. The Grateful Dead

9. Paul Simon

10. Willie Nelson

Backstage:

1. Irving Berlin
2. DJ Kool Herc
3. Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, J.J. Jackson and Martha Quinn

1. THE MOODY BLUES - Please correct me if I'm wrong, but this band probably made a blip in the late 60s on the eligibles list before disappearing, which is too bad, because they're probably the last band from that musical era that isn't inducted. A lot of bands from the Beatles onward got props for incorporating orchestras and strings, but for me nothing quite captured the sweeping majesty of classical music and cavernous sounds of orchestras in pop music like the Moody Blues. The release of their last halfway decent album in 1981, Long Distance Voyager, is a good a time as any to put them at the personal top and see how long they last.

2. PRINCE - While my loyalty to Moody Blues goes back to when I was a freshman in high school and all my new friends (which were mostly band geeks) were into them, I've relatively recently got into Prince. His best is yet to come, but Dirty Mind and 1999 propels him to the top reaches already. Dirty Mind's title track... when a great opening salvo to Prince's decade, while the adventerous grooves of 1999 proved he's an artist that will always be danceable but the limits to what kinds of sounds he'll explore will be boundless.


3. BUZZCOCKS - Singles Going Steady presents such a wide spectrum of interesting punk sounds. Autonomy and Ever Fallen in Love? are the standouts but band combined artistry and attitude.

4. THE CRYSTALS - Fitting to give this group props after I finished listening to the non-Christmas Back to Mono set. Beautiful infectious pop melodies. Who cares if I get them confused with the Ronettes.

5. RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS - There's something real dark to the elements of the Wall of Sound, which make the booming choruses and orchestrations so timeless. You hear You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling and while you are uplifted with romantic sentiments you also have a sense that something in lingering around the corner to remove you from your fantasy. Maybe it's growing up on Lynchian film images that borrow from sixties sentimentality and the sounds that go with it, but this is powerful dramatic music.

6. THE SUPREMES - Motown's finest sounds so smooth and polished despite the recording technology that existed back then.

7. TODD RUNDGREN

8. LOVE

9. VIOLENT FEMMES

10. X

1. Prince – Not much to say here – he’s one of the greatest artists of all time, and there’s no need to wait.

2. Michael Jackson – At this point in history (1983), he’s simply a brilliant artist on the verge of becoming the biggest star in the world, not the irreparably damaged middle-aged man-child we know today. Fortunately, this is the Hall of Acclaim, not the Hall of Problem-Free Human Beings, and there’s no question he’s earned his place.

3. New York Dolls – They only made two albums, but they’re one of the all-time great bands, and their influence is incalculable. David Johansen and Johnny Thunders came off like Mick & Keith if they’d never taken off the drag from the “Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby” video and started gobbling amphetamines 24/7. The Dolls were unabashedly hip, but there wasn’t a cynical bone in their bodies: they may have needed both a fix and a kiss, but you always sensed that the kiss was more important (even if that sadly wasn't true for some of them in real life).

4. Randy Newman – A master melodist who fully inherited his Hollywood-royalty family’s compositional gifts, and has spent his entire non-soundtrack career putting those gifts at the service of an astonishingly biting and ironic sensibility. No singer-songwriter has ever inhabited a wider variety of delusional, pitiable, or downright despicable characters, with so little regard for how he might be viewed by the confused among us who can’t separate the singer from the song.

5. Ornette Coleman – He really was The Shape of Jazz to Come when he emerged in the late fifties; by now he’s become a genuine elder statesman.

6. Wire
7. Can
8. The Supremes
9. Love
10. Bill Evans

BACKSTAGE WING
1. Nicky Hopkins
2. Rudy Van Gelder
3. Greil Marcus

1. Michael Jackson - The superstar of the moment becomes a legend with Thriller. It's probably the greatest pop album since Sgt. Pepper's, both in 1983 and 2008.

2. Prince - The creative genius of the moment steps into the spotlight with 1999. It's his first true step towards greatness and a big influence on the decade to come.

3. Grandmaster Flash - I don't know if "The Message" is the greatest hip-hop song ever, but it was in 1983 and is pretty damn close now.

4. Rush - See last year.

5. Chic - See last year.

6. Cheap Trick - See last year.

7. Tom Petty

8. Funky Four Plus One - One of the most underrated early rap groups

9. The Specials

10. Journey - Staying put here for a while.