The 2016 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction class will be announced on Thursday, December 17th. Greg Harris, President of the Rock Hall Museum, indicated in October that there would be five performer inductees this year, bucking the recent trend of inducting six. Reducing the number of inductees isn’t going to help alleviate the ever-increasing backlog of deserving artists, but it would make it easier for HBO to edit down the ceremony (recently running well over five hours).

Instead of trying to forecast who the voters selected, let’s examine this from the standpoint of a television production (as Rock Hall Nominating Committee member Dave Marsh recently put it, “that tail wags that dog every year”). With that in mind, Future Rock Legends predicts the following five artists will be 2016 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees:

• N.W.A - This is N.W.A’s fourth consecutive nomination, and the second straight year they have been the only hip hop artist on the ballot. The film based on their career, Straight Outta Compton, was a huge hit (fifth largest August opening weekend ever) and their stock will never be hotter than it is right now.
• Janet Jackson - Speaking of artists who have had a good year, Janet Jackson has enjoyed a career resurgence after releasing a critically acclaimed album and launching an arena tour. Janet also happened to finish first in our unofficial Rock Hall poll, appearing on 48% of voters ballots.
• Chicago - The Rock Hall hasn’t set the date or the venue for the 2016 induction ceremony, except to say it will be in New York in April. Chicago is touring this spring, and are scheduled to wrap up that leg of their tour at Madison Square Garden on April 18th. Hmmm... (a side note to this: Yes is beginning a UK tour on April 27th. Chic is potentially playing Coachella this year April 15-17 and 22-24. Chicago is on tour in early April. Steve Miller Band is touring extensively next year, but is on a break for all of April. If you don’t think the Rock Hall and HBO consider this stuff, you’re crazy. Never forget it’s a show to raise money for the non-profit Rock Hall Foundation. They aren’t going to induct an artist who can’t make it because they’re on tour, if they have other options available. Disinterested artists like Deep Purple are also hard to induct if the Rock Hall isn’t sure if they will show up for the ceremony.)
• Steve Miller - At the induction ceremony, the Rock Hall likes to pair up an inductee with another rock star or two for the performances (think Miley Cyrus / Joan Jett, Chris Martin / Peter Gabriel, Stevie Wonder / Bill Withers). Perhaps Ace Frehley can finally perform on the Rock Hall stage and join Steve Miller for a performance of “The Joker.”
• Nine Inch Nails - One of the truisms of our site is that every artist on Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time is in the Rock Hall or will be when they become eligible (except for Gram Parsons -- it seems the Rock Hall forgot he hasn’t been inducted yet). Nine Inch Nails is #94 and should be inducted.
• If there are six inductees, Chic is our pick.

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We conduct our own unofficial poll here which, unlike the official Rock Hall poll, requires voters to select five artists on their ballot. The results (after 2253 ballots):

1. Janet Jackson 48%
2. Chicago 46%
3. N.W.A 45%
4. Deep Purple 44%
5. Nine Inch Nails 39%
6. Chic 33%
7. The Cars 33%
8. Yes 33%
9. Steve Miller 32%
10. Cheap Trick 32%
11. The Smiths 32%
12. The Spinners 27%
13. Chaka Khan 27%
14. Los Lobos 19%
15. The J.B.’s 9%

For the record, the top five in the corrupted official Rock Hall fan poll were Chicago, Yes, The Cars, Deep Purple and Steve Miller. Rock Hall, please get it together next year. This year’s poll was an embarrassment. Also, try not to brag about the phony inflated vote totals.

One final prediction: the venue for the induction ceremony hasn’t been announced yet, but we’ll predict it will be at Radio City Music Hall this time. Barclays Center and Madison Square Garden would be difficult to book since the NHL and NBA playoffs begin in mid-April. (How long do these venues need to hold those dates? Until the teams are officially eliminated from the postseason?)