I am feeling a bit lost and overwhelmed at this point by the large number of posts and proposals so far here. I am also suffering from some very debilitating migraines so I am doing my best to participate but am struggling with that too. If I badly worded anything in my only post here lately to upset anyone, I apologize because it was not my intent. So, if anyone is able to and has the time to give a summary of the proposals made so far, I would greatly appreciate it.
I don't remember who mentioned it but, I loved the proposal of giving an extra week for people to become more familiar with or refresh people's memory with all of the final nominees on the ballot in the future. Maybe whoever nominated each nominee can also each recommend 2 or 3 songs for each one so people can have an easier and quicker time checking them out instead of going in blind to do a deeper dive on their own.
With the random songs that I chose to listen to from those I was less familiar with, I developed a better appreciation for some while not so much for others. My deeper dives on artists like Muse, Lucinda Williams, and No Doubt definitely helped me to finally decide and come around to voting for each of these artists on my final ballot.
It is possible that I might have a better appreciation for more of these artists if I had a few song recommendations from those that know them better than I because I really want to go in with an open mind and, on some that I did not like as much, it could just be that I picked a song or two that was just not as good as their other songs.
Could we also include soft rock/adult contemporary in that renamed singer/songwriter genre category someone mentioned since I don't see where that genre fits obviously into any of the current genre categories. Also, maybe we can just clarify the wording slightly that describes the "Side Performer" category name to "Musical Excellence/Side Performer" since so many of the nominees now are not just strictly side performers but also artists who have fronted their own bands as well.
Also, I really do feel strongly that 2nd (and 3rd) inductions should be exceedingly rare since we still have such a huge backlog of great nominees in all genres who have not yet even been inducted once. For example, Joe Cocker or many others really would have been a better choice for the final nominee since we induct so few each year while our backlog of great artists increases each year as many great newer artists become eligible which can be very frustrating to witness. But, it is what it is and that is just my personal opinion. I would love if we kept the final ballot the same size of 30 but, since we vote for 10 nominees, it would be great to also induct 10 nominees as well.
Hopefully, this post makes sense to everyone, is understandable, and does not upset anyone since it is always hard for me to tell these things when I am frequently in a lot of pain from these headaches and it feels like it hinders my ability to write clearly and well which is very frustrating too.
I think the 7 Inductee number and the 10 votes for the Nominees. It's definitely the perfect number. Don't see what the problem with 36 would be. That's only 6 more than 30. I wouldn't have any problem with 1 International Inductee as Darren proposed it. The International Artists was a big discussion this summer. It would be strange if it just died on the vine now. Casper's argument doesn't hold as much water as people would research the International Artists through Google and music sites just like they do for the regular music artist nominees for the Hall Projected Induction. Most people don't know every music artist nominee or genre.
Some suggestions.
1. Singer/Songwriters their own genre. There's plenty of available Singer/Songwriters from the 1960's to present day 2026.
2. I think 36 is the perfect number up from 30. The Final Nominee vote in late August or Early September could be the music artists with the most votes in the 9 or 10 genres not earning nomination. That would be a nice size of Nominees.
3. I'm interested in the tiebreakers for the 30 artists Rock Hall Projected that just ended. Say hypothetically there was 6 or 7 music artists in a tiebreaker vote for 1 spot. How many music artists would advance automatically to the next year? Could that moth eat too many spots for the next year's ballot? Great proposals by everyone. Can't wait for the proposals soon.
KING
I'll double-check when I have time, but I'm pretty sure that we've voted for 10 performers since we changed the ballot from 40 performers to 30. I've always tried to adhere to a policy of one vote for every 3 nominees (with rounding up or down), but it might have been something we changed after the fact.
My proposal for an international inductee would be 1 per year.
I would oppose expanding the ballot to 36 because I think it would be watering down the ballot each year.
I would oppose having a "women's genre" because "women" isn't a genre of music, women haven't had any problems making the ballot (or being inducted) and having a separate genre could discourage people from supporting women in other categories.
I would also be opposed to reducing the number of total nominees if it wasn't paired with a reduction of the number of nominees per genre vote.