G-n-R getting in is definitely a sham.
Guns N Roses is one of my all-time favorite bands. They're the closest thing to an American Led Zeppelin. Plus, Slash seems like a real human being on FB. Yay!
That's pretty much my take, as well. If I had been a teenager in the mid to late 80's, they would have been my Led Zeppelin. Plus, they were a "real" rock'n'roll band, warts and all (excess may not be rebellion, but it is rock and roll, in this context).
Still, I would have voted in The Cure, first.
I think my issue is that G-n-R's active career really wasn't very long. A couple of memorable classics, sure, but didn't they really only release three albums prior to their hiatus? Sort of like Sandy Koufax and the Baseball HOF, if his career was half as long.
IE, so many of the best American bands had very short shelf lives: Velvet Underground, Big Star, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix Experience (part British, I know), Big Brother and the Holding Company, for eXample. You'd be excluding a lot of great acts if longevity was a necessity.
You're right of course. The acts you name are from my childhood or before, so I think of them as being before my time. Guns-n-Roses, on the other hand, had their heyday entirely within the time I was in college, which may explain why I would put them on par with voting Mark Fidrych for the HOF.
I suppose I should read up on what theoretically makes a R-n-R HOFer. I am probably thinking about this way too hard.
