He won't respond to me although I send him lots of emails through his website. I know he's reading them because he's made corrections on mistakes that I pointed out. Looks like he'll never post in this forum again, but he does do some work on lists occasionally.

Here's his email address if you want to ask him.

sampson@spontaneouslunacy.net

Kraftwerk

Two words keep them an outside threat for enshrinement - unique influence. Groundbreaking use of electronics changed the face of popular music from the 70's onward. Their influence is well documented even as their music remains curiously unknown and a lack of mainstream familiarity is always dangerous to any artist's chances. Their notoriety will keep their candidacy afloat however, even though it probably won't ever be enough to get them in.

Qualifications: 6

He responded to me once. Busy fellow.

I expect he'll update the all-time list once he's reviewed every single rock record of all time. He'll certainly get there eventually. All he has to do is continue.

Guys, what you forget is that the curve is exponential. He has sped up the process recently and if he continues doing that, he'll be in the 22nd century in no time.

They were ranked #148 on Brian's list so apparently he didn't see much of a case for that. Here's Sampson's blurb for them for his Hall of Fame page.

Musical Impact: The reaction within the music industry as a whole to an artist's work. This differs from influence because not all artists are even able to be influenced by things they admire. Different styles, different abilities, different audiences and different musical goals and a sense of creative independence means that artists many times would prefer to follow their own path, but their appreciation for another artist's achievements elevates the stature of that artist in the industry. This attempts to accurately determine what music was turning the most heads within their own community at the time, what was seen as raising the creative bar and set new benchmarks to strive to surpass. It is the peer recognition factor of the criteria.

Fair on the musical impact. I think not having them in the top 100 for influence makes no sense (unless. you just don't consider them rock).