Prepare yourself for a needless barrage of cranky old-person opinions! Today, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced 16 nominees for 2014 induction, a list that includes Nirvana, the Replacements, Linda Ronstadt, Hall & Oates, N.W.A., Peter Gabriel, and a guy from NCIS: Los Angeles.

For artists to be eligible for the Cleveland museum's nifty statue, there are two imperatives: 1) a 25-year period since the act or creator's first record release; 2) the extremely subjective criterion (see Rush, 2013) of "unquestionable musical excellence." This is Nirvana's first year of eligibility, which Ben Sisario at the Times links to their first single, 1988's "Love Buzz."

Along with Nirvana, this is also the first nomination for Hall & Oates, Yes, Zombies, the Replacements, Link Wray, Ronstadt (who's now unable to sing because of a Parkinson's diagnosis), and Peter Gabriel as a solo artist (Genesis was inducted in 2010). Chic, Deep Purple, N.W.A., the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, the Meters, LL Cool J, KISS, and Cat Stevens are all repeat nominees.

You can vote for five names here. Supposedly it matters.

[image via Getty]

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