This was actually our hardest one of all to figure out. Where do you rank someone who has sold millions of records, is credited with one of the most beautiful voices ever, yet has limited songwriting credits and has even more limited “Rock” credibility? With that, we present the case of the enigma that is known as Whitney Houston.

Although it is widely accepted that New Wave was an offshoot of Punk, and that New Wave and other Alternative forms of music in the 80’s helped factor into Grunge and 90’s Industrial there are many of those 80’s bands that don’t seem to match that timeline. This statement has never been attributed to England’s Killing Joke, whose Alternative sound helped shape the next decade in more than one style.

Once again the NIHOF committee found itself debating the merits of a group with no real hit and a limited discography. Regardless, the Flying Burrito Brothers helped to set the groundwork for the Country Rock movement proving that the combination could be successful and paved the way for other artists to come.

It seems that every musical genre has a representative that is dubbed the “thinking man’s” band. Some have bestowed that label for the Post Punk/New Wave set to XTC. In retrospect, that may be an accurate description for this English group.