The Country Music Hall of Fame announced the three new members who will comprise the Class of 2024.  Toby Keith (Modern Era), John Anderson (Veterans Era) and James Burton (Recording and/or touring musician).

Toby Keith died days from stomach cancer after the votes were counted.  A polarizing figure in music, Keith had 20 #1 Hits, with another 20 reaching the top ten.  Known for his patriotism, Keith broke out in the 1990s and is best known for his songs “Should’ve Been A Cowboy,” “I Love This Bar,” and “Red Solo Cup.”

John Anderson began his musical career in the late 70s and had five number-one hits.  He is best known for his smash, “Swingin.” Anderson was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame ten years ago.

James Burton began working as a session musician in the late 1950s. He played guitar for a who’s who of legends, including Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis Costello.  Burton was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001 and is also enshrined in the Musicians Hall of Fame and Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

We at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate the impending members of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

The Strong Museum is back at it, giving us another reason to take a trip out to Rochester, New York, as they have announced the 12 Finalists for the 10^th Class. 

Here is how it works:

The ballots are sent to the International Selection Advisory Committee, and the public can participate, too, as online voting is open.  The top three vote-getters will equate to one ballot.

On May 9, they will announce the new Class.

As per their news release of the Strong Museum, here are the nominees and why they were chosen:

ASTEROIDS:  Released in 1979, Atari’s Asteroids offered players challenging gameplay, glowing graphics, and intense sound effects in an action-packed setting.  The game quickly supplanted the popular Space Invaders in many arcades and sold more than 70,000 arcade units, becoming Atari’s bestselling coin-operated game.  The home version of the game, made available on the Atari 2600, took the game’s popularity to new heights, bringing it into millions of living rooms.

ELITE:  Developed in Great Britain and released in 1984, Elite pioneered innovative 3-D graphics and the idea of open-world games by allowing players to control ships that roamed the galaxy.  The expansive universe and strategy elements helped to spawn a generation of games with endless play possibilities, such as Grand Theft Auto 3 and Eve Online.  Elite proved to be one of the most popular games of the British personal computer boom in the 1980s, and it dramatically impacted the design of other games.

GUITAR HERO:  Launched in 2005, Harmonix’s Guitar Hero challenged players to unleash their inner rock star by following on-screen notes and strumming to the beat of popular music on a plastic guitar.  Its wide appeal, licensed music, and social gameplay spawned other similar titles, including the popular Rock Band.  Activision, which acquired the game’s rights, released versions of Guitar Hero for nearly every platform, including home consoles, computers, and handheld and mobile devices.  The Guitar Hero series has sold more than 25 million units worldwide and more than 60 million tracks, earning more than $2 billion.

METROID:  Nintendo’s Metroid launched in 1986 and inserted players into a futuristic world brimming with innovative adventure and evocative music.  The game combined the platforming of Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. and non-linear story elements from The Legend of Zelda, offering a new game play experience.  The protagonist, Samus, also gave the gaming industry its first playable human female character in mainstream video games.  The game launched a franchise 13 core titles that has sold more than 20 million units worldwide.

MYST:  Released by Broderbund in 1993, Myst welcomed players to a mesmerizing world of mysterious puzzles and haunting vistas.  The game harnessed early CD-ROM technology – which offered high storage capacity but slow loading times.  The discs paired well with the slow-paced, contemplative style of the game, though, and allowed the creation of an immersive world.  Myst became the best-selling computer game in the 1990s, selling more than six million copies.

NEOPETS:  When Neopets debuted in 1999, it quickly became a staple of browser-based, free-to-play games.  The online world of Neopia allows its players to explore various lands, care for pets, and engage in a robust social component, complete with opportunities to chat with other players and form guilds.  Neopets also showcased the potential of the Internet for gamin and served as a testing ground for cyber safety mechanisms and immersive advertising.  At its peak in 2005, Neopets had 25 million active users, and it continues to be popular more than two decades later.

RESIDENT EVIL:  Although it wasn’t the first horror video game, Resident Evil (or Biohazard as it was known in Japan) was the first game to popularize the “survival horror” genre.  Created by game director Shinji Mikami and released by Capcom in 1996, Resident Evil spawned a billion-dollar media franchise while it helped demonstrate that video games could offer mature entertainment for older teenagers and adults.  As of 2022, films based on the Resident Evil franchise have collectively grossed more than $1.2 billion.

SimCity:  Released by Maxis in 1989, SimCity helped expand the audience for video games by offering a city building simulator that appealed to adults as much as children.  Drawing from real-life principles of urban design, it allowed players to build their own city and respond to ever-changing problems.  The game spawned numerous sequels and offshoots – such as World Video Game Hall of Fame inductee The Sims – and influenced the development of many city-building simulation games and even real-time strategy games, like Command and Conquer and Age of Empires.

TOKIMEKI MEMORIAL:  Konami’s Tokimeki Memorial brought a cohesive narrative, colorful graphics, unparalleled depth of choices, and engaging gameplay to the dating simulator genre after its launch in 1994.  While it was never localized outside Japan, its impact on game design was widespread, paving the way for graphic adventure games, visual novels, dating sims, and roleplaying games to invest more in personal relationships as part of their gameplay loop.

TONY HAWK’S PRO SKATER:  Launched by Neversoft/Activision in 1999, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater brought the sports and culture of skateboarding into millions of households.  Players flew from ramps and jumps, using the environment as a playground to bust out high-point tricks, all with a memorable soundtrack.  The legendary Tony Hawk himself said the game “simultaneously ignited my career and overshadowed it.”  Its success led to sequels that have generated approximately $1.4 billion in sales.

ULTIMA:  Ultima: The First Age of Darkness helped define the computer role-playing genre.  Designed by Richard Garriott and released in 1981, Ultima combined role-playing mechanics, a massive fictional world, and fantasy and science fiction themes.  Ultima’s innovative gameplay laid the foundation for one of the most enduring and influential gaming franchises of all time (with eight sequels).  Many top game designers credit it with inspiring their later role-playing games, such as Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.

YOU DON’T KNOW JACK:  The developers of You Don’t Know Jack reimagined the television game show format for home video game markets.  Debuting in 1995, You Don’t Know Jack combined witty questions with humor in a multi-player party game.  Sequels and spinoffs continue to find success on Facebook and mobile platforms, and streaming versions were extremely popular in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Derek Stepan is among a small group of players who scored a hat trick in their debut game. He did this in 2010 with the New York Rangers and finished the year with 21 Goals and 45 Points, and it appeared that this was a stepping stone to greatness. That would not be the case.

Stepan still had a good career, but he only had one more 20-goal year (22 in 2015-16), and while he broke 50 Points six times, he never made it to 60.  After seven seasons in New York, Stepan joined Arizona in 2017-18 and his last of the aforementioned 50-point campaign.  He played three years with the Coyotes, one in Ottawa, and concluded his career with two seasons with the Carolina Hurricanes.

He amassed a respectable 515 Points in 890 Games.

Kiss, the band that made glam rock’s penchant for face painting and art, is going virtual. 50 years after it all started, the band’s current quartet of members hung up their thick-soled boots with a farewell performance at Madison Square Garden. The phrase “gone but not forgotten” can certainly be used when discussing Kiss and their influence on music. However, as it transpired, we’re not quite at that stage yet. Yes, the members of Kiss physically left the stage for the last time in December 2023, but that’s not the end. Such is the band’s iconic status and enduring appeal that future Kiss concerts will involve virtual avatars.

Much like Abba did with their virtual show in London, Kiss will continue entertaining audiences around the world without having to be on stage. The Kiss avatars made their debut at the farewell concert in New York. After Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Eric Singer, and Tommy Thayer left the stage, the avatars emerged. The virtual versions of all four members performed God Gave Rock ’n’ Roll to You, and with that, a new era was born (see video below). As the Guardian’s Michael Sun described it, we’re now witnessing the “afterlife” of Kiss.

From Long Kiss Goodbye and Virtual Hello

What’s interesting about this transition is that it’s been happening for more than a decade. The members morphed into mechanical and digital beings back in 2012 when the Kiss slot game debuted in Las Vegas. The band had been featured in movies, magazines, and more a long time before they were the focus of slot game developers. However, the live slot game was the first step towards the band’s transition into virtual reality. Indeed, the popularity of the original Kiss slot game has inspired countless spinoffs.

Fans can play KISS in some of the most popular slots online, with Play’n Go’s Kiss: Reel of Rocks rocking Canadian casino gamers since 2021 with its 50,000x jackpots. Spinning alongside more than 2,000 other slots at one of Canada’s online casinos has kept Kiss in the limelight and inspired the virtual avatars we see today. Of course, the band’s legacy doesn’t live and die with its virtual personas, Kiss has influenced artists around the world for generations.

Kiss Will Live On Forever

Nirvana and Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl has said Kiss “inspired” him to become a “rock’n’roll musician.” In fact, Esquire contributor  James S. Murphy went so far as to argue that Kiss created Indie rock. His 2014 came out on the eve of Kiss being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In it, he argues that Kiss inspired a “whole lot of boys” born “outside of big cities.” In his opinion, people like Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain weren’t inspired by Iggy Pop or Velvet Underground but by Kiss and their “spirit of rebellion.”

Some might agree with Murphy, others may have a different view. What can’t be denied, however, is that Kiss is an iconic band that’s stood the test of time. Even in the wake of countless line-up changes and two farewell tours, the band still has a place in modern culture. Whether or not the virtual era will be as successful as the previous remains to be seen. One thing that’s for sure is that famous black and white face paint will be forever immortalized in the virtual world.