Rock Hall Picks Its Latest Class

The groundbreaking Los Angeles rap act NWA will join a quartet of 1970s-era FM radio rockers—Chicago, Cheap Trick, Deep Purple, and Steve Miller—as 2016 inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. NWA, led by Dr. Dre and Ice Cube, was elected after three unsuccessful nominations in a year when a movie about their career, Straight Outta Compton, was a box-office hit. Their hard-core tales of life on the street on songs like "F--- the Police" made them a provocative chart presence in the late 1980s and influenced an empire of other acts.

Both Miller and Cheap Trick made it during their first year on the ballots. The induction ceremony for the Cleveland-based hall will be held April 8 in Brooklyn's Barclays Center; HBO will televise highlights later in the spring. More than 800 voters of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation selected the inductees. The influential disco-era band Chic is becoming the Susan Lucci of music, failing to win induction in its 10th year as a nominee. Janet Jackson, The Cars, Los Lobos, and Yes were among the other nominees rejected. (Joan Jett said it was "surreal" to be inducted last year, while Bill Withers decided it was time to buy a suit.)