If I took the exact same 10 artists and ordered the list in terms of who I think was most important in terms of influence, style and/or groundbreaking albums ... I think ELO, Doobies and Cheap Trick would be a very distant 8, 9 and 10. Not because they aren't any good, but I think that the influence of every other band on this list far, FAR exceeds any of those three bands. I would probably put Boston at #7. I love Boston, but they really only had 3 albums that were incredible, and had a couple of others that were really not that memorable. While they are the epitome of AOR, again, I'm not sure how truly influential they were to their peers and bands that followed them.
I guess, in order, i would go like this:
1) Judas Priest - 2nd most influential metal band of all time. Not only are they not getting in, they aren't even getting nominated.
2) Yes - from a musician standpoint, they are incredible. I'm not even that big of a fan, but they are (were) lightyears ahead of many of their peers. Prog has long been ignored by the Hall of Sham, so it's no surprise that Yes isn't in there yet, but that doesn't make it right.
3a) Moody Blues - The description above pretty much hits the nail on the head, I can't improve on those simple comments that hit the mark. Again, I'm not a big fan, but I do recognize their place.
3b) Chicago - A band that touched on so may different levels of music with a lineup of musicians that has had no comparison since. How you can put out that many albums and have that many hit singles and still be left out.. I don't get it. They were (kinda/sorta) like a white-man's War, another band that hit so many different genres during their long career.
5) Hall and Oates - Again, I can't improve on what was said above. Not many white boys could get the soulful, R&B sounds that they did. From R&B to 80's pop, this band was hitting on all cylinders for many years.
6) Journey - Good point above. How does Bon Jovi get nominated before Journey?!
7) Boston
8) ELO
9) Doobies
10) Cheap Trick
A band that deserves to be in the middle of this list is Styx. The
first band to
ever release 4 straight triple-plantinum albums has to be worthy of at least a mention. I'm not sure of their influences on other bands, but they did evolve during their career which also shows some maturity that some other bands fall short on. *shrug*. Again, they are at least worthy of being mentioned in a list of deserving bands that have never even been nominated.