In the Year 2024 ...

Will My Morning Jacket get in?

Background: It's generally assumed that the Louisville, Ky.-bred band, which started in 1998, is a "seminal act" that makes "classic rock" that "hearkens back to Neil Young" and carries the "alt-country torch."

"Waa wa, high-pitched reverb, waa waaa."

Where are the hits? The five albums that came out after 2003's "At Dawn" — arguably their best — all charted in Billboard's Top 200, with the most recent, "Circuital," hitting No. 5. Of course, charts almost always depict the most mediocre crap; "At Dawn" didn't crack the Top 200. Popular rock bands that don't incorporate dance beats (The Killers) or chirpy, wimpy guitar bleeps (Vampire Weekend) don't chart singles, ever. "Holdin' On To Black Metal" made it to No. 49 on the rock charts.

The "influence" factor: It's possible that history will look back and say MMJ ushered in a run of great retro-rock acts that people smoked weed to, but that's only if history decides Kings of Leon and Fleet Foxes are "great retro-rock acts." 

The verdict: In. 

With the walls of reverb, the pot-smoking factor, the imagined links to the likes of Neil Young and Pearl Jam and the likelihood that the Rock Hall voters will revise history to make MMJ — a solid band — into an all-time great, they're a mortal lock in 2024.

Worst Presenters of All-Time, Vol. 1

2007: Eddie Vedder presents R.E.M.

Why did this happen? Because the artist, allegedly, picks the person who inducts them.

What's so bad about it? Pearl Jam really has nothing at all in common with R.E.M., other than both had great early records and then crappy ones later on. Also, if you watch Ed's speech, it sounds, I dunno, kind of not informed. He claims to have listened to "Murmur" 1,200 times in the summer of 1984, but he never says why or mentions a single song on there. He talks about him "mumbling." Yeah, we've heard about that before. He also excitedly notes that Buck and Stipe's first discussion was about Patti Smith. Erg...

Most telling moment: Vedder joins them to perform "Man On The Moon." Why was this song even chosen? And why did he choose to perform on it? And why is he so pumped up while doing it?

Most telling moment #2: The Rock Hall doesn't even list Vedder as the presenter for R.E.M. on their site. Then again, it is the Rock Hall, and they don't even list The Replacements as inductees on their site.