Gather any group of music fans together, and throw out some names — Journey or Jane's Addiction? The Cars or Bad Brains? Yes or Zombies? Joan Baez or Tupac? It's a classic barstool debate. Which artist is more important, impactful, influential — which is worthy of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

This year, I am one of the people charged with helping make that decision.

It all started a few weeks back, when an email appeared out of nowhere, asking if I'd be interested in voting for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. What? Of course!

But then I started wondering — how many people vote each year? How did my name suddenly seem logical to add to the list? What about the public vote they've been doing the past few years? Are there any guidelines to the process?

Given some of the controversies about the HoF over the past few years (Steve Miller's behavior last year, and controversies over the selection or non-selection of the Monkees, Kiss, and Patti Smith), and the criticisms the hall has received, I wanted to know more.

So I got on the phone with Lisa Testa, who is the Director of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation. Lisa let me know that there have been about 800 voters in past years, but they were growing and adding to the list this year. My name was submitted by Cliff Burnstein, a longtime artist manager (who has worked with too many great artists to list, but just to show the breadth, he played a large role in the careers of everyone from Metallica to Red Hot Chili Peppers to Rush to Gillian Welch to The Suicide Commandos), then it was approved by Lisa's boss, John Landau, who also happens to be Bruce Springsteen's manager. Whoa!

Lisa also told me that when the hall opens up the voting to the public, all those votes are aggregated to equal one of the people who gets a ballot. Double whoa! That barstool debate suddenly began to feel like something to take really seriously. When I asked her if there were any instructions as to what we're supposed to be looking for when we vote, she said it was up to us. We would receive a ballot in the mail with short bios of the 19 nominees, and then we were allowed to vote for up to five we think should make the Hall.

All this info led to more questions in my mind, like, "What is this Hall of Fame really about?" The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation was established on April 20, 1983, by Atlantic Records founder and chairman Ahmet Ertegun to recognize and archive the history of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and other notable figures who have had some major influence on the development of rock and roll.

Other questions occurred to me: What should go in the Hall, and what should not? In deciding between acts as different as Pearl Jam and Janet Jackson, what factors make the difference? Who has work that resonates over the long run — and what matters more: sales, critical acclaim, or influence?

In Chuck Klosterman's recent book, But What if We're Wrong?, he advances an argument that at some point in the future, it's very likely that the things we take for granted today as successful and popular may be totally discredited. And that the most important artist / writer / musician / movie of our era in terms of signifying our present world as viewed from the vantage point of the future might be someone who is currently pretty obscure or even unknown. Using the after-death successes of Franz Kafka, who was unpublished at the time of his death; or Van Gogh; or even the book Moby Dick, which was a flop upon release, Klosterman illustrates how time and again, what was "popular" in its time later became forgotten, while later generations sparked a re-evaluation of other art.

Sometimes this re-evaluation process is driven by fans or critics who champion the work, sometimes it's the influence derived from subsequent, more successful artists who point back, and sometimes it appears to be nearly accidental. We see this all the time in rock and roll. The Velvet Underground were not nearly as popular in the '60s as they have been since the '80s, when artists like R.E.M. cited them frequently. Paul Westerberg (and R.E.M.) helped drive the later acclaim around Big Star, who probably sold one album for every 100,000 sold by Grand Funk Railroad in the '70s. Nick Drake ascended from mostly forgotten, deceased singer-songwriter to cultural touchstone following the use of "Pink Moon" in an advert.

So who makes the cut this year then? Who would you choose?

Here's the list for this year:

Bad Brains
Joan Baez
The Cars
Chic
Depeche Mode
ELO
Janet Jackson
Jane's Addiction
J. Geils Band
Journey
Chaka Khan
Kraftwerk
MC5
Pearl Jam
Tupac Shakur
Steppenwolf
Joe Tex
Yes
The Zombies

If it's about sales, the biggest acts here might be Journey or Yes. If it's influence you seek, then Kraftwerk and Chic rise higher. If it's about longevity, than it might be J. Geils or Joan Baez. If it's about shining a brighter light on lesser-known acts, you might vote for Bad Brains or Joe Tex. You can make an argument for every act on the list.

The public voting is open until Dec. 15, 2016. The winners will be announced on Tuesday, Dec. 20.

Here's who I voted for on my official ballot:

The Cars
Chic
ELO
Kraftwerk
Pearl Jam

Who would you vote for on this year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ballot? Why? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Resources

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - official site

Chuck Klosterman, But What If We're Wrong? (Amazon)