You Can Now Vote for Your Favorite Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Nominees!

I'll give you the link to cast that vote.

But first, a few days ago, The Hawk's own Double Down blogged about his frustration with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and he made some great points.

He understandably threw his hands up as to why the nominee list for the class of 2013 would include rap and disco acts (I've done that myself).

I did find an article on the very subject of why rap is included in the H.O.F. which does seem to make quite another point, and is very persuasive.

"The Rock Hall's primary function is "to recognize the contributions of those who have had a significant impact on the evolution, development and perpetuation of rock and roll." There is no question that hip hop has heavily influenced today's rock artists -- Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine, and countless others combine rap and rock seamlessly. Turntables and sampling have their roots in early rap, but are now ubiquitous in popular music. You can't understand popular music from the last 20 years without hip hop. That needs to be documented in the Hall of Fame."

Of course the R & R H.O.F has been nominating and inducting non-rock acts for awhile now, whether some of us agree with that decision or not.

But there's one thing I believe most of us will agree the H.O.F. got right.

For the first time ever, you can now cast your own vote!

The newly implemented online vote allows we the people to take part in the induction process by allowing us to vote for five of the fifteen nominated artists.

Fans can cast their vote for their five favorite artists at www.rockhall.com.

Voting ends this December 3rd.

And by the way, according to an article on examiner.com, the public voting has Rush in the lead, followed by Deep Purple and Heart.

Will you or have you voted?

Who have you, or will you, vote for?