YEAR
2018
INDUCTED BY
Brandon Flowers (The Killers)
CATEGORY
Performers
Hook-savvy with the perfect combo of new wave and classic rock, you can’t help but sing along to The Cars.
The band’s magnetism and intellectual arrangements resonated with an audience ready to leave the left of the dial underground and cement themselves into the mainstream.
Benjamin Orr
David Robinson
Elliot Easton
Greg Hawkes
Ric Ocasek
HALL OF FAME
ESSAY
By Ashley Kahn
Every now and then, a band hits the ground running with a sound so developed, brash, and beyond established categories that it redefines them.
In 1978, the Cars were that band, arriving at a time of discord more than harmony, when musical tribes were at odds with one another: old-school rockers, punks, and New Wavers, pop music enthusiasts and fans of disco and other dance-floor sounds – each staking out territory to preserve and protect its own.
The Cars’ brilliant, self-titled debut – all handclaps and quirky vocals, crunchy guitars, and futuristic synth lines – defied the divisions of the day and reminded us what rock was all about.
