[potsie]

Never gonna happen...in a country of 300 million, how many have actually heard of the and you can't count ex pats...

Yeah, it's a real long shot. I think there are probably several paths into the hall - influence, innovation, greatness and, to a lesser extent, popularity, which likely helped a band like Kiss get in. When it comes to the US, the Hip have none of these. To my knowledge they've never been cited by a major US rock band as a strong influence, they typically aren't viewed as innovative, and their greatness goes unrecognized due to being largely ignored by mainstream US rock media. The only way to push them into a nomination might be a grassroots campaign by fans and, as rocketsan22 has pointed out, there simply isn't enough of those in the US. In addition, the Hall has tended to ignore signed petitions (although I do think they succumbed to fan pressure when it came to inducting the mighty Rush). Personally I would love to see them in there because, despite all the Hall's flaws, it would be cool for kids 50 years from now to read something about the Hip on a plaque and maybe decide to check them out.