Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-Worthy Acts #7 - New Order

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"These guys suck." "This is not rock and roll." "How is it that these guys got in but (insert commenter's favorite band) aren't?" These are just some of the comments I read when the discussion pertains to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I am, in no particular order, counting down ten acts that I feel deserving of inclusion into the HOF. Feel free to disagree. We are at #7: New Order. Way back when, the members of legendary post punk group Joy Division had agreed to kill the name if anyone left the band. In 1980, after vocalist Ian Curtis committed suicide, guitarist Bernard Sumner (who assumed vocal duties,) bassist Peter Hook, and drummer Stephen Morris changed the band name to New Order, recruited Morris' girlfriend (now wife) Gillian Gilbert as keyboardist/guitarist, and moved away from Joy Division's dark, morbid sound into alternative guitar-based, electronic dance rock, of which the group is widely considered the pioneer. To call New Order highly influential is an understatement: they basically drew the blueprint for the style, and many a band followed them down that stylistic path. Their dance hit, "Blue Monday," is the biggest selling 12" single of all time, and despite a couple hiatuses, and the departure of Peter Hook, the band is still going strong. Interestingly, New Order started as a singles band, and not a single single originally appeared on a studio album until "The Perfect Kiss" was included on their 1985 album, Low-Life. In all, the band has released 10 studio albums, five EP's, four live albums, and 43 singles. And while many of their singles have performed relatively well (27 of those singles have reached Top 40 status in the UK,) album sales, despite a few alternative classics, have been sorely lacking (just two million albums in the US, and only 1.24 in the UK. That really doesn't sound quite right, but that's what Wikipedia says.) I'm basing this argument upon both body of work (which stacks up against any of their 80's alternative peers, and then some,) as well as influence. If you were a clubgoer in the 80's, if you didn't hear two or three New Order songs a night, the DJ either had to be under the weather or just having an off night. And the dance floor was packed. Every time. And with The Cure getting into the Hall of Fame in 2019, hopefully the door has been opened for other 80's alternative acts. So why not New Order? (Info verified by Wikipedia)