At a moment of transition for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, a new class of nominees for induction in 2020 puts generational and genre-based divides on full display: The Notorious B.I.G., Whitney Houston, the Dave Matthews Band and Motörhead are among the first-timers on the ballot, while returning acts getting another chance include Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, Judas Priest, and Rufus featuring Chaka Khan.

The 16 nominees up for inclusion at next year’s ceremony — scheduled to take place May 2 in Cleveland — are rounded out by Kraftwerk (nominated five times previously), MC5 (four previous nominations) and Todd Rundgren (one), plus the shortlist newcomers Pat Benatar, Soundgarden, T-Rex, Thin Lizzy and the Doobie Brothers.

The wide swath of options may reflect what the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation’s incoming chairman, John Sykes, called a need to evolve, amid years of criticism about the diversity of the inductees. Sykes, the president of entertainment enterprises for the radio conglomerate iHeartMedia and a former MTV executive, will take over for the Rolling Stone founder and long-running face of the Hall, Jann Wenner, on Jan. 1.

“The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame could become irrelevant because rock as we knew it in the ’60s is beginning to age out,” Sykes told The Cleveland Plain Dealer in an interview earlier this month. “We have to evolve, and we have to change, because music is changing.” (Wenner has consistently brushed off concerns that the Hall admitted too few women and people of color, telling The New York Times last month, “Musical achievements have got to be race-neutral and gender-neutral.”)