Bob Dylan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. The induction took place in January of that year, recognizing a songwriter and performer whose influence extended from folk music into rock, popular music, and modern songwriting.
Bruce Springsteen introduced Dylan at the ceremony. In his speech, Springsteen famously emphasized Dylan's ability to make rock music intellectually and lyrically ambitious. Dylan's induction came during a period when his recent albums had received mixed critical and commercial responses, but his larger historical importance was already firmly established.
The year is sometimes confused with 1990 or 1991 because Dylan continued releasing important work around that time, including the Traveling Wilburys project and later albums. Those dates are not related to his Rock Hall induction. The Hall of Fame generally considers an artist's long-term influence and eligibility, rather than simply the success of the most recent album.
Dylan was later recognized by other major institutions, including the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Nobel Prize in Literature, but those honors should not be substituted for his 1988 Rock Hall induction.