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Rolling Stone is an American magazine devoted to music, politics and popular culture.
Beginnings in San Francisco Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner (who is still editor and publisher) and music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine first started when Wenner stole a list of record label contacts from a nearby radio station and borrowed money from his wife, Jane Wenner's, family. Rolling Stone was initially identified with and reported on the hippie counterculture of the era. The magazine however, distanced itself from the underground newspapers of the time, such as Crawdaddy, embracing more traditional journalistic standards and avoiding the radical politics of the underground press. In the very first edition of the magazine, Wenner wrote that Rolling Stone "is not just about the music, but about the things and attitudes that music embraces." This has become the de-facto motto of the magazine. In its earliest versions, Rolling Stone published a box by its letters section which invited readers who felt that they were qualified to write for the magazine, to send in their work. This drew in many of Rolling Stone's most illustrious writers in its earlier days, from Greil Marcus who would go on to edit its reviews section and still contributes regularly today, to Lester Bangs who famously sent an obscenity-filled essay to the editors before getting hired. In the 1970s, Rolling Stone began to make a mark for its political coverage, with the likes of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson writing for the magazine's political section. Thompson would first publish his most famous work Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas within the pages of Rolling Stone, where he remained as a contributing editor until his death. In the 1970s, the magazine also helped launch the careers of many prominent writers, such as the writer-director Cameron Crowe and Kurt Loder, who now works for MTV. It was at this point that the magazine ran some of its most famous stories, including that of the Patty Hearst abduction odyssey. The magazine was so influential in shaping pop culture in the 1970s that a song dedicated to it, "Cover of the Rolling Stone" by Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show (written by Shel Silverstein), became a hit single. Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show eventually did end up fulfilling their wish and ended up on the cover of Rolling Stone. Move to New York By the 1980s, despite still employing Thompson and other iconic writers of the sixties and seventies, Rolling Stone had adopted some of the corporate values that it had shunned earlier. Wenner called the Bay Area a "media backwater" and the magazine moved to New York in 1976, and many date its change in culture from this point. Several of RS' most famous writers, such as Cameron Crowe left in an unwillingness to move to the East Coast, while new ones signed on. It was at this point, that covers became more devoted to movie stars. A short-lived spin-off, College Papers, was edited by Jann Wenner's sister Kate Wenner and ran from about 1980-1982. In his book, Rolling Stone Magazine, Robert Draper notes that it was about the mid-1980s when the magazine became more of a music follower than a music trendsetter. In the 1990s, it was late to cover the grunge scene that emerged in Seattle in 1991, most famously with Nirvana's Nevermind being given a three-star review and chucked into obscurity in the middle of the reviews section. Later it would be rebuffed multiple times by Nirvana's frontman, Kurt Cobain who famously wore a "corporate magazines still suck" t-shirt to a photoshoot for a cover story. Rolling Stone was also slow to cover the emergence of hip hop, leading to the emergence of other competitor magazines such as The Source and Vibe. Today
Political Commentary While Rolling Stone is an entertainment magazine, throughout its four decade run it has consistently interjected political and social commentary of all types in order to remain relevant to its now 1.5 million readers. Rolling Stone, in view of its hippie roots has traditionally taken a liberal editorial perspective. The famed Hunter S. Thompson was the main political correspondent for Rolling Stone, writing the National Affairs section. After his death, investigative journalist Matt Taibbi took over. The magazine has been extremely critical of the George W. Bush administration. In the May 4, 2006 issue of the magazine, RS printed an article by Princeton University historian Sean Wilentz which said George W. Bush was possibly the "worst president in history," citing a "combination of impotence, laziness and ineptitude for the job."* RS also printed a magazine with John Kerry on the cover prior to the 2004 Presidential Election, with an article persuading readers to vote for him. In the past, President Bill Clinton as well as Vice President Al Gore (while he was running for the Presidency) have graced the covers of RS. Gore still regularly appears in the pages of RS due to, in part, his environmental advocacy and his film An Inconvenient Truth. Rolling Stone published an article by Robert Kennedy, Jr. claiming that Bush stole the election of 2004.* In the November 2, 2006 issue of the magazine, RS printed an article condemning the US Congress with a cover article titled "Time to Go! Incompetent, lazy, corrupt: Inside the Worst Congress EVER." The article lists the "10 Worst Congressmen" by name - 9 of whom are Republicans. Criticism Like MTV, Rolling Stone has been criticised for selling out to the establishment. Long time readers have complained that the magazine has shifted from its traditional focus on music and politics with its continual coverage of film stars. As such, the magazine seemingly lost touch with many of its readers, although the magazine today boosts a healthy circulation of 1.5 million copies. The hire of former FHM editor Ed Needham only intensified critics who alleged that Rolling Stone had lost its credibility. Rolling Stone also received huge criticism when it printed a diatribe by one of its latter-day writers Anthony DeCurtis, against Lester Bangs However, in recent times the magazine gained some credibility back by running long interviews with the likes of Bob Dylan and Tom Petty, who announced that the interview he did with Neil Strauss for RS would be his last. The afore-mentioned articles received praise in the letters section for the magazine, even from older readers of the magazine. As former writer David Dalton noted, "to be fair, in almost every issue of Rolling Stone is at least one article that would fit quite seamlessly into the original magazine." Famous staff In popular culture
Celebrities who have appeared on the cover Appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone has become something of a milestone in the career of many famous artists, and remains the aspiration of many up-and-coming musicians. Some artists have graced the cover many times, some of these pictures going on to become iconic. The Beatles, for example, have appeared on the cover over thirty times, either individually or as a band. The first ten artists who appeared on the cover are: Reference works International editions Further reading Notes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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