Rolling Stone

[jjcourtright]

Has anyone seen the new Rolling Stone? It just shows what a shambles mainstream music is in. It has Fred Durst (freddurst) James Hetfield, Ozzy and Marilyn Manson on the cover. So, for those keeping score that is a guy who has never significantly contributed to music, a guy whose last major contribution was the "black album" in 1990, a guy who hasn't put out a good album since he left Black Sabbath in 1979, and a guy who makes crappy music but dresses really "scary" in an effort to ruffle the feathers of the squares, respectively. Is this the best that Rolling Stone could do? Is this what we have to look forward to this summer?

[Robbo_the_Hood]

Well, music isn't about the music anymore. It's all about how you look doing it. If it were actually about music would boy bands and Britney Spears be popular? Hell, no. But fourteen-year-old girls buy NSync albums because Lance Bass is cute. And old men buy Britney Spears albums because they all have that school girl fantasy.

Likewise, there is the whole alternative country movement that is coming together. Quite honestly, Ryan Adams, Legends of Rodeo, Wilco, etc, could all pass for country music acts. But what comes out of Nashville is a bastardized version of what country music used to be. They want to pretend they have all these family values while their best stars (Hank Williams Jr., Jimmy Williams, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash) were heavy drinkers and notorious for losing control constantly. However, now that Music Row controls all of the images of Garth Brooks and Reba Macintyre(sp?) anything that comes out of Nashville is considered tainted goods because of the rules that the boys on 16th avenue (Music Row; I live in Nashville) inflict on all of their acts.

However, the Nashville underground is probably one of the best scenes in America right now. That's right, I said it. But the execs on the Row have their butts so far up Reba's ass or are too busy milking Toby Kieth's man brests that they don't have time to look down the road and hear some of the best music in the country.

The country music industry may be very different from the real music industry, but with other exectutives being just as controlling about what the public sees on MTV, what is happening in Music City is just a microcosm of the rest of the industry. If that is what Rolling Stone is telling the kids to listen to this summer, than it obviously is not about the music.

[jjcourtright]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
It's all about how you look doing it.

[/ QUOTE ] Then why did they pick 4 goofy looking guys to put on the cover? Why not put Lance Bass or Britney on the cover? I just don't get it. </font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
milking Toby Kieth's man brests

[/ QUOTE ] Hilarious.

[Robbo_the_Hood]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
then why did they pick 4 goofy looking guys

[/ QUOTE ]
Because according to Rolling Stone, those are the four guys that embody mainstream rock music. And that's what the labels want you to think too.

[Zens_7s]

Robbo, you assessed the situation perfectly. I am not just saying that because I have "Ryan Adams" tattooed in a very uncomfortable place!

Three years ago I cancelled my subscription to Rolling Stone in disgust. I am not the type of person to use the phrase "sell-out" often. Rolling Stone is the worst sell-out rag in print today. Unlike other magazines that were created to make money regardless of quality (Blender, Spin, etc.) Rolling Stone started out genuine and later betrayed all their own founding principals.

The only off-Web music magazine I read is Great Britain’s "Q". At least Q reviewers attempt to move out of boy-band has-been land. The bad part is the $8 cost to buy an import. Thank heaven for the Web and friends to clue me into new artists. I am sure there are many indie mags out there that would interest me. The trouble is finding out about them, and getting them where I live.

The most frightening statement you made was "...the execs on the Row have their butts so far up Reba's ass". If Reba is determining who gains success in Nashville, then we are all in for another 50 years of melodramatic crap. Meanwhile, artists like Wilco, Ryan Adams, Jay Farrar and Legends of Rodeo will continue to be tossed between different record companies. The stories of Wilco's battle to keep Yankee Hotel Foxtrot intact is enough to prove that point.

[Matt1]

Another band with strong country roots: The White Stripes. Anyone who hasn't heard their amazing cover of Dolly Paton's "Jolene" should go download it immediately. The live version.

[35mmCritic]

They put nobs like these guys on the cover because all good famous musicians are dead. I will take the theory one more step; not only are the good well known ones dead, the good not known one's, if they become known, will die. They know this, they fear it. Okay, the lables have made it so frikin hard for true talent to rise to the top that truely talented artists are saying f*&amp;@^ it, "I don't want to die, there are too many hoops, I'll play bars twice a week at 2 G's a night and atleast keep playing". Face it man, most good musicians are not famous or they aren't very famous until they die. Examples; Jeff Buckley, Brad Nowell, Keith Whitley, etc. All known musicians, but their deaths inarguably made their fame explode. Most untalented famous performers live to a ripe old age, Dick Clark, Donny Osmond, Rick Springfield, Cher, Wayne Newton, the list goes on and on. On the other hand the fair majority of the ones that die young are great, Hendrix, Morrison, Cobain, Joplin, Hank Sr. etc. In closing here is the scientific hypothesis that explains it:

Fame + Talent ---&gt; Premature Death
and
Beauty + No Talent + Fame ---&gt; Longevity, Legal Bills, Therapy and Plastic Surgery

Don't even ask about people who are famous souly because their 'rents were. Ohhh Boy!

35mm

[Dave]

While i won't dissagree with all that has been said above, i do want to point out that Ozzy did put out several killer albums in the early 80's. Most notably those with Randy Rhodes, but the Jake Lee ones are nothing to sneeze at either.

And one has to go no farther than the Rolling Stone website to see how far they have fallen, an entire section devoted to semi-nude pictures (mostly covers) from the magazine, consisting almost entirely of Britney and Christina.

Insidentally there is a good mag for underground music out there called Swingset, the last issue had a converstation between Thurston Moore and Ian Mckaye, a Liars tour diary, and some pretty cool art along with indy album reviews (erase errata and such) check it out why dont ya.

their website:
www.swingsetmagazine.com (http://www.swingsetmagazine.com)

[Robbo_the_Hood]

I don't know. Bob Dylan was never a good looking guy. Bruce Springsteen hasn't died and has done his best work since Nebraska. Rolling Stones are still good to some people even though they are walking skeletons. So, there have to be some exceptions to your equations.