Episodes
Thursday Jul 18, 2013
The Cover of Rolling Stone
Thursday Jul 18, 2013
Thursday Jul 18, 2013
Ah yes, the August 1, 2013 front cover of Rolling Stone.
Is it provocative?
Heck yeah.
People are texting, tweeting tumbl’ing, and talking about it; and look here, I’m currently blogging about it. It has provoked an abundance of thought and opinion.
Here’s why I’m upset:
Whether they admit it or not, every musical act’s dream is to grace the cover of Rolling Stone. Despite wearing a “CORPORATE MAGAZINES STILL SUCK” t-shirt, Kurt Cobain and his Nirvana band-mates willing appeared on its cover in 1992. They dressed more appropriately for the occasion when they were featured on the front two years later.
When the Beastie Boys graced their first cover in 1994, I felt validated that my favorite band now shared the same honor as the musical greats that came before them.
It was always a joyous moment when a band you rallied behind made the cover of Rolling Stone:
Eleven years after releasing their seminal, self-titled debut album, Weezer finally made it on in 2005; the lil’ ol’ Black Keys from Akron, Ohio triumphantly mugged for the cover in leather jackets early last year; and even my favorite TV show—Breaking Bad—got the cover treatment last summer.
I should point out that Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul only play bad guys on television. The crystal meth they cook is made from cotton candy crystals, while the “bomb” used at the end of Season 4 was a special effects stunt in which no one was actually injured—or killed.
Rolling Stone hasn’t always catered to my likes.
Amidst boy-band fervor during the TRL era, *NSYNC became cover boys in 2000. I was equally outraged when the Jonas Brothers got their cover nearly a decade later. And how could Jersey Shore party legend Snooki get a cover before Jersey Shore punk legends The Bouncing Souls?
For every pop-tart and boy-band that makes the front of Rolling Stone, there also seems to be an eye-rolling abundance of issues bearing the images of Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones.
From the same carefree era as the names mentioned above, in 1970 Rolling Stone put killer and cult leader Charles Manson on its cover. Some will say the precedent was set here, but I don’t agree. We live in an age where instantaneous and perpetual media coverage gives young people the impression that committing a horrific act is an option to their desperation. When I was a kid “school shooting” wasn’t a ubiquitous media term.
It just sucks that while public enemy #1 gets the cover of Rolling Stone, hip-hop legends, Public Enemy, are still waiting for their first.
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