Product Description

Rolling Stone magazine is a cultural icon. It’s the number one pop culture reference point for 13 million young adults. In addition to its authoritative position in music, Rolling Stone’s sphere of influence reaches into entertainment, movies, television, technology, and national affairs. Rolling Stone covers everything that’s important, trend-setting, and newsworthy to the thought leaders among young adults.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #66 in Magazine Subscriptions
• Formats: Magazine Subscription, Print

Amazon.com Review

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Who Reads Rolling Stone?
Rolling Stone is written for a reader who’s interested in entertainment, including music, movies, television, technology, and national affairs. It combines its significant entertainment reviews with cultural and social commentary, featuring articles on politics, celebrities, and more.

What You Can Expect in Each Issue:

• Rock & Roll: The latest music news on those who continue to rock us.
• Smoking Section: In-depth, exclusive looks at the rock star lifestyle.
• Random Notes: A photo collage of who's who in the music biz, and what they're up to.
• Breaking: A look at the hottest new artists, or old artists with something new.
• Charts: Billboard's top ten, iTunes top ten, local favorites, and the top 40 albums at issue release.
• Reviews: Star-rated reviews of new releases, across all media.

Past Issues:

Special Issues Through the Year:

• Spring Music and Festivals Preview: From indie rockers to the year’s best bands, Rolling Stone’s "more than a sneak-peak" look at the season’s most anticipated releases and music festivals.
• The Best of Rock: What band has the best drummer? Who puts on the best show? What’s the best online music service? A useful guide to the best that music has to offer.
• Live Issue: Mapping out the best places to experience live music from coast to coast--must-see tours, festivals and more.
• Fall Fashion/10 Bands to Watch: The latest must-have looks that will rock fall fashion, plus profiles of the most hype-worthy bands.
• Year in Review: The best moments of the year in pop culture, from the most noteworthy albums and artists to the most off-the-wall moments.

Magazine Layout
One of the hallmarks of Rolling Stone is its excellent photography. From the cover image through to the last page, photos are what drives much of the graphical nature of this magazine. Articles are accompanied by photographs or illustrations, and the overall tone of the magazine is visually impactful.

Awards
2007 National Magazine Award For General Excellence, ASME. Editorial excellence honors in reporting and photo essay categories, ASME 2006. Since the inception of ASME, Rolling Stone has earned over 50 nominations and 12 wins.

Customer Reviews

Not As Good As it Used to Be
I have been a faithful subscriber to RS for almost twenty years, and I have witnessed the magazine slowly transform from a credible rock and roll journal to the music equivilent of Tiger Beat. In the 1980s, Rolling Stone's passion was music, and it often gave well-deserved nods to artists that were on the cutting edge: U2, Prince, REM, the Smiths, and so on. These days, its attempts to sell copies are getting more desperate as they feature people like Britney, NSYNC, and BSB on their cover sometimes as much as twice a year. I have nothing against teen pop; after all, RS gave Duran Duran a cover story in the 1980s. But it's troubling to see a magazine follow trends when they used to create them.

The record reviews are, for the most part, dubious. Rob Sheffield is one of the usual suspects. Three-and-a-half stars for Britney and Destiny's Child? More trustworthy critics include longtime writer David Fricke, Anthony DeCurtis, and Barry Walters. These guys seem to know what they're talking about when they review records.

The only section of the magazine worth reading is the movies section by Peter Travers, a critic I may not always agree with but one I do respect. Travers has enough heart to go against the grain of public opinion by trashing shallow, self-important, corporate driven, Holllywood movies. It really seems that he is criticizing the very hype machine the rest of Rolling Stone seems to embrace.

All in all, RS has its moments, but its getting disappointing within recent years. Here's hoping it can regain the edge it once had back in the 1970s and 1980s.

They've lost it
Two years ago, Rolling Stone and MTV teamed up to create a list of the "top 100 pop songs of all time." According to that list, the number 10 song OF ALL TIME is, I kid you not, "I Want It That Way" by the Backstreet Boys. It was then that I started to suspect the once-great Rolling Stone was losing it.

In 1967, Rolling Stone started with a simple idea: a "real" music magazine to counteract trendy teenage fluff like "Tiger Beat." As the years wore on, they stayed true to their mission despite the inroads of disco and the MTV pretty boys of the '80s. Sure, artists like Duran Duran appeared on a few covers, but on the whole Rolling Stone worked hard to maintain its credibility, giving much-needed exposure to then-cutting-edge acts like Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, U2 and Nirvana.

Then, through a series of mergers and acquisitions, Rolling Stone eventually became part of the Vivendi Universal empire. Soon, pressure to increase circulation and "appeal to a younger audience" escalated. The people at Vivendi, a French water company that knows nothing about entertainment, seem to think "a younger audience" doesn't want to read anything about artists they've never heard of. In fact, "a younger audience" probably doesn't want to read at all; they just want to see a sexy pinup photo of Britney's boobs or Justin's pecs, whatever you prefer.

Now here's where I lost my last shred of respect for RS: All those Britney/boy band covers and the MTV Top 100 fiasco were bad enough, but what gave them the nerve to put CLAY AIKEN on the cover?! Any magazine with a reality-show contestant on its cover instantly loses all "music" credibility. They might as well hold their own "American Idol"-style contest to pick their next cover boy/girl. (You can see where that kind of strategy has gotten Vivendi; now they're desperate to sell off their entertainment assets so they can get back to what they know best, preventing cholera and dysentery among the French.)

In its heyday, Rolling Stone was a rallying point for those who truly appreciate great music. Today it's a glorified pinup fanzine with slightly better writing and production values than "Tiger Beat." Come on, Clay Aiken on the cover? Imagine the Rolling Stone of 1967 with an Ohio Express cover.

Cancelled My Subscription
Hey kids, how 'bout the latest juicy gossip on Britney and Justin? Wanna know what the guys in NSYNC like to do in their spare time? Don't miss the latest on that perennial Bad Boy Eminem....It's all right here on the slick pages of Rolling Stone. My goodness, has ever a magazine fallen into such rapid decline as this former bible of all things rock and roll? The teenybopper domain formerly covered by Tiger Beat, now dominates the pages of Rolling Stone. Personally, I gave up on the music aspect of the magazine about ten years ago. The artists they write about are mundane and the stories themselves amount to nothing more than flowery puff pieces. The only reason I kept my subscription so long was to read Peter Travers'solid movie reviews and PJ O' Rourke's political pieces. Alas, a couple good writers can't save this sinking ship. Rolling Stone used to be so anti-establishment and so far ahead of the competition, but now it's nothing more than a corporate mouth-piece of big record labels, radio stations and MTV. The old Rolling Stone would have railed against the Britneys/Backstreets/Eminems of the world. But, now it's their bread and butter. For the those of us old enough to remember the glory days of Rolling Stone, this whole debacle is heartbreaking. I've cancelled my subscription.