No Album Reviews in New Issue of Rolling Stone?

I don't think they have any obligation to be "balanced." To not publish BS like Duke Lacrosse and UVA, on the other hand...

 

Honestly, I'm still glad the publish Goldmine. It's not what it once was, but it's still fully devoted to music and still publishes interview with oldsters who know they're talking to fans.

 

Kind of ironic. Wasn't it the previous issue that had the story about how their record reviews became a cultural fixture?

How Rolling Stone's Album Reviews Became a Cultural Fixture

 

I was a very very long time subscriber. I was able to withstand the magazine moving more and more into politic opinion, but i outright cancelled following the UVA scandal. They continue to lose in courts and i truly hope they keep losing. In the string of lawsuits, the biggest one ($25M) is making its way through successfully. Fake news indeed....

 

Oh good, I never have to buy it again.

 

Perhaps it's part of a sense I have that once upon a time it seemed the music scene had a somewhat solid, yet fluid vibrant center core with thousands of interesting things swirling around it.
It all seems a bit fractured now. There are still thousand upon thousands of interesting things swirling around, but the center has gone missing.
Maybe Rolling Stone is reflecting that. Maybe I'm trying to explain something I can't quite put my finger on.

 

I think that Wenner would've been smart to fold it years ago. Japan had "zombie banks" and America has... zombie Rolling Stone.

 

It could be argued that there have never been 'album reviews' in RS, just exercises in sycophancy and prejudice.

 

The amazing part is that someone actually looked for reviews in a Rolling Stone magazine in 2017

 

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

 

It's a music magazine?
I felt years ago like it stopped being one.

 

Since 1967?

 

Yeah, Rolling Stone is ****.

If they were a music magazine, like say Mojo or something of that sort, then no reviews would be shocking, and as smart as Playboy going non-nude (or IMDB getting rid of their message boards! ).

 

Maybe it'll go the way of MTV (Music Television without music).

 

It's been going down hill ever since Jar-Jar Binks was on the cover!

 

RS ceased being a music magazine years ago. Kind of sad really.

 

Yeah, it's definitely not a problem that's unique to Rolling Stone. My local newspaper cut down to three issues per week several years ago.

As for the music content, Rolling Stone is kind the worst of both worlds. Any new music they cover is super-popular pop stuff with zero focus on anyone even slightly below the radar. Meanwhile, legacy acts are given participation trophies each time they release an album. There's just really not much there for anyone who listens to anything beyond top 40 or classic rock radio. Whether you like their politics or not, their political writing is really about the most relevant content they have these days.

 

There are tons of music magazines out there...Not sure why anyone would go to Rolling Stone for that sort of thing anymore.

 

Everyone has zombie banks. That's why the hand is pointing at war -- get the marks to look this way. Then they don't explode with rage when their accounts and pensions go 'poof.'

 

I think we should all take a step back and look at it from the RS point of view. Things have changed and reviews are pretty much hate speech when you get right down to it -- even if you like everything. That can't be good for business. I applaud RS for creating a safe space within its pages. Soon we'll all be in safe spaces.

 

My brother-in-law was still getting the magazine in the mail as of 2016. That was his source for reviews.
Sadly, the magazine wouldn't review many of the albums he'd be curious about.

 

My guess is that as ad placements dry up on paper, they have to sacrifice something. And at this point isn't all music, good or bad, review-proof?

The ability of social media to immediately disseminate and recommend new releases -- which may not even be "albums" -- kinda obviates the idea of shopping for new music, as well as the need for guidance thereof.

I was persuaded to purchase lifelong favorites like MURMUR, MARSHALL CRENSHAW and HOW WILL THE WOLF SURVIVE? by rave reviews and year-end critics' polls in ROLLING STONE, so once upon a time that review section was essential reading for me.

 

Right! Thanks for that.

So count two of us in!

 

Like MTV without music videos!!!!

 

I don't feel safe when people review music.