No Album Reviews in New Issue of Rolling Stone?

Good points....However, Rolling Stone was never "just" a music magazine (although that was a huge part of them). They always dealt with culture and politics (remember , they originated from the San Francisco "counter-culture"), and looking back at past issues from the 1970s and 80s, they had numerous articles critical of Nixon and reagan and Bush 1 and other politicians.

And interesting point was something I once read from an Englishman in the music publishing field (I can't recall who exactly...it might have been an editor of "Mojo")- he said that because Americans had more disposible income, there's a greater amount of BOOKS published about music. Whereas, England, being a country with many have less disposible income, those interested in music would turn to cheaper magazines for the information they want to read

 

Maybe they're taking a tip from Playboy!

 

I'm looking at the bright side, I don't have to check out RS on the newsstand anymore to see if they reviewed anything interesting. Usually a waste of time. And I always felt kind of guilty just checking to see what was out and not then buying the mag. Win/win.
One music magazine I love is Prog from the UK. I'm always excited to get that. Comes with a CD and the writers are rabid fans of the genre, that's the key thing, they love the music, and so do I. Guitar World is pretty one dimensional music wise but that works for me too. Subscribe to that one... But mostly I find out what is available here.
Back on topic I'll close with the fact that RS hasn't been about the music for a loooong time. It's a fashion mag. The record reviews recently became an afterthought, not well developed and not very interesting. I'm glad they dropped the charade. Just like MTV did. They should drop their lists too, everybody knows lists are lame. Their special editions about individual bands can be pretty cool though.

 

One theory I've heard for the volume of print media in the U.K. is that British people are more likely to regularly use public transportation and want something to read while in transit. Americans drive.

 

Good point, and I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that Hunter S. Thompson's most interesting stuff tended to be RS commissions...

 

I do not subscribe to the magazine. I did years ago. In the last 6 months I've been mailed a new Rolling Stone every few weeks. It's bizarre. I'm not paying for it or asking for it.

I know they were partially purchased by some Singapore company. Maybe they have some fresh new ideas! ha.

 

Is Rolling Stone even music anymore? Because all I just see is a whole bunch of stories that aren't even related to music.

 

No album reviews, but roughly 40 pages of the greatest concerts and festivals of the last 50 years? How dare they!

 

I know, they should've expanded more and put album reviews along with concerts and festivals instead of just concerts and festivals.

 

Although this thread has gone into huge detail. I got the issue in the mail today and while there were no reviews.. I will say I'm impressed that it was literally the first issue in god knows when (if ever) that was about music from the cover to the last page. No political diatribes, no discussions about actors/movies, none of that. If sacrificing reviews returns it to being a 100% music magazine, then I'm down with that. It went straight from the routine things at the beginning (new songs to check out, playlist, a few pages about something new in music) to the Harry Styles interview to the "Greatest concerts the past 50 years" thing that takes up the lions share of the issue.

 

That does sound good.

 

While next issue will tell, I'm pretty sure that the 50 concerts feature was so huge it squeezed out many usual features. I bet reviews will be back next time.

 

Is there anything at all in the current issue that is NOT related to music?

 

I have been a regular reader or subscriber since 1982 or so and I want to speak up for it. It was as others have said always about the culture and politics surrounding the music as well as the music, and embraced sports and movies for many decades. While the record review section has gotten too short and blurby for reading pleasure and too narrow to be a useful guide to anything, the magazine's actual feature journalism is still very high level, and for the most part while you may disagree with WHAT they choose to cover, they always do a high level job covering the rock stars, pop stars, actors and sports stars they profile or interview, and the news stories (they have a yen for terrible crime stories involving people under 30) always pretty gripping as well. And in the past few years they have had a specialty in long profiles of oldster musicians NOT necessarily hooked to a new product to hawk that are always great. And of course they are called upon constantly alas to eulogize the stars of their era and always do a good job with that as well. (At times it seems months go by when every other cover is a dead hero....and it'll get worse I guess....)

 

I don't read the online site like I used to read the paper version (cover-to-cover), so I'm not sure about this.
Q: Did Rolling Stone blink? Linkin Park, Little Steven, Snoop Dogg and 26 More Albums to Hear Now.

 

This is where I put in my plug for Magnet, the national American alt-rock mag that went from bimonthly to quarterly to out of business for a couple of years before being revived (with most of the same ed's and writers) as a thinner but monthly mag. Its apparent target audience is still mainly us Gen X-ers, but it's worth reading for anyone over 30 who still checks out new music. And how could you pass up the latest ish, where Matthew Weiner interviews Aimee Mann for the cover story?

 

I had no idea Magnet still existed as a print thing. It must be buried deep at local Barnes andNobles.

 

No. I only read Playboy for the holiday recipes.

 

Kids don't buy and read RS magazine.

 

I bought one of the "new " Creem's in the mid 90's when it was briefly in print. They tried to turn it into Spin. It was pretty lame.

 

The quality level in the writing in Magnet is really good. Impassioned and smart, and I usually don't know 3/4 of the bands they are writing about.

 

Dear Penthouse:
I never thought I'd ever be writing to you, I'm a normal Home Economics student with a larger-than-normal...grade point average...

 

I thought Rolling Stone fired Fricke as a full time employee and made Him do occasional contributions with no benefits. RS really screwed him after over 30 years service.

 

They keep sending me the magazine-and it goes from mailbox to recycle can.