Cygnus Odd Thought #7: Degradation Via the Media

[Cygnus X1]

This one is tough to nail down.
But here is the thought.

Through various outlets, say hanging out in a dentist's office, or whatever the occasion, been exposed to too many hours of reading Rolling Stone magazine.
One of my earliest memories is reading just what a blooming Rock Icon Tom Petty was, along with the Pretenders.
Fine, but really?

Would Mr. Petty ever gotten much further than "Damn the Torpedoes" were it not for RS's constant fawning attention?
Same with Pretenders-some good stuff there, but really not much more than one album's worth in my opinion.

So-given my slant.
Grunge, punk, seems entire genres have been driven by this one mag seemingly written by a roomful of snarky "critics" that strike me as no more knowledgeable about actual performing than Ashley Spears.

What is your take, and can you give examples.

As usual, if I'm all wet, please say so.

[Kap'n]

I never really paid any attention to that fashion magazine.

But I like TP and The Pretenders just fine without Jann Wenner's annoyances. Was he ever a fan? If so, it's news to me.

The only thing RS was ever good for was introducing HTS's Gonzo journalism to the masses.

[ch willie]

Egads, man! Tom Petty is one who gets better with age. His Last DJ album has substance, lyrically and musically. I didn't care for him at first. I finally "got" him when he did the Wilburys.

I'll give you the Pretenders.

[elicross]

I think the Pretenders and Heartbreakers are pretty great. R.E.M.'s another one RS fawned over...they're one of my all-time favorite bands. I imagine RS gave these bands a considerable boost, maybe accelerated their careers by several years and helped them reach levels they might not have reached otherwise. But in these bands' heydays, it was radio and MTV play that made you a success. A lot more people heard "American Girl" and "Brass in Pocket" and "Losing My Religion" on the radio than read about these bands in the pages of Rolling Stone. They all would've been successful without any coverage from this august publication. (Or any other month, for that matter, bwa-hah.)

I'm sure RS has missed as often as they've hit, but I do think they've got a pretty decent track record when it comes to the bands they lavish praise and attention on...or at least they did in the late 1970s to mid-1980s.

[chuckocaster]

i don't care for RS, i've read it lately and i think it's crap! glad i didn't pay for the subscription.

but as for TP and the HB's, i love them. stripped down rock that calls to me. mike campbell plays so little, but it's always "right". and tom petty writes some killer songs, real catchy. when anyone asks me what my band sounds like, i tell them tom petty and the heartbreakers. that's a good band to be compared to, the lead singer used to resent it, but i've been compared to lot worse.

i can see where you're coming from though. but we really do sound like TP & the HB's. i like the pretenders, but don't love them. there is a cool video of me doing brass in pocket though, totally faking it! fun times!

[Cygnus X1]

OK, I should have clarified TP.
I liked Damn the Torpedoes, but my opinion is he made a lot of WTF? songs immediately afterwards.
"Don't Come Around Here"?
Best thing after that was Full Moon Fever.

Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned artists.
Just so many times I have read some comments in that mag that made me think "do they even know, or care to know what they are talking about?"

I get a bit more sympathy from the hard rockers-to heavy metal guys. I guess that's where my rub is with them.

[grandturk]

Oh, I dig Tom Petty well enough - but RS can burn for all I care. Worthless rag - all they do is trot out has-been 60's folkies, the next big current nothing and praise hail the current leftie agenda.

[thegeezer]

I wouldn't mind making the cover and kudos to the ones that did. I haven't read RS since it became a magazine.

[cwilliamrose]

I don't believe I've ever read an issue of RS cover-to-cover and probably only hand one in my hands a couple of times. I have no idea how influential the magazine is. TP is OK but I'm not a fan, the Pretenders are pretty much off my radar so it's hard to comment specifically.....Bill

[NeoFauve]

RS is about as hit and miss as any other all-purpose mass media weekly/bi-weekly.
It can't be avoided when they'll publish pieces by Naomi Klein and also do The Hot Issue, or list the country's top Party Schools.
They're trying to be GQ, NatGeo, Cosmo and Harper's all at once.

I'll thumb through it, if the cover gets me curious. I used to buy it once in a while when I was commuting. The better issues were the right size reading for a 40 minute train ride.

I have to say, I don't think I've ever seen it in a dentist office waiting room though.
Your dentist must be groovy or something.

[Iowegan]

I like the lefty agenda in RS it's nice to read something that counters the knee-jerk reactionary clap trap. The mag has always had a strong and outspoken editorial stance. What's wrong with that? It's the same reason I like The National Review and The Economist. If you don't like it, don't read it. But I don't want to be the moron that lives in an echo chamber and just reinforces my already accept opinions that is so boring and superficial.

Tom Petty and Chrissy Hynde aren't my cup of tea but I doubt if RS pushed them into the stratosphere. They were both in really heavy rotation on MTV back in the day and that probably moved them forward much much faster than a lefty rag.

[NeoFauve]

Imagine how big Led Zeppelin could have been if RS had gotten on board.



Of course, maybe if they'd actually written more of their songs, "critics" might have had something to analyze.

[Cygnus X1]

Wait till you see my comments about Golfer's Digest!

The fur shall fly!

I was purposefully staying away from their politics, I kind of expect that view from them anyways so I just let it roll off.

[redb]

Rolling Stone magazine is a joke rofl.

They say the mark of a gourmet is that they like weird food.

By that logic (or by actually reading this stuff they call "music journalism") you realize that these guys dont know anything about music. I dont pretend to know much, but these guys are the the epitome of the entry level circle jerk.

Look at their top 100 guitarists list, how many great players got shafted on that list for guys banging their guitars into the amplifiers? And this magazine is supposed to be the "end all" on popular music.

Frankly I spend the time I could be using to read RS actually listening to the music and forming my own opinions which dont rely on the same 17 words that boil down to "its like everyone else so its good" (feeling, passion, etc).

I also have a sneaking suspision that Rolling Stone secretly hates Jimi Hendrix but doesnt dare say anything because they know the size of the shit storm that would get blown up if they actually did say anything.

[juniorspecial]

Tom Petty is really, really boring. The Pretenders first record was great, but then the talent died (literally). And, yeah, the musical knowledge in most "music journalists" is meager.

Rolling Stone is a great music magazine for orthodontists.

[stratcat62]

Am I the only one old enough to remember when RS was a great underground paper? Hunter S. Thompson? Pretty hip in its day but unfortunately that day is long gone. Remember, it first appeared in 1967 focusing on politics and representing the counter culture. It has really slipped hasn't it.

[Wilko]

I first learned of Rolling Stone when I was just over 10 years old my Mom's cousin was in Dr. Hook and the Medicine show and they had that hit song about getting on the cover.

Currently it's a total industry rag, and as such is paid to push artists and it does help give those artists recognition and validity to the marketing masses. That's the primary mission of that company now.

Total crap magazine. Totally irrelevant.

[elicross]

Gonna see my picture on the cover / Gonna buy five copies for my mother

I had that song on a 45!

As much as RS has changed, I'm sure it's still a thrill for a band to get on the cover.

Had Dr. Hook ever been on the cover when they did that song? Did they get on the cover as a result?

[Wilko]

They did get a cover... It was a cartoon.

[ch willie]

As Howard Stern says, RS always rates Yoko Ono albums highly. I remember thinking RS was dead in the early 80s. It had probably died a few years earlier. They started putting folks like Billy Idol on the cover. I dropped my subscription then and have rarely read RS since.

[elicross]

They did get a cover... It was a cartoon.

"What's-Their-Names." Nice.