Like a rolling stone

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NRO Weekend, December 22, 2000 to January 1, 2001

The Death of Rock-- How far Rolling Stone has fallen.

By Ben Domenech, NRO contributing editor

There's a scene in Almost Famous, Cameron Crowe's opus on rock music, where legendary music journalist Lester Bangs warns the young William Miller (Crowe's stand-in) to resist any starry-eyed admiration of Stillwater, the band he's covering.

"Don't you understand?" says Bangs. "These guys are evil. They're wrong. They're killing rock 'n' roll."

Later in the film, there's a cameo appearance by the one man who, more than anyone else, is responsible for the sorry state of rock music today: Jann Wenner, the head of Wenner Media, the owner and editor of Us, Men's Journal, and Rolling Stone magazine. Wenner's a respected man in his field: The Columbia Journalism Review once singled him out as the person who had "spoken for — and to — an entire generation of young Americans." Under his command, Rolling Stone went from a small San Francisco newspaper to a 1.2 million-circulation cash cow.

Somewhere along the way, though, Rolling Stone left its heart behind, and realized that image sells better than good music. To understand why Wenner's the villain in this little tale, you have to understand that Rolling Stone is a much different place than it used to be.

The 1970s-era Rolling Stone was hip, influential, and cynical. It provided news and articles about the latest hit bands and musicians, picked the brains of up-and-coming artists, and threw in a dash of movie gossip and leftist politics. All in all, it was a trendy mix; even if you didn't agree with the magazine when they bashed anything Led Zeppelin, their reviews section was a respected forum for music journalism and intelligent opinion.

Even in its heyday, though, there were warning signs. When Wenner sat down for an interview with John Lennon in the early 70s, he was a perfect example of the sentiments Almost Famous so neatly skewers — the hero-worship of rock stars, the assumption that artists are gurus of life and love, philosophers as much as musicians.

A new edition of the interview, with introductions by Yoko Ono and Wenner that praise Lennon's insights and iconoclastic verve, was published by Verso in unedited form (Wenner had originally cut many of Lennon's sillier statements). Lennon comes across as insecure, spouting embarrassingly banal views on politics, art, and life. Lennon was a brilliant songwriter, true; but Wenner questioned him about world affairs and Chairman Mao, not the latest album. When Wenner does ask about music, it's about how Lennon thinks the Beatles' albums were a "cop-out," lacking the "genius" and "important message" of his work with the Plastic Ono Band. Lennon himself isn't as interested in Wenner's adoration — he even expresses some unease about having his extemporaneous ramblings recorded for posterity.

In the '80s, Rolling Stone was slipping. It had increasingly lost its cutting-edge feel, and when competition came along in the form of Spin magazine, RS fell into a downward spiral. It had lost much of its former journalistic integrity — now, articles fawned over the latest craze or bubblegum musician, and hack jobs came out about bands that wouldn't grant extensive interviews.

A little over a decade ago, Rolling Stone entered into a casual alliance with MTV. There were already connections through Wenner, who is also an influential board member with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (fans of several bands blame him for barring certain nominees from induction), and the alliance made sense. Feeding off of MTV's fawning attitude toward celebrity and fad, RS became even less respected. After running hit pieces in the early '90s on Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and R.E.M., many of the relationships between the magazine and rock bands fell apart. Despite the fact that RS and MTV ranked Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as the third greatest song of all time (the "Pop 100" joint rankings also put both the Beatles and the Backstreet Boys in the top ten), bandleader Kurt Cobain refused to agree to interviews with the magazine. R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe wrote a note to the magazine in 1996 that read: "Limbo, limbo, limbo. How low can you go? This mag is cat-box journalism at best."

Wenner hasn't tried to refute the magazine's reputation as a corporate rag, and the anti-Rolling Stone base has solidified. There are now several healthy "Boycott Rolling Stone" movements on the web, and after Rolling Stone writers mocked the mosh-pit deaths of Pearl Jam fans at a Roskilde concert ("Look on the bright side! Pearl Jam always wanted to be The Who…to quote Jerry Garcia at Altamont, 'Bummer, man!'"), many artists called for a public apology.

Now, the magazine stands as a bandwagon jumper, a place where the latest pop sensation gets a default cover shot. Rolling Stone's covers tell the story: In recent history, they've featured such talented individuals (read: flesh) as supermodel Gisele, Britney Spears, Jennifer Love Hewitt (who boasted inside about her breast implants, "Who needs a necklace when you've got these?"), Sarah Michelle Gellar, the Spice Girls, and the Backstreet Boys (not once, but twice).

Indeed, the only solid articles still to be found inside RS's pages are ones by P.J. O'Rourke (their occasional political correspondent). Otherwise, music journalism is almost entirely absent from the magazine's pages. The magazine has become a virtual print MTV, obsessed with image over talent, hype over substance, and getting musicians to talk about their political views instead of their craft.

Wenner himself has contributed several articles in the last year, all of them political — one bashing George W. Bush, one a softball interview with Bill Clinton, and one cover-story interview with Al Gore. In case you're wondering whether Wenner asked some tough questions, consider this: In the same issue, Wenner had another article — an editorial endorsing Gore for President.



-- (Paracelsus@Pb.Au), December 28, 2000


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