Founded in 1967 in San Francisco and named after the Muddy Waters song "Rollin' Stone" (others quote "Like A Rolling Stone"
by Bob Dylan), Rolling Stone Magazine writes about 'politics and
popular culture'. It is issued bi-weekly and available in numerous
international editions.
As of the 70s, it has become some kind of success measure, to be on the cover of the 'Rolling Stone'. So much, that it even became the topic of the ironic Shel Silverstein / Dr. Hook song by the same name ("Cover of the Rolling Stone").
Although Rolling Stone Magazine paid some due to Country Music (in particular critic and later senior editor, Chet Flippo who provided liner notes to the milestone country albums "Wanted: The Outlaws" and Willie Nelson's "Red Headed Stranger"), its focus clearly was more on pop / rock culture.
So it is a little surprising, but proof to the current mainstream success of country music, that Rolling Stone Magazine decided as of June 1st, 2014, to open up a dedicated web space focusing on country music!
I am sure, they will have a sligthly edgier focus and a lot of conservative people may fear that this may lead to even more focus on non-country elements in the music, but I think it is a good thing, as it gives the music more weight, more acceptance, more success and in the end the ability to bring music to a wider audience, which otherwise may not have even heard of it.
So to quote from the Rolling Stone Magazine announcement by Gus Wenner, Director of RollingStone.com:
"In the beginning, the music all blurred together. It was the sound of America starting to listen to itself – its real self, its vernacular truths, emerging from the crackle of AM radio and vinyl: Hank Williams, trained at the knee of a local bluesman, was playing something close to rock in 1947; Elvis Presley covered Bill Monroe on his first B side; Johnny Cash, as much as anyone, invented rockabilly; the rhythm guitar of Chuck Berry's first hit was pure country. Even the political rifts of the Sixties couldn't keep rock and country apart for long, and the cross-pollination never stopped, from the Eagles' influential hybrid hits to Garth Brooks' Billy Joel fandom to Eric Church's AC/DC power chords.
So we're proud to announce the launch of RollingStoneCountry.com, a new website dedicated to the genre – which we're celebrating in a special issue. Rolling Stone has always chronicled country: Cash, Dolly Parton, Tanya Tucker, Kris Kristo fferson, Brooks, Shania Twain and Taylor Swift have all been on our cover. This year, we opened our first Nashville office, and we'll dive deeper than ever in our website's daily coverage and in the pages of the magazine.
It's a perfect time for it: Now more than ever, music is all mixed up again. Listen to country radio today, and you'll hear heavy-metal guitar solos, hip-hop rhythms and EDM flourishes alongside pedal steel and twang: Country now encompasses all of American pop, decked out in cowboy boots and filtered through Music Row. Listen to pop radio, in turn, and you might hear Swift, Carrie Underwood, Lady Antebellum or Florida Georgia Line.
Rolling Stone has always been about storytelling, as has country music – and we're excited to have a new world of stories to tell. We will treat country the way we treat every other subject we cover: We will take it seriously, we will look beneath the surface, and we will always focus on what brought us here in the first place – the music."
(http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/rolling-stone-goes-country-20140601)
As of the 70s, it has become some kind of success measure, to be on the cover of the 'Rolling Stone'. So much, that it even became the topic of the ironic Shel Silverstein / Dr. Hook song by the same name ("Cover of the Rolling Stone").
Although Rolling Stone Magazine paid some due to Country Music (in particular critic and later senior editor, Chet Flippo who provided liner notes to the milestone country albums "Wanted: The Outlaws" and Willie Nelson's "Red Headed Stranger"), its focus clearly was more on pop / rock culture.
So it is a little surprising, but proof to the current mainstream success of country music, that Rolling Stone Magazine decided as of June 1st, 2014, to open up a dedicated web space focusing on country music!
I am sure, they will have a sligthly edgier focus and a lot of conservative people may fear that this may lead to even more focus on non-country elements in the music, but I think it is a good thing, as it gives the music more weight, more acceptance, more success and in the end the ability to bring music to a wider audience, which otherwise may not have even heard of it.
So to quote from the Rolling Stone Magazine announcement by Gus Wenner, Director of RollingStone.com:
"In the beginning, the music all blurred together. It was the sound of America starting to listen to itself – its real self, its vernacular truths, emerging from the crackle of AM radio and vinyl: Hank Williams, trained at the knee of a local bluesman, was playing something close to rock in 1947; Elvis Presley covered Bill Monroe on his first B side; Johnny Cash, as much as anyone, invented rockabilly; the rhythm guitar of Chuck Berry's first hit was pure country. Even the political rifts of the Sixties couldn't keep rock and country apart for long, and the cross-pollination never stopped, from the Eagles' influential hybrid hits to Garth Brooks' Billy Joel fandom to Eric Church's AC/DC power chords.
So we're proud to announce the launch of RollingStoneCountry.com, a new website dedicated to the genre – which we're celebrating in a special issue. Rolling Stone has always chronicled country: Cash, Dolly Parton, Tanya Tucker, Kris Kristo fferson, Brooks, Shania Twain and Taylor Swift have all been on our cover. This year, we opened our first Nashville office, and we'll dive deeper than ever in our website's daily coverage and in the pages of the magazine.
It's a perfect time for it: Now more than ever, music is all mixed up again. Listen to country radio today, and you'll hear heavy-metal guitar solos, hip-hop rhythms and EDM flourishes alongside pedal steel and twang: Country now encompasses all of American pop, decked out in cowboy boots and filtered through Music Row. Listen to pop radio, in turn, and you might hear Swift, Carrie Underwood, Lady Antebellum or Florida Georgia Line.
Rolling Stone has always been about storytelling, as has country music – and we're excited to have a new world of stories to tell. We will treat country the way we treat every other subject we cover: We will take it seriously, we will look beneath the surface, and we will always focus on what brought us here in the first place – the music."
(http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/rolling-stone-goes-country-20140601)
Comments
Post a Comment