Wilco on the cover of Rolling Stone?

[barbkm]

Barbkm, sadly I am only vaguely aware of these John and Kate people are, but I seriously found your last paragraph to be hysterical and spot on. The decline of mainstream music magazines over the last few decades has been extremely depressing.

 

Thanks Mike.

[Dude]

I'm sorry, did I miss something over the past 40 years? When Rolling Stone first appeared with John Lennon on the cover in 1966, who was that aimed at? 40 year old hipsters? I don't think so. The Beatles were every bit "Tiger Beat" as Zac Ephron ever was. I'm pretty sure Rolling Stone has always been aimed at younger readers.

 

Wrong. The magazine's primary focus was chronicling the exploding music scene in '66 (including Brit invasion rock, psychedelic San Fran music, etc), and Lennon of course was a rock musician. Zac Ephron is about as important to rock music as Jello.

 

Looking at Rolling Stone Issue #1, I don't see Tiger Beat here. I see an underground mag that is dead serious about music. Even the Lennon the cover isn't the dreamy '64 teenbopper version but the mature, spectacled 'How I Won the War' actor who would go on to make Sgt. Peppers:

 

 

 

And if you still think the magazine was always written for kids, you should check out this guy named Hunter S. Thompson. He wrote quite a bit for the magazine and is about as far from teeny bopper pandering as you can possibly imagine.

[Analogman]

I believe Crawdaddy! along with Rolling Stone are credited as establishing a place for rock music and culture writing beyond the simplistic teen fare of magazines such as Tiger Beat. After that, I don't know what came next - CREEM and some other magazines, I suppose.