Once again, we present Rock-Critically Correct, a feature in which the most recent issues of Rolling Stone, Blender, Vibe, and Spin are given a once-over by a writer who's contributed to many of those magazines, as well as a few others! In this installment, he looks at the new issue of Spin:
More »
Yesterday, I came across a recent interview with Amanda Petrusich, the author of the new It Still Moves, in which she basically nails the conundrum facing music writing today. Take it away, Amanda and questioner:
More »RD: Being largely a writer for print, what is your stance on blogs?
AP: I read a ton of blogs, every day. I think the onus is really on print magazines to step up the game. They’ve got to do stuff blogs can’t or won’t or don’t want to do – long, thoughtfully researched articles with lots of access that take months to write – in order to stay alive. But they just keep printing … lists.
Once again, we present Rock-Critically Correct, a feature in which the most recent issues of Rolling Stone, Blender, Vibe, and Spin are given a once-over by a writer who's contributed to many of those magazines, as well as a few others! In this installment, he looks at the new issue of Spin:
More »
Once again, we present Rock-Critically Correct, a feature in which the most recent issues of Rolling Stone, Blender, Vibe, and Spin are given a once-over by a writer who's contributed to many of those magazines, as well as a few others! In this installment, he looks at the new issue of Spin:
More »
Once again, we present Rock-Critically Correct, a feature in which the most recent issues of Rolling Stone, Blender, Vibe, and Spin are given a once-over by a writer who's contributed to many of those magazines, as well as a few others! In this installment, he looks at the new issue of Spin:
More »
Once again, we present Rock-Critically Correct, a feature in which the most recent issues of Rolling Stone, Blender, Vibe, and Spin are given a once-over by a writer who's contributed to many
This year has been a rough one for music magazines: their ranks are thinning, the business they're covering is becoming more notable for being one that's putting out a product people don't want to pay for than anything else, and now Crain's New York Business puts into numbers what anyone who picked up a music magazine probably noticed already: Ad pages at the big four magazines are down substantially from last year's tallies, even as the magazines are increasing their rate bases. (Only Spin has weathered the downturn, with its ad pages actually up 22% since 2007.) Why?
More »
As part of Idolator's continuing effort to geekily analyze every music chart known to man, we present a new edition of Project X, in which Idolator Critics' Poll editor Michaelangelo Matos breaks down rankings from every genre imaginable. In this installment, he looks at an issue of Spin from 1990 that attempted to tell rock history through Top 35 lists:
If you saw my bulging shelves full of CDs, books, magazines, photocopies, and printouts, you might call me a collector. But I've never been entirely comfortable with the designation: even when I was 13 and deep into comic books, I wanted to read them more than I wanted to preserve them. Keeping them around was a fringe benefit. The same has been true with music magazines, but it wasn't always, which is what has lately driven me to eBay to find old copies of Spin. One of my favorite issues was cover-dated August 1990: Jim Morrison against a bubblegum-pink background on the cover. The headline: "35 Years of Rock'n'Roll." A subhead: "Top 35 Lists of Everything From Guitar Gods to Dead Rock Star Charts."
More »
And now it's time for another installment of Rock-Critically Correct, in which the most recent issues of Rolling Stone, Blender, Vibe, and Spin are given a once-over by an anonymous writer who's contributed to several of those titles—or maybe even all of them! After the click-through, he examines the most recent issue of Spin:
More »
The June 1990 issue of Spin is certainly a time capsule. The cover star is Lisa Stansfield, which greatly annoyed the mag's alt-leaning readers but is fine with me—Affection is one of my favorite albums ever, though "All Around the Girl" disqualifies it for the Cover Head Hall of Fame. The reviews section ("Edited by Jim Greer," it notes; Greer went on to play bass for Guided by Voices and then write a book about them in which Greer's time in the band is barely mentioned) features write-ups of albums by Nick Cave, Cowboy Junkies, Blue Aeroplanes, A Tribe Called Quest, Television Personalities, the House of Love, the Sundays, Ernie Isley, the Silos, Stone by Stone with Chris D., Tony Williams, and Loop; Frank Owen's "Singles" column takes on New York's John Cardinal O'Connor's condemnation of heavy metal and the flap over Chill Rob G's and Snap!'s competing versions of "The Power"; the contents page tells us the magazine has 98 pages, which is a good thing considering there are almost no page numbers on the actual pages themselves. (That Bob Guccione Jr. and his minimalist design sense!) But the main reason I tracked down this piece of nostalgia on eBay is that after seeing the Ludacris Area Codes Map, I remembered the "Hip-Hop Map of America" by Bob Mack, who would go on to edit the Beastie Boys' 'zine, Grand Royal. The full map, and some choice excerpts, below.
More »
And now it's time for another installment of Rock-Critically Correct, in which the most recent issues of Rolling Stone, Blender, Vibe, and Spin are given a once-over by an anonymous writer who's contributed to several of those titles—or maybe even all of them! After the click-through, he examines the most recent issue of Spin:
More »
Folio has the complete list of magazines that were recently ditched by Wal-Mart for still-undisclosed reasons. While a good chunk of the titles are publications that have folded in the past few years—CMT Magazine, holla!—there are some still-publishing music-related mags on the list, including Billboard, Spin, Paste, and Rap-Up. Between these moves and the retailer's plans to cut floor space devoted to music, it looks like 2008 might not be the best year for heartland dwellers who actually want to purchase their alt-rock-leaning music in an actual store. [Folio via Gawker]
And now it's time for another installment of Rock-Critically Correct, in which the most recent issues of Rolling Stone, Blender, Vibe, and Spin are given a once-over by an anonymous writer who's contributed to several of those titles—or maybe even all of them! After the click-through, he examines the most recent issue of Spin:
More »
Once again, we present Rock-Critically Correct, a feature in which the most recent issues of Rolling Stone, Blender, Vibe, and Spin are given a once-over by an anonymous writer who's contributed to several of those titles—or maybe even all of them! After the click-through, he takes in the year-end issues of RS, Spin, and Blender:
More »
Hey, Spin—thanks for finally letting us use an image for one of these year-end roundups that isn't of Neon Bible or In Rainbows! Yes, Against Me!'s New Wave topped the magazine's year-end best albums list, which went online last night. The mag's tracks list hasn't been revealed yet, but I personally am kind of hoping that it reprises its "Best Albums You Didn't Hear" list, if only because I would really like to know just where Spin would find said records in the current blog-and-MySpace-saturated musical climate.
THE GOOD: I spy former Idolator editor Brian Raftery's influence at No. 33, where The Wildhearts landed!
THE BAD: Don't let New Wave's pole position fool you: Spin's top 10 is otherwise pretty similar to every other list we've run down in this space this year. See if you can guess the other nine albums on the list without clicking through to the next page! OK, OK, I'll give you a hint: Bruce Springsteen and the National are actually in the top 20, and—gasp—Wilco is nowhere to be found. Now, go!
THE WHAAAA? Aside from Prince's Planet Earth at No. 12 and the lack of Wilco, this list is kind of curveball-free as far as matching up with critical consensus in 2007. Here's another fun game, though: How many of Spin's 2007 cover stars did not show up on this list? I count three. And if Rilo Kiley hadn't snuck in at No. 40...
And now it's time for another installment of Rock-Critically Correct, in which the most recent issues of Rolling Stone, Blender, Vibe, and Spin are given a once-over by an anonymous writer who's contributed to several of those titles—or maybe even all of them! After the click-through, he examines the most recent issue of Spin:
More »
And now it's time for another installment of Rock-Critically Correct, in which the most recent issues of Rolling Stone, Blender, Vibe, and Spin are given a once-over by an anonymous writer who's contributed to several of those titles—or maybe even all of them! After the click-through, he examines the most recent issue of Spin:
More »
Idolator
