These are the covers of every Rolling Stone Magazine since February of 2021.
Ice Spice? Not Rock
Shakira? Not Rock
Cardi B? Not Rock
Billie Eilish? Not Rock
Peso Pluma? Not Rock
Kristen Stewart? Not Music
Dua Lipa? Not Rock
Bad Bunny? Not Rock
Janelle Monae? Not Rock
Emma Chamberlain? Not Music
Ed Sheeran? Garbage
Michael B. Jordan? Not Rock
boygenius? We do not like boygenius at Beacon of Speech
Rosalia? Not Rock
Selana Gomez? Not Rock
Pharrell Williams? Not Rock
Stephen Curry? Not Rock
Harry Styles? Not Rock
Megan Thee Stallion? Not Rock
Blackpink? Not Rock
Mr. Beast? Not Rock
Jack Harlow? Not Rock
Jennifer Lopez? Not Rock
Rauw Alejandro? Not Rock
Doja Cat? Not Rock
Adele? Not Rock
Musicians on Musicians? Very little rock.
Dave Grohl? Ding, ding, ding. ROCK. October 2021.
Silk Sonic? Not Rock
Billie Eilish? Again, Not Rock
BTS? Not Rock
Issa Rae? Not Rock
John David Robinson? Not Rock
Kacey Musgraves? Not Rock
Dua Lipa? Again, Not Rock
Now it's common knowledge that Rolling Stone has turned into a woke little, agenda-pushing magazine. But here's the ruse, other than Kid Rock and Ted Nugent, most rock leans left, far-left in many cases. Why did a Rock Magazine turn its back on an artform that made it famous when both held similar philosophical ideals? Rolling Stone was a Rock Magazine that turned into a Music Magazine and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame turned into a Music Hall of Fame. Rock didn't disappear, it's still out there.
If I was the Editor-in-Chief of Rolling Stone Magazine, making 6 figures a year and viewing the world with corporate lenses through a rock and rap prism, this is what my covers would have looked like over the same period.
Feb 2021 - Melvins: Grunge Godfathers and Road Warriors release their 24th Album Working with God
March 2021 - Fiona Apple Grabs Grammys for what Some Would Consider "the Perfect Album."
April 2021 - Godspeed You! Black Emperor Continue to Fight the System.
May 2021 - The Black Keys: Back to Their Roots
June 2021 - King Gizzard and the Wizard Lizard: Another Star in the Gizzard Universe!
July/August 2021 - The Cult of Kanye
September 2021 - Radiohead's Kid A Mnesia
October 2021 - Dave Grohl was fine. The only time Rolling Stone got it right in over 3 years.
November 2021 - Green Day, Fall Out Boy, and Weezer: Rock's Touring Juggernauts.
December 2021 - Alicia Keys' Continued Genius
January 2022 - The Beatles' Get Back Rooftop Concert
February 2022 - Mark Lanegan: Death of America's Poet
March 2022 - Tropical Fuck Storm's Satanic Slumber Party
April 2022 - Jack White: The Greatest of his Generation
May 2022 - Kendrick Lamar: From the Pulitzer Prize to Rap's Top Visionary
June 2022 - The Smile: A Beginning...or an Ending?
July/August 2022 - Black Midi is the Future
September 2022 - Slipknot: Still on Top of their Game
October 2022 - The Triumphant Return of the Mars Volta
November 2022 - Red Hot Chili Pepper's Dreamy Canteen
December 2022 - Paramore's Demise has been Greatly Exaggerated
January 2023 - Panic! at the Disco's Fuzzy Future
February 2023 - Is South by Southwest still Relevant for Rock Artists?
March 2023 - Wes Borland's Journey Away from Limp Bizkit and into Space?
April 2023 - Metallica's 72 Seasons will Sell, but How Much?
May 2023 - Sleep Token: Metal's Continued Expansion
June 2023 -Gunna's Gift to the Masses
July/August 2023 - Haim's Single Teases an Upcoming Album?
September 2023 - Here Comes the Ho99o9
October 2023 - D-R-A-K-E
November 2023 - Dolly Parton's Rock Soiree
December 2023 - Aesop Rock: Rap's Technician
January 2024 - Kid Cudi Insane!
February 2024 - Is Trent Reznor the Next Danny Elfman?
March 2024 - Primas, Perfect Circle, & Puscifer's Audacious EP and Tour
April 2024 - Pearl Jam - The Fans will be Rewarded.
May 2024 - Gary Floyd - The Death of a Queer Punk Pioneer
June 2024 - twentyonepilots - Is this the End of the Story?
July/August 2024 - Snoop Dogg and Flavor Flav: The Faces of the Olympics
September 2024 - Is the Chappell Roan Model the New Normal?
You're saying my way is the old way and Rolling Stone has found a new way?
Wrong.
The cliche was sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Young rock or rap acts would cannibalize the old. Rock was danger and the counterculture all rolled into one, and writers like Hunter S. Thompson captured that zeitgeist.
Now this generation "rebels" against the toxic masculinity of rock and embraces pop. Which is its prerogative.
But to sum up the decline at Rolling Stone in a different way: Let me ask you, who is the bravest writer out there today? I would argue that it's Matt Taibbi.
Coincidentally, he used to write for Rolling Stone Magazine. He won awards there. He was a model "old school" Liberal.
Why isn't he there now? New York Magazine can describe it better than I ever could. According to Taibbi himself “I feel pretty strongly that the only thing that’s changed is that the New York media world once agreed with the things I was saying, and now they don’t.”
Taibbi's critics describe him as a "middle-aged, contrarian, white-guy."
And there's the ruse. The far-left hijacked Rolling Stone and now follow marching orders from the party. They implement themes consistent with Critical Race Theory and believe any speech that deviates from theirs is hate speech.
Rolling Stone used to be the top of the food chain, it only answered to Rolling Stone. Now they are simply a cog in a woke corporation, moving over-arching agendas. Rolling Stone moved into shoveling partisan talking points, Taibbi moved toward a more journalism-based writing model.
And that same philosophy is bleeding into music.
Again, music has always leaned Left in my lifetime. But now sex, drugs, and rock and roll are bad.
When did that happen at the magazine that glorified all of Rock's excesses for 50 years?
I would start with billary, and the chicago "class of '68".