Dean's Thoughts on Entertainment

My Disgust for Spin Magazine has climaxed.

As far as music magazines go, for the longest time I respected Spin more than most of the other American magazines that existed. However, this last year has driven me to the point of insanity, and I would likely not renew my subscription if I had the option (I have a 5 year deal). The reason being thay have sold out, to no one. Rolling Stone is a sell-out magazine but they know it, and you can tell when they are bending the truth to satisfy other needs besides honesty. I do have issues with Rolling Stone being extremely Politically biased (which is actually sickening at points) but I can skip those articles for the ones on music which I am more interested in. But Spin, has sold its soul for no reason but to say they did. They have always been a little too friendly to the artsy indy rock that doesn't light up the popular radio, and may not even fly on college radio, but it was forgiveable. In the last issue, they recount the best 40 records of the Year and the list made me hurt all the way down to my soul. I am not the most educated music student, mainly because I can't afford every cd I want, but I am pretty well versed in popular music in all genre's and I religiously read music magazines and reviews and the like. As such I was appalled by the fact that of the 40 greatest records of the year, I had only heard of 19 of the bands that recorded them (and I mean "heard" as in I recognize the name as that of a band). No list comprised of the greatest of the year should have more than 5 bands that I haven't even heard of before. Of the CD's I knew you could tell they just picked a few safe picks to round out their deeply saturated indy rock list. For instance, Metallica's new album made the list, which is generally believed to be the worst record ever made. They also gloat at the fact that they have given the number 1 spot to The White Stripes for three years in a row. I like The White Stripes but this is going to far. But, to top it all off Coldplay graces the cover and is considered the best band of the year. Rolling Stone sells out for money, and political favoritism I respect that. Spin sells out to make some kind of brilliant statement about their underground artistic credibility, and they went so overboard that they destroyed their credibility as journalists. There is a reason none of these bands are popular, its because they suck at something. Maybe its music in general, at PR, at consistency, at originality but if they really were that talented they would be making their mark on the industry, and they aren't. Spin, you have fallen, and may you recover before you go under and screw me on the last 3 years of our contract.