More Extreme Makeover For Spin
Reader Devin writes in:
-----Original Message-----
From: Devin
Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2006
To: Stereogum
Subject: The Downfall of SpinSo, I don't know if you guys have seen the new issue of Spin Magazine, but they are definitely trying to pander to the crowd that reads shit like InTouch and Us Weekly by revamping their front cover to look like celeb gossip mags. Take a look:
Yep, Devin we noticed. And, as I'm sure the graphic designers in the audience can attest, the mag's already undergone a between-the-conversecovers makeover, as well as a much ballyhooed staff overhaul. Fortunately, we can relive the good old days courtesy of Product Shop NYC, who has a bunch of former staffers performing at The Reading Fest later this week:
Chuck Klosterman, Andy Greenwald, Caryn Ganz, Ultragrrrl, and Marc Spitz @ Rothko on 4/27. The event is $5 and starts at 7pm.Does anyone still read Spin. I still subscribe. I mean, it's like $9 a year (and I sorta liked Jonathon Ames' goth convention article). But then again, time will tell if their changes are for the better; in the meantime it's my job to read it and make fun of it for you. Last issue I got, the #1 item on Spin's cheeky hotlist was "Eminem Remarries Kim Mathers" ... days after AP announced the couple's divorce. Magazine publishing is hard! Fuckin' Internet.
Posted at 4:31 PM
Tags: Chuck Klosterman
"I didn't pimp Britney"
was there a danger of that?
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No one should hate SPIN for still trying to get/keep an audience though. They are a 'business' of sorts, and you do what is necessary to compete.
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But in other news, what's the big gossip in Stereogum land?
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> But in other news, what's the big gossip
> in Stereogum land?
My cat had to have his tail partially amputated last week. It's been insane. I will somehow turn it into a music post this week. His name is Lionel Richie after all.
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design wise, spin used to be AMAZING a couple of years ago....
too bad
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as a graphic designer i would have to say that's the worst cover of spin ever.
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As a fellow graphic designer...
I concure. (Wait... is that how you spell it?)
Guess thats why i'm a designer and not a editor, eh?
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I was actually suppoed to get a job there this summer, until I got a call from the friend getting me the job saying that they just fired 3/4 of their workers. Looks like the rest of what he said was true.
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Yeah, I'm kinda late to tuning out SPIN. The issue that put me over the edge was this year's "Fan's Choice" magazine. I guess a bunch of 14 year old FuseTV fans flooded the Web site, because all the awards went to My Chemical Romance, Fallout Boy, and crap like that. If that's the kind of music SPIN's going to cover now, I'm done with it.
But, then again, last issue had that Goth convention article, and interviews with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Morrissey. So I don't know.
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Yeah, speaking ofthat "fans' choice" one, it was too funny that they had Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance winning both the best and worst categories. (Personally, I consider them so bad I wouldn't even vote for them because their shittiness is just assumed, and doesn't need that kind of confirmation.)
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Are you guys really Graphic Designers? I'm actually one, and you both should know we whore it out for the money.
"Uh sir...you want to print with a 72 res pic? Blow it up too?! But...ok...whatever."
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sigh... does anyone else remember Trouser Press?
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i've had a spin subscription for as long as i can remember. in my eyes, given the choice to read Spin or Rolling Stone i'll choose spin everytime.
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I used to like Spin. But now the only things they publish that I enjoy reading are the articles not about music.
I know magazines need to change with the times, but that new format is shit.
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I come from a family of graphic designers and we have all decided that the new cover has got to go.
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Thanks for posting my e-mail, guys! My fingers clutching the Spin mag in the photo are enjoying their fifteen minutes of fame.
As for Spin itself, yeah, I knew things weren't going well when I got the issue that claimed My Chemical Romance was my new favorite band. Really? I didn't get the memo on that.
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both Rolling Stone and SPIN are better for their non-music articles than the other way around... man, too too bad.
I havent seen the new SPIN on stands, I hope they didnt stop using illustrations...
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my puppy has never had her tail cut off, but she has had a couple tragic haircuts. since her name is kylie (named after the only kylie that matters, i don't have to give you her last name), i think she and lionel richie should pull a postal service and do a collabo album of songs from hairspray. or hair, for that matter. or maybe a remake of shampoo. your cat can be warren beatty. and kylie's a total starfucker, she'll be perfect. i can see it now. that's like a week's worth of stuff for spin to review right there!
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Red Hot Chili Peppers and thier no dick having selves need to stop posing (semi)naked
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Spin looks like Tiger Beat now--vote for your favorite Chili Pepper!
they were always like Rolling Stone's younger brother--better than RS for a while, but now apparently following them into whoredom.
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Spin, pretty sucky these days, but for 9 bucks a year I get 10 bucks worth of shits and giggles. Not much good news in there.
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I still subscribe, because it's cheap, Rolling Stone sucks and everything in Arthur is too obscure for me. Plus at least Spin is no longer writing about Dashboard Confessional all the damn time
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HAH! All of that is so true. I have been getting that mag for maybe 4 years and it has just about hit rock bottom. Every story they post is a good 4 months too late - concert dates no less! The magazine staff is overturning by the day and the content has slimmed down as well. Like Scott said, it is only $9 bucks but I don't plan on renewing it this year. I wish Rolling Stone had responded to my 'Bill Me Later' coupon. Those guys just wrote me off and now SPIN is all I get. Are there any other decent music mags? Paste?
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I started college in 1984 (I know...) with a Rolling Stone subscription, and was immediately exposed to what was not yet called "alternative music." Rolling Stone covers that year featured Bruce, Prince, Diamond Dave, Billy Idol, Mick Jagger; although that Jagger issue had reviews of Let It Be, Zen Arcade, AND Double Nickles on the Dime--which is why I still have that issue.
Obviously something was underway, and when SPIN debuted (OK, with Madonna on the cover), it finally had its own magazine. SPIN never published journalism or political writing on a par with RS, but their writers seemed to be of the same community as the bands they were covering--the same community as us--so the music writing was real, the criticism relevant, and the zeitgeist well served. We didn't need no fucking baby boomers.
But today SPIN does need the fucking baby boomers' babies, which is why the music covered is aimed at 18 and under, not 21 and up. It pays some respect to the alternative artists it covered in the past--a pantheon SPIN should arguably be credited with developing--but SPIN is for kids who don't yet acknowledge musical roots or history.
But what do I know? I keep up pretty well for a guy almost 40 (I'm here, aren't I?), but things change, and they should. RS wasn't the revolutionary rag it had been by the time I subscribed to it, either. The problem with SPIN is, and I could remember it wrong, that it used to be about street-level bohemians and artists, and now it IS about celebrities. Even if Brandon Flowers cites the Cure in his favorite albums list, SPIN isn't about underground art movements anymore. It's a shallow piece of the starfucker machinery.
You know what really bugs me about the last few issues? The photo captions. They're stupid. Insultingly so. They're clear evidence of the lack of wit or creative intelligence in the building. A great magazine staff has in-house wit to spare, and it often shows up in the photo captions. Not at SPIN; not anymore.
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I've been a SPIN reader and subscriber for around 12 years, but I've pretty much had it with their mag this past year. Although the YYY's issue was actually a good read, most of them aren't. I really liked Chuck Klosterman's column and when they fired him, I knew I wouldn't pay for a renewal. I guess it's time to start subscribing to MAGNET now.
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I hope "Magnet" doesn't pull silly trick like spin. Magnet is the only music magazine left I read. (At least the music ads are great.
Spin never really grab me. Their music selection and commentary is awefull.
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Holy crap, I thought you were joking with that cover...but you're not. That really is the cover. That abominable eyesore is actually the cover of a mainstream magazine.
Terrifying.
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A shallow piece of starfucker machinery it is. I read Spin when I was 16 because even then I knew what a pandering piece of shit Rolling Stone was and is (in terms of music coverage; they do have the random, insightful political jab). But by the time I was 19 I figured out that Spin writers and editors were/are nothing more than overeager, trendy, scenester wannabes that would pull down their pant(ies)s and bend over for any band/artist (and I use the term loosely) that registered even a vague blip on "hey they might be cool better jump on the wagon while there's room so you can brag to your friends about how you loved (insert inane band/artist here) before anybody else did" radar. There, there, little Spin staffers, here's a gigantic horizontally striped shirt for you to wrap yourself in and cry when you realize you're the print equivalent of an MTV VJay hosting TRL.
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"gigantic horizontally striped shirt"
Ha! Funny stuff, TooSquare.
I read Blender, and I happen to like it. I'll buy Spin whenever I see a cover that strikes me (YYY, for example, or the Strokes... I seem to miss every White Stripes cover, though). It is unfortunate that they fired so many people, though.
And yeah, that cover isn't good. At least they could have ruined a cool Chili peppers photo, but that one's just kinda boring.
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RS totally revamped to look more like Q. Spin should have chosen an british magazine too, so people wouldn't know who they were ripping off.
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I stopped reading Spin a while back. That issue was the last one I purchased, and I was like no more!
Now I just read Chart, although recently they have been taking a turn for the worse, in terms of coverage.
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