In case you weren’t aware, Rolling Stone recently relaunched in Australia after disappearing from shelves in January 2018. A magazine as iconic and synonymous to the DNA of music as Ziggy’s lightning stripe, or Cobain’s mottled cardigan. From the political reporting of Hunter S. Thompson, to the retrospective musings of Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous. It’s a touchstone for music lovers around the world.
Before its demise in 2018, Rolling Stone Australia was the longest-running international iteration of the magazine. Launching in 1970 as a companion in Revolution, and then as its own beast in 1972. It’s now back, online, and as a quarterly print magazine.
I can’t speak on behalf of you but I know that I yearn for the nostalgia of keeping a treasure trove of magazines under my bed. The panic of being flogged by my mother for tacking posters of my heroes yanked out of the glossy pages of music bibles on my rented bedroom walls. The feeling of genuinely engaging with what’s been written because there aren’t a million algorithmically tailored ads luring me away from learning about the uprising in Belarus and leading me into spending a week’s wages on discounted Margiela Tabi’s.
Digital journalism is brilliant. I’m not here to shit on the medium that offers so much breadth, and so many voices and perspectives. But there is a certain magic that comes with poring over the pages of a magazine. The carefully appointed fonts, the graphic design, the art. When something is physical you give it more time. When I’m on the internet, I find that I’m always waiting to move on to the next thing. Always hell-bent on what I’m going to consume in the future and never giving the time to what I’m reading in the present. It’s an attention deficit nightmare.
In case you weren’t aware, Rolling Stone recently relaunched in Australia after disappearing from shelves in January 2018. A magazine as iconic and synonymous to the DNA of music as Ziggy’s lightning stripe, or Cobain’s mottled cardigan. From the political reporting of Hunter S. Thompson, to the retrospective musings of Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous. It’s a touchstone for music lovers around the world.
Before its demise in 2018, Rolling Stone Australia was the longest-running international iteration of the magazine. Launching in 1970 as a companion in Revolution, and then as its own beast in 1972. It’s now back, online, and as a quarterly print magazine.
It’s $59 for a yearly subscription, and you can get yours here.
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View this post on Instagram@tonesandi on the cover of Rolling Stone Australia’s upcoming first issue
