I've been a pretty avid reader of Rolling Stone for about 3/4 years now and have always enjoyed the majority of what I've read. when you look at the overall picture, they have great reporters who ask the right questions and the articles are always solid. sure i've read articles i haven't liked or been upset when they've covered a topic that's far from relavent, but for the most part i can't complain.

now, I usually like to check the rolling stone website every now and then to see what the new cover story wil be. i checked about 5 minutes ago and this is what i saw.....

yup, it's the Jonas Brothers. on the cover of Rolling Stone.

for those of you who don't know, the Jonas Brothers are another Disney phenomenon...think Miley Cyrus after a sex change and turned into three adolescent boys..you get the picture. of course after seeing this i had to check out the comment section to see how people were taking this news...these are some of the comments i enjoyed the most:

"It's official: I am subscribing to Spin magazine, where musicians (not novelties or flavors of the month or fame whores) grace the pages"
"I'm very disappointed with you, Rolling Stone. This is just fueling the fire that is the disgusting Emo music thats plaguing the mainstream."
"what the fck is wrong with you RS? putting these goddamn teenybopper SELLOUTS on the front cover? when you could have put the who, the foo fighters, and pearl jam on there? REAL rock bands. you've just lost another reader."

to be perfectly honest, i understand where these people are coming from. they're upset to see that their beloved Rolling Stone, the valiant white knight of all that is Rock & Roll journalism, put these three half rate musicians on the cover...it's as simple as that.

however, what these people don't understand is that RS's job/purpose is to report on the ongoing trends of popular music and highlight what is culturally significant/relevant. while it personally pains me to say it, the Jonas Brothers represent a significant shift in where popular music is going. in 2006 High School Musical was the highest selling album in the US; miley cyrus is topping charts everywhere, and the Jonas Brothers are doing just as well. tweens have become pretty much the target group for gearing records towards, not only because the music is "kid friendly" so parents don't mind their kids listening to it....but more importantly, these kids don't know how to download music illegally. that's why they buy these records. that's why high school musical was the best selling album in 2006.

so is RS doing a disservice to its readers by putting the Jonas Brothers on the cover? no. for better or for worse the Jonas Brothers represent the possible future of pop music, and RS is simply performing its duty by looking into why this is..it's no different from when the NSync graced the cover in 2000. as long as Rolling Stone does more cover stories on musical acts, good or bad, instead of articles on the girls from The Hills then i couldn't care less who they put on as long as they are relevant to the current state of pop music.

will i buy ever actually buy/download a Jonas Brothers album? no. and i doubt that this article will make me want to. but becasue I love music and because i want to understand it's future i'll sit down and read it instead of whining like the other purist rock snobs.