Brand New Beat
The Wild Rise of Rolling Stone Magazine
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
How the iconic publication's unruly first decade rewrote the rules of journalism.
Rolling Stone's first decade was truly rock and roll: chaotic, wild, and unpredictable. Brand New Beat charts the origins and evolution of the magazine during its formative early years in San Francisco. Founded in 1967 by a 21-year-old college dropout, Rolling Stone and its editors were steeped in the Bay Area's counterculture and viewed rock and roll as the animating spirit of a social revolution. Reaching beyond music, the magazine delved into the tempestuous culture and politics of the time.
Acclaimed author Peter Richardson takes readers inside the iconic magazine during an era of legendary events, major cultural figures, and unforgettable music. Showing how Rolling Stone became a journalistic juggernaut—nurturing music-focused writers like Cameron Crowe, Lester Bangs, and Greil Marcus as well as New Journalism giants Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe—this book reveals how Rolling Stone both exemplified and critiqued the counterculture. Always more than the definitive rock magazine, Rolling Stone leveraged the power of popular music to deliver groundbreaking coverage of historic events, setting a new standard for the next generation of American journalism.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Music writer Richardson (Savage Journey) unspools a comprehensive account of how Rolling Stone went from "undercapitalized San Francisco rock publication, edited by a 21-year-old college dropout," to one of the era's most prominent magazines. Launched in 1967, Rolling Stone was initially dismissed as just another hippie rag but distinguished itself by treating rock music seriously, "like this stuff mattered." This was largely thanks to cofounders Ralph Gleason, a lefty jazz writer who covered the counterculture in hyperbolic yet astute prose; and Jann Wenner, a music, politics, and journalism obsessive with the rare ability for a longhair to talk seriously with men in suits. Richardson largely (and wisely) sticks to the magazine's first decade, before Wenner—always more fan and observer than true hippie—moved the office to New York City. Those 10 years make for a speedy capsule history, capturing the magazine's coverage of one dire milestone after another (Manson, Altamont, Nixon). But rather than using Rolling Stone to explain America, Richardson digs into the colorful personalities who made the publication what it was, from gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson to such music-mad writers as Lester Bangs and Greil Marcus (whose frequent scraps with Wenner are also cataloged). This doesn't break much new ground, but it's a captivating record of a magazine that chronicled the revolution as it happened.
