by Aj Brady

Created on: March 07, 2009

To best sum up just how pre-eminent a music periodical "Rolling Stone" magazine is, a song was once written about it.

The magazine was formed in 1967 as a periodical revolving mostly around music, but also dealing in-depth with politics and popular culture.

The magazine began to gain real prominence in American society during the 1970s, when prominent American author and creator of "gonzo journalism", Hunter S. Thompson was writing some of his best work for the "Rolling Stone" magazine.

Since then, the magazine has become a cultural icon, pushing boundaries with provocative political, musical and pop culture content, coupled with brilliant journalism, famous photographers taking controversial pictures, and insightful looks into the business and pleasure of music.

Currently, "Rolling Stone" comes out bi-weekly, and a number of international editions have been spawned, most notably in Australia, the oldest of the international editions, which has been going successfully since 1972.

Rolling Stone found their circulation dropping off in the early 1990s, and tried to appeal to a wider, younger audience by focusing more on candy-cane pop stars and lighter fair.

However, this didn't go down well with traditionalists, who considered it "selling out" and "dumbing down" what had been such a storied periodical.

These days, the magazine has returned to its traditionally heavy political, pop cultural and musical rhetoric, and its readership has gone back upwards, with current figures suggesting about 1.4 million subscribers in America alone.

Because of Rolling Stone's pre-eminent place in world culture as THE bible on music and popular culture, gaining a cover spot on an edition of Rolling Stone is seen as highly sought-after by musicians today, something spoken about precisely in the tribute song to Rolling Stone all those years ago.

Rolling Stones employs some of the sharpest, most credible music critics in the world, and any act that gets reviewed by Rolling Stone is seen as a major coup on the path to global success.

Rolling Stone continues to unearth talented new musical acts before many other quarters, and is better than most other media in promoting acts currently performing.

Rolling Stone can be found in most stores across America where magazines are sold, or alternately can be subscribed to via the internet at rollingstone.com, should a person live elsewhere.

The magazine currently retails for $4.50, relatively cheap to be exposed to some of the sharpest minds and critical fare going around.

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