Gym, Tanning, Rolling Stone
posted in: Music News
John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Jimi Henrix, Eric Clapton… Snookie? That’s right, folks. Last week the pint-sized Chilean of Jersey Shore fame smushed her way into the prestigious group of artists who have been featured on the cover of Rolling Stone. Snooks has Ne-Yo questioning whether his career is even worth it and RS readers headed for the express-unsubscribe lane. As if Bieber wasn’t bad enough!
To be fair, the four-foot-nine firecracker is far from the first celeb to appear on an RS cover for reasons unrelated to music. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar appeared on the mag’s cover in 1978, Clint Eastwood got a cover feature in 1985 and we saw a little more of Jim Carrey than we wanted to in July of ’95. But Kareem has six championship rings and a league scoring record, Eastwood earned five Academy Awards and the title of world’s biggest badass and Jim Carrey… well, he used to be pretty funny. Snooki became famous for drunken boardwalk dancing, sleeping in dog beds and claiming that whale sperm is the reason the ocean is salty. In a Rolling Stone issue where featured artists include Mumford & Sons and Radiohead, does the Oompa-Loompa with liver damage really deserve the cover?
As much as it pains us to say it, the answer could be “yes”. How are fans consuming music these days? There’s a large audience of listeners who only discover new music through television, and it’s no secret that reality TV dominates the rankings. Snooki’s alcohol-soaked antics are a huge draw for that coveted 18-49 demographic. And when more than 8 million people are gluing their eyes to MTV for an hour every Thursday, well, that can mean valuable exposure for bands lucky enough to be featured on the show.
MTV seems to have picked up on the trend. Jersey Shore’s first season primarily featured bands from Jersey. The song selection ramped up in season two”producers were more mindful of the music and added more music to every episode. Now in its third season, the show features even more music from more artists. It seems like a good thing, but we have to admit that we’re a little worried. In a world where Real Housewives are allowed to make records and Kardashians think they’re talented enough to put out a single (they aren’t), can a track from Snooki really be far off? Terrifying stuff.
Bottom line: Rolling Stone might be dangerously close to becoming Teen People, but maybe we need to thank Snooki and the rest of her juiced-up, tanning bed-baked housemates for helping artists get featured on prime-time TV. Maybe it’s time we embrace the era of reality television and accept it as a tool for introducing fans to new music. Or… no, maybe not. Her RS cover might actually represent the fall of western civilization.