Spin (magazine)

Infobox Magazine
title = Spin


image_size = 200px
image_caption = "Featuring Oasis. "Louder than Bombs,
bigger than God, mad as hatters"
publisher = Spin Media LLC
paid_circulation =
unpaid_circulation =
total_circulation = 450,000
circulation_year = 2007
language = English
category = Music
frequency = Monthly
editor = Doug Brod
editor_title = Editor
founded = 1985
firstdate = May 1985
country = flag|United States
language = English
website = [http://www.spin.com spin.com]
issn = 0886-3032

"Spin" is a music magazine that reports on Music for Life. Founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr., it competes with industry stalwart "Rolling Stone". Madonna Ciccone was the subject of the cover of the first issue.

In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard. It pointedly provided a national alternative to the "Rolling Stone's" more establishment-oriented style. "Spin" prominently placed newer artists such as R.E.M., Prince, Run-D.M.C., The Eurythmics, Beastie Boys, and Talking Heads, on its covers and did lengthy features on established figures such as Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, Miles Davis, Aerosmith, Lou Reed, Tom Waits, and John Lee Hooker—Bart Bull's article on Hooker won the magazine its first major award.

Putting Black artists and women artists on the cover was considered a risk, potentially damaging newsstand sales. Moreover, the magazine devoted itself to a long term set of investigative pieces on the AIDS crisis at a time when even gay publications were concerned about losing advertisers by doing coverage of the disease. On a cultural level, the magazine devoted significant coverage to hardcore punk, country and alternative country, reggae and world music, experimental rock, jazz of the most adventurous sort, the burgeoning college rock and underground music scenes of the 1980s, and a variety of fringe styles. Artists such as The Ramones, Patti Smith, Blondie, X, Black Flag, and the former members of The Sex Pistols, The Clash, and the early punk/new wave movement were cultural heritage pioneers in "Spin's" editorial mix, and were reviewed, featured, and mentioned constantly at a time when Rolling Stone and other publications scarcely acknowledged their existenceFact|date=August 2008. Spin's extensive coverage of [hip-hop music and culture, especially that of contributing editor John Leland, was notable at a time when no other national publication was paying serious attention to the genre.Fact|date=August 2008.

Editorial contributions by musical and cultural figures such as Lydia Lunch, Henry Rollins, David Lee Roth, Dwight Yoakam, and others were an innovation at the time. The magazine also did scene reports on cities such as Austin, Texas, or Glasgow, Scotland, at times when they were unrecognized as cultural incubators. A 1990 article on the contemporary country blues scene brought R.L. Burnside to national attention for the first time. Coverage of American cartoonists, Japanese "manga", monster trucks, outsider artists, "Twin Peaks", and other non-mainstream cultural phenomena distinguished the magazine's dynamic early years.

In late 1987, publisher Bob Guccione Jr.'s father, Bob Guccione Sr., abruptly shut the magazine down despite the fact that the 2-year-old magazine was widely considered a success, with a newsstand circulation of 150,000.Fact|date=August 2008 Guccione Jr. was able to rally much of his staff, locate new investors and offices, and after missing a month's publication, returned with a combined November-December issue.

Guccione sold the magazine to Miller Publishing in 1997. In February 2006, Miller Publishing sold the magazine for less than US$5 million to a San Francisco-based company called the McEvoy Group LLC, which was also the owner of Chronicle Books.cite news|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle|accessdate=2007-10-17|title=S.F. group buys 20-year-old rock music magazine Spin|author=George Raine|date=March 1, 2006|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/03/01/BUG8VHGCI11.DTL] That company formed Spin Media LLC as a holding company. The new owners replaced editor-in-chief Sia Michel with Andy Pemberton, a former editor at "Blender". The first issue to be published under his command was the July 2006 issue—sent to the printer in May 2006)—which featured Beyoncé on the cover. Pemberton and "Spin" parted ways in June 2006. The current editor, Doug Brod, was executive editor during Michel's tenure.

For "Spin's" 20th year, it released a book chronicling the last two decades in music. The book has essays on Britpop, grunge, emo, and many other types of music, as well as pieces on musical acts including Marilyn Manson, Nirvana, Weezer, Nine Inch Nails, Limp Bizkit, and The Smashing Pumpkins.

In February 2008, "Spin" released a digital edition available through Texterity.

Notable contributors have included Dave Eggers, Chuck Klosterman, Byron Coley, Kim France, Tad Friend, Elizabeth Gilbert, Andy Greenwald, William T. Vollman, Will Hermes, Dave Itzkoff, David Bourgeois, John Leland, Bart Bull, Greil Marcus, Matt Groening, Glenn O'Brien, Norman Mailer, R. Meltzer, Karen Schoemer, William S. Burroughs, Anton Corbijn, Bob Gruen, Roberta Bayley, Jon Dolan, Jonathan Ames, Strawberry Saroyan, Paul Beahan (founder of Manimal Vinyl), Michael O'Donoghue, Bönz Malone, and Marc Spitz.

References

External links

* [http://www.spin.com Spin.com] - Official site
* [http://digital.spin.com/spin/200801 digital.Spin.com] —Digital edition