Magazines SPIN
Books and Publications Average Rating:

Rating: - The Best (in print media), but getting worse...
Spin circa two years ago was a pretty good read. The articles were written with that nice, biting sarcasm (not VH1 eunich-sarcasm, mind you). The reviews, while relying heavily on name-checking, were pretty damn on-target. Even the incessant name-checking was done in a self-lacerating, self-aware fashion that was entertaining (eg, FUGAZI was once mentioned in a Wu-Tang review... yeah).

Whey th' hell you gone, SPIN (can I say that)? A recent issue gave Hootie and the GD Blowfish a "B+"!! Ugh. No further comment needed. Also, a promo piece for Madonna hanger-on Ali G. lamely joked about how England was our millitary ally but still "unleashed" him on our culture...shut up.

I love you, Spin, you convinced me to buy Ornette Coleman's 1971 jazz masterpiece Science Fiction. If you get any lamer, though, you'll be just another [junk] music mag (What?! Rolling Stone? Did someone say Rolling Stone?!).

Bleak, huh? Hey, don't worry, kid, haven't you heard? The i-net is usurping all sorts of mad cred from the print world.

---

Rating: - Counteracting All the Haters
What I don't understand is why all you supposed music fans have nothing better to do than slag the efforts of people who've devoted their professional lives to sifting through the garbage of the music world and highlighting the stuff you need to hear. As the title of one of Spin's columns puts it, Spin is full of the records "You Need to Hear Now." I know of no other music magazine that treats this duty with the seriousness it deserves. During the dark years of "mook rock," Spin was a lonely voice in the wilderness, highlighting such vitally important artists OutKast, Plastikman, and Clinton. Now that real rock is back, Spin is there to tell you the difference between the contenders and the pretenders.

Check it--this is how free-thinking Spin is: They realized that "Red Blood Cells" by the White Stripes is such a killer album, they named it the best release of 2002 even though it dropped in 2001!

And I'm assuming none of y'all caught the article "Don't Rock the Casbah" that appeared shortly after 9/11, about the...attempts by Unkle Sam to blame the attacks on Arab-American rappers.

And please--if not for Spin, would you have known that Brooklyn was ground zero for the new rock revolution? I think not.

Oh yeah, and don't hate on the layout, neither! I know a bunch of cats in the design world, and they all agree that Spin is the bling-blingiest-lookin' magazine on the block. Word!

So in summation, I would like to urge of all you, when it comes to Spin, to stop hatin' the playas _and_ the game.

C.A. out.

---

Rating: - Caters to the Lowest Common Denominator
If your idea of a quality musical experience is watching Fred Durst utter nonsensical gibberish on TRL, then SPIN is the magazine for you. SPIN's vein attempts to remain cool and cutting edge have spelled the downfall of this once decent publication. Of course, one could make the valid argument that the constant pursuit of cool over quality has nearly destroyed the entire music industry. Ironically, SPIN's editors fail to realise that poorly written puff pieces promoting Flavor of the Month MTV bands are a million miles short of cutting edge.

Like its equally horrid rival Rolling Stone, SPIN's editorial content pertains less to music and more toward trends and, of course, advertising. The slap-dash layout reads like a glossy MTV video designed specifically for those with faltering attention spans. Fans of rock music deserve so much better than this. Great rock journalism --and great music for that matter-- is a dying breed in the US. If you still care about quality music and informative writng, by all means check out high-grade UK publications MOJO and Q. Those mags are everything that SPIN is not.

---

Rating: - better in it's earlier days
I Liked SPin at first but sometime around the mid 90's through now I got bored with them.they ahve a few things I dug such as there take&asking artists too name there favorite Artists ever type of things but over time they went with the flow&just are kinda there.I don't get alot of what they have become&while I like some older issues&articles I don't pay them Mag much attention when I go magazine&book reading.