in the late 1960s Jann Wenner He created ‘Rolling Stone,’ there was nothing like it in the United States. Of course, there were magazines devoted to music or titles such as ‘Esquire’, which featured the topics and authors that would form New Journalism. But the ‘Rolling Stone’ proposal was innovative due to its success in including: musical and political themes and an affinity that its rivals do not possess because being published every two weeks made it possible to approach current events more easily than monthly magazines.
“You also had to be very careful about what you said in other media, to maintain objectivity. At ‘Rolling Stone’ the writers could say whatever they wanted or whatever Jann allowed them to say. Once you became a member, ‘Rolling Stone’ in that sense was about civil rights, protests in Vietnam.” “He was the voice of ‘baby boomer’ youth culture, including civil disobedience, articles about rock bands, and his music! It was a great moment for music! There was a revolutionary spirit, and ‘Rolling Stone’ captured that,” he recalls. Robin GreenA journalist came to the newsroom one fine day in 1971, looking for a job. Before she knew it, she had become the first female editor of Rolling Stone.
“Looking back, I realized that I was the only girl. By the mid-70s, women were no longer just office workers and largely ran the editorial department. In this sense, I did not notice anything sexist in Jann Wenner’s attitude. In fact, she allowed me to write on their behalf and even took me I felt like he was happy to invite men to editorial meetings. I was the one who didn’t like it. constant competition for attention and power“says Green, who thus rejecting the racist and sexist accusations Wenner has received Because only white men were allowed to appear in the pages of ‘Rolling Stone’ a few months ago.
“I never thought of Jann Wenner as a racist or sexist. When all this nonsense about her came out, I emailed her and told her that no matter what, I was against all this cancel culture nonsense.” He didn’t like this and called his accusers mafia, insensitive and indifferent lynching friends. I guess we live in a time when people jump on the bandwagon without thinking much and without even looking behind interesting headlines. If you pay attention, these were the covers of ‘Rolling Stone’ in the 60s. Janis Joplin And Tina Turner. It is also true that it was in the late 60s and early 70s. only ten percent of readers were womenIt is probably an objective fact that is also reflected in the content. Things changed completely when the number of women in the newsroom increased in 1975 or 1976, but as far as I know, there were never any restrictions when it came to hiring female writers.
Journalism stars
Being the editor of ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine in the early 70s was the dream of every young person of that time. The job required meeting music stars, traveling with them, enjoying sex and drugs, and reflecting this in the texts and embodying the magazine’s lifestyle, sometimes to the point that persona and character blurred.
“There was a definite feeling that we were the best. I don’t know if readers want to live the life we live, but I’m sure other journalists are certainly jealous of our freedom and entertainment opportunities. This sometimes brought some problems, for example Hunter S. Thompson. He created a persona in his writings, and readers expected him to live up to it. So much so that he stated in an interview that he did not know what his listeners expected from him: himself, a very kind and even modest person, or that wild, bright and narcotic voice in his writings. In my case, I don’t know if people expect any special behavior from me beyond being smart and cool, but maybe.”
Unaware of the power strategies of the editorial staff and the struggle to get the most interesting topics, Robin Green decided to take advantage of this intelligence and genius to develop his own style as an editor. “I haven’t written big stories about music, although I think I might have if they were commissioned. I also didn’t write about politics because that wasn’t my area of interest. My writings tended toward irony and were more about solving the mystery than admiration.. So I wrote about the big talk Black Sabbathabout his sensuality Bee Gees and about his stupidity David Cassidy “This was a story about the teen idol business without losing that fun touch.”
Needing the support of a specialized press, the fledgling music industry of the 60s and 70s was much less cautious about exposing its artists in the media. In the David Cassidy case, the PR team thought a story in ‘Rolling Stone’ would re-launch his career; but he didn’t imagine the teenage idol would look like he was depicted in all his miseries in the hands of Robin Green.
“Although I feel some remorse, in reality I am not ashamed of what happened in David Cassidy’s article because so many people were responsible for it. Cassidy wanted to shed her teenage pop artist image in order to be seen as a real rocker. They thought the best way to do this was to get a cover in Rolling Stone. But what could the magazine say about him other than what I said? After this his PR was fired and David retired from show business for a while. When he returned as an adult, I had contact with him and his circle, and he did not hold a grudge against me. “I realized there were much worse demons to deal with, like alcohol.”
Despite being a major contributor to ‘Rolling Stone’ with her various cover articles, Robin Green was suddenly fired by Jann Wenner for not submitting a timely report on the Kennedy family children.
By then I was already tired of being the press’s hitman. Haven’t these children and their families experienced enough pain for me to add the pain of telling them what I’ve learned about them?
“Jann never found out why I didn’t turn in the paper about the Kennedys. What actually happened was I slept with one of them, a college freshman. In any case, that was just part of it.” I did not write the article. At that time already He was tired of being some kind of hitman for the press. Haven’t these children and their families experienced enough pain for me to add the pain of telling them what I’ve learned about them? What did they really do to deserve attention, other than being born into that tragic family? Of course, there was also the matter of having slept with one of them. Since I pride myself on reporting the facts honestly, it would not be right for me to write an article that did not mention what happened, and I did not feel that this was a matter of any concern to anyone, neither the readers nor the family. “I didn’t write this report,” explains Green, who has no regrets about his decision or the end of his working relationship with Rolling Stone.
“Then I started writing for newspapers and magazines again, and for a while I was in charge of a monthly publication before working in television, which had an emotional and dramatic side, as opposed to the more intellectual journalism. Despite everything, it was not easy at all: There were asshole bosses when it came to sexism, but none of them were part of MeToo; From a business perspective, there were deadlines and pressures, and when I became an executive producer of shows and they needed me on set, I had to put in many, many hours. When you think about it, television has a lot of similarities with Rolling Stone. These are jobs that end up being your life because, as Kesey said on the bus with the Merry Pranksters, they belong to a cultural giant in full swing.
Patricia Godes is the only daughter of Spanish music journalism
Traditionally, those responsible for writing high society notes and party and concert dates in newspapers were women, apparently unable to write about international politics or events. Despite this background, the presence of women in music-related Spanish editorials was not very common until recently. This definitely makes Patricia Godes even if she’s not the “only girl” One of the pioneers of the music sections of newspapers and special magazines of the 80s.
“Matching exists in society, and of course I suffered from it in my job. I wasn’t paid less than my colleagues because we all earned ridiculous amounts of money, but I received more criticism from my male colleagues. And even though they didn’t want to. I would never kill any of my friends.” I received both sexual advances and death threats“This machismo is not only in the behavior of colleagues and readers, but also in the way of writing about music,” recalls Godes.
“The scale of the values of music criticism is very masculine in a bad way. It’s like a football match: mine against another; my tribe against another. In my case, because I know a little more about music, how it’s recorded, and where almost every instrument except percussion is played, interviews with musicians always good, but because my other colleagues don’t understand music and generally don’t read professional magazines, They are making a critique that is nothing more than a literary excuse to find very masculine language that defines the values they want to defend.. For example, everything is more expensive, faster, more exclusive, louder… For example, an attitude that means belittling beautiful, sweet, lighter, more melodic music as slimy.”
Although the number of women on the editorial staff has now increased, this male bias still exists in music criticism, according to Godes. “I’m so happy to have all these girls there who aren’t so young anymore because they’ve been writing for twenty years. I love them all, they’re great, they know a lot about music, they’re very funny, but I can’t say for sure but I can say they come from journalism school, there’s a lot of music even though they don’t come from there.” They read the press, which is still a very masculine environment. In fact, in the beginning So I imitated that fake informationbut then I found my own language, and that made people feel very bad,” explains Godes, who thinks this male hegemony has increased compared to when she started working.
“This canon is heavier than when I started and machismo grew in geometric progression. I told three colleagues about my ideas, and all three of them made a book with them without asking me if I wanted to do it, without saying they would do it, and without remembering that these were my ideas. I also had to remove the music programs I made on the radio from the website after four or five men published books with the same name, interviewed the same characters, followed the same formula or repeated the same interviews… using my scripts! This, I’m so sorry, didn’t happen in the 80s. It didn’t even happen in the ’70s.”