MTV, a network that can no longer claim to be the "music authority," and Rolling Stone, a magazine that lost its counterculture credibility when Hunter S. Thompson and Lester Bangs pulled up stakes over twenty years ago, have teamed up for a reality series - I'm with Rolling Stone - that follows six young writers vying for a full-time contributing editor slot at the magazine.The series, which TV Squad reported on earlier this year, will make its debut on January 7th at 10PM for a ten-episode run. The six contestants were chosen from a pool of several thousand applicants. They spent this past summer fielding writing assignments from Rolling Stone's editors - including artist profiles, political coverage and event reviews. Some of the artists that turn up in the series include Ghostface Killah, We Are Scientists, The Roots and Band or Horses.
MTV's press release on the show was good enough to characterize each of the contestants for easy consumption. We've got the baby - a 19 year-old indie rocker with the right musical sensibility but not the confidence to make it in the big city. The hip-hopper who wants to bring 'hood to Rolling Stone. The Aussie party boy with the right attitude but zero skills. The over-confident slam poet, and the ringer - he's got the skills to pay the bills, but a bad-boy streak that could doom him from the start. This could get interesting - literate reality show competitors. And, hey, indie kid, if you don't win, you can always go write for Pitchfork.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-14-2006 @ 8:35PM
jon said...
Can't wait to watch it. A new kind of reality tv with its own unique blend..This would be very interesting indeed
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12-14-2006 @ 10:28PM
Chris said...
I seriously doubt any of these people have the skills to craft good journalism. Narrative writers like Gary Smith and Mike Sager, both often spend months crafting pieces, are probably one in a million. Additionally, I strongly doubt any of these "journalists" would be able to handle anything requiring depth or investigative reporting. Forget being the next Hunter, Woodward or Hersh, these wannabes probably couldn't even measure up to a Klosterman or an O'Rourke.
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12-15-2006 @ 8:52AM
Dave T said...
is this for real.
Seriously I just puked a little.
As a former music writer this is gross. i left the field because it was getting so competitive and rock critics kept getting older and writing gigs were getting scarcer. Now they result to this because print itself is dying. This is just gross.
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12-17-2006 @ 6:24PM
milton coldsac said...
Another Rolling Stone reality show, man, didn’t they learn their lesson with “Cocksucker Blues?”
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12-18-2006 @ 2:54PM
kg said...
I tried out for this show, and I, too, puke a little thinking about it. They wanted pop stars, not music writers. Not actual journalists. The questions were bubbly, "Ok, picture this, you're on the red carpet and have one question to ask to the most influential people in Hollywood.... Ok. Bono. Go. Gwyneth, go." Who cares about commercialized bs? Who would rather put shinier, thinner, faster above substance? MTV and Rolling Stone, that's who. They have no soul. And they seem alright with it.
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