Rock the Nation? (Rock Sound)

Member Name: Ian Proudfoot

Product:	Rock Sound
Date:	04/07/01 (54 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Wide musical coverage, Free CD, Passion

Disadvantages: Sloppy , Too metal ?

The last couple of years have seen massive changes in the UK’s music press. Melody Maker and Select have got to the big recycling bin in the sky. NME has taken upon itself to become a more popularist paper, whilst alienating it’s core readership, hence the 8% fall in it’s circulation since January 2001. Sailing against this wind of destruction tearing through the UK music press is a new comer on the monthly scene its name is Rock Sound.

Rock Sound may sound like a magazine dedicated to the poodle hair bands of the late 1980’s, but in reality it stands as the most radical and all embracing music magazines published by the mainstream press. Where as it’s nearest musical rivals Kerrang and Metal Hammer still seems semi trapped in the old world of greasy haired guitar soloing rock, Rock Sounds manages to pull itself away from this tar pit by covering a wider range of music than it’s peers.

Where Kerrang and Metal Hammer are primarily still concerned by the worlds of rock and metal, Rock Sound has the guts and imagination to cover all aspects of modern music. So in your average issue of Rock Sound you can expect to see coverage of Punk/hardcore, Indie, hip-hop, electronica, Industrial/Darkwave and Post rock as well as your common and garden rock and the myriad splinter factions of metal. Which is great for your modern music fan that no longer views music by its genre but rather by its quality.

So what do you get when you buy Rock Sound? Well apart from a A4 glossy magazine with roughly 100 pages you also get a free CD which features tracks by many of the artists featured in the magazine. This is perhaps Rock Sounds greatest feature as for once you actually get to hear the bands that which the magazine is raving about in the current issue. Which is equally a curse and a blessing. A curse because it let’s you hear bands that you may never had bothered listening to before, only to find they are sublime
and you then feel the need to then purchase their whole back catalogue. A blessing because it does introduce to new music but also warns you off about the poor bands who seem to be getting the unjustified hype or are simply just utter pants.

Rock Sounds however is a mixed bag when it comes to the actual journalist and written content of the magazine. On the positive side we get passionate and mainly well informed writing with a few familiar names cropping up from Melody Maker. We also get journalists writing on the genres they understand which avoids the common problem of a journo having no real appreciation or knowledge of the subject. Most of the writing is of a medium high standard and also manages to avoid being pretentious or self-promoting. Things are slightly let down by the more than occasional typo or poor type facing.

Where the Journalism does fall down is that is often too polite and easy on the artists it covers. Some times it would be nice to see an artist receiving a grilling on some of their ideas and actions. Maybe it’s just me but I like to see an artist put under pressure to explain some of their more woolly thinking. Also Rock Sound is some time lacking a bit of oomph it is live and album reviews. Lots of reviews are incredibly short and don’t really achieve any critical analysis. This is probably more down to space limitations, but sometimes it does seem that less is indeed less.

The only other thing that annoys me about Rock Sounds is that even though it does try to cover different forms of music it is still predominantly a Metal magazine in attitude. This is shown in the editorial style and the general feel of the magazine. Maybe it’s because I am older than the target age of Rock Sounds but I find this approach rather redundant and antiquated. If Rock Sound could just break away from this tradition then it could be an equal to its American equivalent Alternative Press, where music matters more on it
’s creativity rather than how hard it rocks.

Rock Sounds however remains a lifeline amongst the quicksand of the UK press, which is becoming increasingly dummed down and tabloid. It’s defiantly on the right path but needs to shed some of its historical baggage and tightened up some of its slackness before it can become a truly great read.

Summary: