YMMV / Rolling Stone

• Funny Moments: Staff's reaction when, in 2013, the readers voted Nirvana the fifth worst band of the 1990s.
  "What the fuck happened here? Did the members of Warrant, Mötley Crüe, Poison and Bang Tango come together to stuff the ballot boxes? Who hates Nirvana? Sure, the crazy success of Nevermind meant that many Eighties superstars seemed like premature has-beens, but that was inevitable. Country Joe and the Fish didn't seem very cool in 1971, either. Times change. Fans move on. You're often only as big as your last hit. But Nirvana were a great band. Their three albums are nearly perfect, and they are guaranteed to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame next year. We're sorry, but everyone who voted for them in this poll is wrong."
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The band Dr. Hook And The Medicine Show released a song called "The Cover of Rolling Stone" in 1972 which made fun of artists who had "made it" by gracing the cover of the magazine. A few months after the song became a hit, the band was featured in caricature on the cover of Rolling Stones.
• Magazine Decay: Charged with this numerous times. In general their approach to music became steadily less countercultural in their first decade, reversing a little with their belated discovery of Punk Rock. In recent years the honor of being on the cover hasn't gone to exciting new people in music so much as any celeb-of-the-moment who might sell copies.
• Never Live It Down:
  • While recovered a bit from it, nobody will let Rolling Stone forget how rather crass they were on certain bands in the 60s and 70s such as Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd.
  • Nowadays, many may remember them putting the Boston Bomber's face on the cover in 2013, or the infamous "A Rape on Campus" article in 2014, where a lack of journalistic rigor lead to blatantly false rape accusations against a fraternity being published as fact.
• Popularity Polynomial: The late-80's/early '90s generally featured a lull in coverage toward breakthrough rock acts, preferring instead to focus on older ones such as Rod Stewart and The Rolling Stones. Their chief competitor Spin noticed this and earned acclaim and a sharp increase in subscription due to its heavy coverage of the two rising genres of the era - alternative rock and hip-hop - both of which Rolling Stone had mostly ignored aside from the occasional feature on Run–D.M.C. or R.E.M.. This reversed after the release of Nirvana's Nevermind and Dr. Dre's The Chronic and the subsequent Grunge and Gangsta Rap explosions.
• Polish the Turd: Film critic Peter Travers has been known to give blurbs (quotes featured on the back of DVDs), so he often gives quotable one-liners in his reviews that are contrary to his actual opinion toward the film. This has been lampooned and criticized by many people who believe that he is only in the business for quotability.
• Vindicated by History: Albums from artists such as Black Sabbath, Joni Mitchell, Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd were once given scathing reviews. Since then, the magazine has completely reversed its position and started to celebrate them.

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