“Vibe” Gives Us Something To Talk About

Once again, we present Rock-Critically Correct, a feature in which the most recent issues of Rolling Stone, Blender, Vibe, and Spin are given a once-over by a writer who’s contributed to many of those magazines, as well as a few others! In this installment, he looks at the new issue of Vibe:

In the month since Your Boy last assessed Vibe, the publication found itself in a most unfamiliar position: For the first time in a very great while, folks such as your Idolatrix, a few other blawgahs, and various news outlets found selected content within to be newsworthy.

Two weeks ago came Robin Thicke’s complaint to Joshua Alston, the author of the October issue’s “The White Boy Who Turned You Out,” that he believes he was denied any consideration as the mag’s cover boy for this month because he’s Caucasian, and expanded on his theory elsewhere. It is very likely that the mag’s own tidbit was leaked by a Vibe staffer before the issue hit the stands, and with a wave of the wand and a presto or two, the attention that eluded Vibe’s 15th anniversary issue materialized!

(Incidentally, Thicke’s claim is more or less indisputable. While music magazines aimed at white readers, like Rolling Stone, Spin, and Blender, must put African-Americans on their respective covers from time to time in order to defuse any charges of de facto racism, Vibe probably would and very likely has faced accusations from readers that featuring a white cover subject like Eminem or Justin Timberlake would amount to the magazine “selling out.”)

This past week, rumors surfaced that poor lil’ Ciara was crying foul over allegedly being Photoshopped to appear starkers on the mag’s cover. And the attached story, “Barely There”? Associate music editor Shanel Odum seems to proceed under the notion that, simply because her interlocutee either has nothing to say or is under strict orders to say nothing remotely interesting, using the “let’s pretend that this singer might be consenting to sexual congress with the reader” conceit is not hugely lazy. But she would be very, very wrong.

And so it goes. These are the kinds of brushfires that an entertainment publication must either manufacture or merely engage gamely should it wish to survive in an environment that threatens to swallow it. This month, Vibe has descended from its alternately fluffy and avuncular remove and seems part of some conversation somewhere. Thus editor-in-chief Danyel Smith has earned her keep.

While YB didn’t find either of the aforesaid articles otherwise very interesting, he’s pleased to say that he rather enjoyed “Boys To Men,” Hillary Crosley’s diligently reported story on the Floridian foursome Pretty Ricky. This is partly because YB is inordinately fond of melismatic R & B boy bands like Boyz II Men, B2K, and Immature, but also because Crosley has the good fortune to have as forthcoming as interviewee as Joseph “Blue” Smith.

Smith is not only the svengali of Pretty Ricky, and the father of two Ricky-ites. He evidently has no problem telling Crosley that “he didn’t mean to have 12 children with ‘about eight different women.’ He says his ‘super-sperm’ breaks through most every birth control method invented.” YB is confident the moment these words left Smith’s mouth, Crosley offered a silent prayer of thanks to the deity of her choice.

She goes on detail the travails that Smith and his charges have endured since last year’s acrimonious departure of frontman Pleasure P and the addition of replacement Christopher “4Play” Myers. While Smith denies that he fits the tyrannical Joe Jackson role common to boy band maestros, he admits that he “used to put the battery in the sock and throw it at them when they didn’t want to practice.” As much as the piece ostensibly regards Pretty Ricky —the awesomely dubbed Spectacular Smith is photographed unclothed, with only a hat covering his spectacularity—it belongs to the elder Smith. Well done, Ms. Crosley!

This issue is also the first that reflects a much needed design overhaul, one that was promised by Smith last month and one YB has thought necessary for as long as he’s been writing this column. Now, new artist profiles, photo features, shilly product rundowns and every piece that places no demand on the reader’s attention span are grouped in the Front of Book, as it should be, and the mag’s design is less haphazard and unpleasant to look at. Now YB would like breakfast in bed, Vibe! Chop-chop! Quick like bunny!

Easily the most notable change in the refurbished Vibe is that the “Revolutions” album review section has done gone bye-bye. Smith acknowledges this in her “EdNote”: “…In 2008, the most passionate conversations about music revolve around singles and remixes and playlists and who’s downloading what from where and how.” (She directs readers interested in album reviews toward the magazine’s Web site.) The closest approximation of arts criticism in the mag will be represented henceforth by The Big Idea, a “helicopter view” essay that this month finds Music Editor Sean Fennessey seemingly alarmed by R & B performers like Ne-Yo not being thuggish enough for his liking.

It doesn’t surprise YB that Smith did not mention the fact that Vibe’s one- to two-month lead time prevents any sort of meaningful engagement with the way music is produced by the artists the magazine covers and acquired by her intended readership. It also doesn’t surprise YB that Smith did not mention that the record companies with which her magazine has traditionally done business have been loath in the past couple of years to supply leaky editorial types with finished music, upon which a bottom line depends.

Of the four magazines regularly considered in this space, it seems that only fusty ol’ Rolling Stone, which is published every two weeks, can credibly contend with newly released records. Increasingly, Blender and Spin are left to review highly anticipated records a month after they’ve been digested by their audience alongside a bunch of also-rans no one will remember six months from now. So you can’t blame Vibe for dumping a component that, despite being the cornerstone of music magazines for the history of the publishing category, no longer makes much sense. How long will it be until Blender, Spin, and Rolling Stone?em> follow suit? Probably sooner than you think.