Rolling Stone covers 30 rockin' years

Anniversaries are always good excuses for people to do something special, be it a candlelit dinner, an unexpected present or some other gentle show of kindness.

But rarely does an entire city get to benefit from the personal milestones of just one celebration. Fortunately for Ann Arbor, Rolling Stone has decided to commemorate its 30 years of chronicling popular culture by bringing its multimedia Covers Tour to the Union for display today through Thursday.

The travelling exhibit has hit college campuses across the country, featuring enough music history and memorabilia to keep visitors enthralled for hours.

Rolling Stone hopes not only to entertain, but also to inform with this multifaceted exhibit.

Courtesy of Rolling Stone Cover girls Courtney Love, Tina Turner and Madonna are among the rock icons whose Rolling Stone cover appearances will be on display at the Union.

"For (college-aged kids) walking into the mess that is rock 'n' roll right now, it is good to get a little perspective in a painless, but educational way," said David Wild, senior editor of Rolling Stone, in a recent interview.

Educational, indeed. More than 30 years of popular culture are depicted and illustrated through the images of the magazine's many provocative and insightful covers.

The covers themselves are arranged into a variety of specific categories. One collection showcases the covers that have documented the ever-changing face of rock, spanning the Sex Pistols through Run D.M.C. up to the Prodigy.

Another section focuses on some of the magazine's featured "Great Stories," and another segment highlights some of Rolling Stone's most lauded cover stars, from Elvis Presley to Kurt Cobain.

PREVIEW
	Rolling Stone Covers Tour Through March 26 Michigan Union

Despite the onslaught of competing magazines that have risen over the past decade, Rolling Stone has maintained its position atop the world of pop culture due in part to the undeniable appeal of the magazine's timely covers.

"The covers helped to set up the whole iconography of rock," Wild said, "but before Rolling Stone, I don't think there was ever a mainstream magazine that was covering these people. Now that has changed, and it's upped the ante so that we have to have covers that stand out."

Wild said, "Whether it's the couple from 'The X-Files' in bed, or Janet Jackson having her breast cupped, I think the magazine has had to constantly ask itself, 'How can we capture what's important to us and to the people?' We no longer have the corner on the market, so we have to be all the more vigilant about getting the best image for that cover."

Wild also said that visitors are not only assured of experiencing the magazine's best of the best, but are also promised several other insightful journeys into the world of rock. In addition to the arranged cover exhibits, there is also an audio portion of the tour which features interviews by the magazine's founder, Jann Wenner, with John Lennon and Mick Jagger, as well as a video exhibition presenting information about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum in Cleveland, Ohio.

The Hall of Fame has also contributed a variety of intriguing musical artifacts to the tour from its permanent collection, including Madonna's actual stage attire from the "Blonde Ambition" era, a guitar smashed to bits by Pete Townshend at a swirling Who concert in 1977, and also actual letters from various record companies rejecting offers to sign U2.

The Covers Tour will be at the Anderson Rooms A, B, C and D in the Union from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. The exhibit begins today and runs through Thursday.

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