Rolling Stone All Access

I find myself wanting to listen to every episode even of the artist that I don’t really have a lot of familiarity with. The interviewer is excellent and gives the guest enough space to express what they want to say without push pushing on to the next topic or question. Thanks to all will make this possible.

I really enjoy this podcast for the personalities and music commentary. Please uncouple it from Nashville Now. we are adults and if we want to listen to that podcast, we can download it. And one final critique, the editing needs work. Transitions to and from commercials are very abrupt. Overall, definitely one of my favorite podcast.

I love Brian Hiatt and company (especially Brittany). Even though I’m not a fan of Taylor Swift and her contemporaries, I always find something of interest in each episode. Brian’s and Rob’s and Brittany’s deep love of music and their insightful commentary make this one of my favorite podcasts.

I come here all the time just to hear their takes on what’s going on in pop music, but the Taylor Swift episodes with Brian, Brittany, and Rob are my favorite! They have such an extensive knowledge of Taylor lore it makes the deep dive really informative and funny!

This used to be a pretty good podcast up until the past couple of years, with a nice mix of interviews and analysis on classic rock, modern pop, R&B, rap and country, and even a dash of indie music and electronic. All of a sudden, it randomly converted to an all-country format for half the year. Even with the recent restoration of a few non-country themed episodes, the feed has gotten so country heavy that the podcast didn’t even bother to mark the death of D’Angelo— the most universally loved, acclaimed, influential R&B singer of the past 30 years (also the token modern R&B singer even pop-hating, rock-loving boomers love), who certainly merited a full episode retrospective. The podcast also had nothing to say about many of the biggest albums and artists of the year. Not to say there weren’t flaws before, though. If you didn’t notice a few key episodes of this podcast’s pre-2025 existence, you might be really impressed. The main host Brian Hiatt is a skilled, well researched interviewer who, while he favors the softball question, also has an unusual level of ability to appear sincere and thoughtful rather than merely buttering up the guests. Reading the magazine/website version of Rolling Stone, it is often impossible to take seriously due to a sense that the writers don’t truly BELIEVE what they’re saying (like saying U2’s new music in the 2010s is a masterpiece, that kinda thing), but Brian Hiatt almost fixes that issue with the podcast— he really makes you believe he loves music. Instead of the magazine’s tendency to hype up anything involving (in nearly all cases, long past prime) “classic rock” figureheads, with an added bit of insincere and desperate, chart-hopping poptimism, the podcast’s mix of poptimism and classic rock worship feels more earnest because it tends to concentrate on music in both categories that is actually good, and not merely lucrative. There are of course exceptions to this— sometimes mediocre albums or songs simply have so much commercial success that they will get the royal treatment— but the podcast attempts to make up for it with lists covering lesser known artists in many genres, and often brings in younger critics who aren’t afraid to contradict Hiatt. (Though, we do also get graced with the frequent presence of the insufferable guest Rob Sheffield, a writer who loves the sound of his own voice but rarely uses it to say anything an AI couldn’t.) Unfortunately, the racism for which the magazine’s founder Jann Wenner is famous does make appearances. The podcast chooses to dedicate an entire episode to hyping up the “innovations” of Grimes in the field of AI, despite the fact Grimes did not even bother to make herself available for an interview (sending her manager instead). Grimes is of course, an indie pop artist who was influential about a decade ago, but her recent work has been more in the field of white-nationalist politics than music (she had not released any music for years at the time of her episode) and she’s been vocal in explaining that her embrace of AI is connected to her belief in the ideas of far-right accelerationism. Grimes has used her twitter/x and instagram to promote the racist philosopher Curtis Yarvin aka Moldbug (who endorses a return to feudalism and slavery) and several scientists and activists involved in the eugenics movement (such as Simone and Malcolm Collins, and Richard Spencer associate Razib Khan). This is not even scratching the surface— she has also lent her support to a neo fascist magazine, Palladium, founded by an actual holocaust denier (attending fundraising galas for them two years in a row, even doing a cover story). And much, much more. She has even “jokingly” made fun of the Holocaust herself. (Note, Grimes is not, in any way, Jewish.) Now, you can argue maybe Rolling Stone is just taking an “apolitical” interest in Grimes, disregarding her history of white-power hate speech and even outright anti-Semitism because of the “importance” of her recent AI experiments (despite having been beaten to the punch a decade ago on AI by the work of Holly Herndon). This becomes untenable though, when you notice another episode from not long before the Grimes one— a hit piece against Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, in which the hack Andy Greene (like Sheffield, one of RS’s least talented contributors) concocts a ridiculous narrative that Waters is anti-Semitic simply because he opposes the war in Ukraine (opposed by 99% of the world), and the brutal occupation of Palestinians by the Israeli military (also opposed by 99% of the world— including by nearly all American Jews under age 50). By attempting to silence or even “cancel” the anti-racist, pro-peace activist Waters (who only seems “radical” because all the rest of his boomer generation sold out those ‘60s ideals long ago, proving their peace-and-love was just a get-rich-quick scheme), Rolling Stone podcast proves their lack of editorial independence from Penske Media Corporation, the huge company who owns them. Penske also owns Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Indiewire, even Artforum. They’ve gone mask off over the past year, using these publications to advance a far right political dogma about the evils of unions (Hollywood Reporter and Variety were full of pro-corporate, scab propaganda during the writers/actors strikes). Another key plank in their ideology is fealty to the Likud Party of Israel. Any attempt, no matter how timid, to express dissent with the ideology of genocide toward Palestinians, can result in firing from a Penske publication (as seen when they fired the editor of Artforum for merely calling for a ceasefire). No amount of interviewing skill or even surprisingly decent taste can make up for this podcast’s cowardice in going along with Penske’s genocidal political requirements. It is unconscionable to pretend Roger Waters is antisemitic because of his support of human rights, while then elevating a literal open fascist and anti-Semite such as Grimes.

I have been listening to this podcast for many years. The interviews (generally) go deep in the weeds and provide great insights about artists I love and admire. However, like most things in America The Rolling Stones Music Now ignores the contributions of black women in music. In the last episode (which how many episodes are we gonna get about Taylor and I say this as a Taylor fan) you ignored the myriad of black women carrying a guitar to protect themselves from the dominant gaze. Women like Corraine Bailey Rae, Lauren Hill, Indie Arie and so many others. Taylor is undeniably an important artist but why not shine a light on other women who are doing the hard work but getting sidelined. I do love this podcast and appreciate Brian and Brittany’s knowledge. However, I just cannot continue to support work that routinely ignores the contributions of black people and more specifically black women.