“Beatlepeople”: Gramsci, the Beatles, and Rolling Stone Magazine

Abstract

This research, focusing upon Rolling Stone s “underground” period (1967 through 1970), looks at founder Jann Wenner's use of the Beatles in promoting the counterculture ideal and promoting the success of his magazine, thereby helping to create a genre of magazine—one devoted to popular culture and attached subcultures—for which Rolling Stone remains an oft-copied but rarely eclipsed exemplar. Rolling Stone's early success is owed in no small measure to Wenner's editorial control and to the centrality of the Beatles to Wenner's counterculture ideal. The use by Wenner of the Beatles helped to ensure the success of Rolling Stone because, as Wenner was well aware, there were millions of “Beatlepeople” already in place—a welcoming audience for his struggling publication.