Rolling Stone's "Choose the Cover" Contest

Granted, the magazine has fallen in stature since the days of Dr. Hook's unforgettable hit, "The Cover of the Rolling Stone" but give Rolling Stone credit for attempting to use its sway to try to make a few new stars. It is currently hosting a contest to determine which unsigned band will not only feature on the cover of a future issue, but also get a recording contract with Atlantic records. This prospect seems almost quaint in a day and age when a group can become a hit act without having a contract or even a physical CD, but as we know, just because an act can become a hit without those things doesn't mean suddenly every band on the internet becomes superstars without something you can buy in stores. Call this, then, American Idol for worthwhile acts.

The question becomes a democratized: which band do you think should get the bump? Which is most deserving, most representative of our readers' tastes? Who deserves a career? And in truth, which I clicked the link, I expected mainly generic rock and R&B and pop acts and stuff you can generally make in your basement, with maybe on or two standouts that would provide an easy choice. I thought I'd hear mainly reflections and imitations of already-popular acts. To RS' credit, I was pretty much wrong.

Most, if not all, of the acts currently in the running deserve a shot. Some of them are good and some of them seem like they might be brilliant. Most of them don't seem like they're just trying to have a hit or appeal to the broadest audience. Going through them, the choice was a tough one, but I knew I wanted to bring attention to it on this blog, and I figured to do that, I should have a favourite.

The Romany Rye reminds me of My Morning Jacket, with harmonies, big hooks and blues licks. Despite my initial reservations, Fictionist's melancholy "Before I'm Old" is pretty affecting as it slowly builds to a stadium-sized hand-clapper. Jamestown Revival has a real down-home swampiness, and The Sheepdogs do Led Zeppelin as well as the Black Crowes. Solo females Leila Broussard and Skyler Stonestreet avert and work beyond the big-vocal female artists on the racks right now in their own ways. There's a genre-busting soul-r&b act called Tha Boogies, and an act reminiscent of Metric called Ume.

My personal favourites would be either PK (The Cars plus The Strokes?) or The Americans (tidal wavey neo-psychedelia blues) because they are simply the weirdest of the bunch and I would like to see how they played out over an entire album, but just because I endorse them doesn't mean I necessarily like their songs that much better than Broussard or the Sheepdogs or Fictionist. They've just left me with the idea that I'd want to hear more.

But I can't choose favourites. Fortunately, I don't think you're expected to, as you can star every act according to your own opinions and I guess the top eight move on. If you're so inclined, you can star all but the one band you don't want to win. Because I've had such a hard time disliking any of these acts, I'll be interested to see not only who wins, but whether this contest ultimately gets them to the top of the heap. I want to be cynical about this whole affair, but really, there's a lot of potential here. If this is an accurate sampling of the next few years of popular music, there's something to get excited about.