The strangely seductive banality of "Interview" magazine.

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Wherein every actress is "not your perky starlet" etc. And celebrities come off as strikingly intelligent, even sophisticated, at first and even second read. The interview format seems to occupy this peculiar mid-level of cultural journalism where stray prickly comments are allowed to come up, but they are ultimately subsumed by this overall sensibility of celebrity ass-kissing and back-slapping.

Do you read "Interview" magazine? What do you think of it?

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 19 December 2003 10:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Also what role did "Interview" play historical in the world of celebrity journalism? Was it originally just an upmarket gloss on those Hollywood fan magazines? Because the articles and interviews are so notably short, subordinated to photographs most of the time...

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 19 December 2003 10:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Was orginally "Andy Warhol's Interview", and thus visually fabulous and oddly full of emptiness.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Friday, 19 December 2003 10:41 (twenty-one years ago)

i guess i'm most interested in the "seductive" part...

as you say, colin, "interview" is basically empty, but somehow it sustains the illusion of being not-empty, or rather it succesfully projects a sense of independence and intelligence, if only for a short while. what does it do right--as far as it goes--that other similar magazines do not, and why does it still come up so short? what version of celebrity are they selling and is it a different thing from the other ones? did it represent a new version of celebrity when it first came out?

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 19 December 2003 10:49 (twenty-one years ago)

To the extent that "Hi, Mick and Bianca." "Hi, Andy. Can you pass the cocaine?" was new, yes.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Friday, 19 December 2003 10:52 (twenty-one years ago)

eight months pass...

if every starlet featured in a hollywood magazine is "not your average starlet" (complete with unconvincing quotes meant to display intelligence/"refreshing cynicism"/"refreshing non-cynicism"/sophistication), then who is your average starlet?

― amateur!!st, Friday, 27 August 2004 20:19 (twenty-one years ago)

The Naomi Watts photo-spread was disturbing

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 27 August 2004 20:25 (twenty-one years ago)

i kind of have a thing for all these "fashion" magazines now that i can read them for free...it's like watching the clouds go by.

― jess (dubplatestyle), Friday, 27 August 2004 20:27 (twenty-one years ago)

that's the best description yet

― amateur!!st, Friday, 27 August 2004 20:27 (twenty-one years ago)

it's just a world i have absolutely no connection with. i can't process it. it's like looking into a bird's eye.

― jess (dubplatestyle), Friday, 27 August 2004 20:28 (twenty-one years ago)

it's pretty lightweight now. i remember reading a robert downey jr. interview in the late 80s that seemed pretty meaty but maybe it's cos i was 13.

― g--ff (gcannon), Friday, 27 August 2004 20:29 (twenty-one years ago)

an old girlfriend of mine was a subscriber! that and that only...

― g--ff (gcannon), Friday, 27 August 2004 20:29 (twenty-one years ago)

i read "fader" today, yeah, yeah, it's a "music" magazine sure right. the m.i.a. and killa cam interviewe were dumb but pretty pictures.

― jess (dubplatestyle), Friday, 27 August 2004 20:30 (twenty-one years ago)

i'd actually read it, tho. the one-sleb-interviews-another is an ok idea i guess, pharell interviewing michael jackson (or vice versa?) was hilarious, creepy, suck-uppy etc

― g--ff (gcannon), Friday, 27 August 2004 20:33 (twenty-one years ago)

btw amst, yr average startlet is jennifer aniston (or her new improved equiv)

― jess (dubplatestyle), Friday, 27 August 2004 20:33 (twenty-one years ago)

thirteen years pass...

Ceases publication

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/may/21/andy-warhol-interview-magazine-closes

― Making Plans For Sturgill (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 21 May 2018 23:08 (seven years ago)

I have no idea what magazines are still in print besides, like, Time, National Geographic and The Economist, and Vogue and Cosmo.

― El Tomboto, Tuesday, 22 May 2018 01:43 (seven years ago)

Lotta people I know got their first jobs shooting for interview

― YouTube_-_funy_cats.flv (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Tuesday, 22 May 2018 01:52 (seven years ago)

Never bought or read an issue, makes me a little sad anyway.

― clemenza, Tuesday, 22 May 2018 01:54 (seven years ago)

Greil Marcus used to have a music column with 'em.

This one was probably the first time he wrote about Corin Tucker, before Heavens To Betsey even had an album out.

― Making Plans For Sturgill (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 22 May 2018 02:26 (seven years ago)

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