The magazine has not one but five covers— Anoushka Shankar, Jay-Z, Bruce Springsteen, Led Zeppelin and Amy Winehouse. Whether that’s playing safe, or bold, is directly proportional to the cover you desire. Rolling Stone has always been the bastion of great rock journalism and countercultural ideals, despite accusations of ‘selling out’. In the ’90s, scantily clad nymphets like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera dominated its covers, once home to John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix.

Also, Hunter S Thompson’s first article for Rolling Stone (October 1970) was an exuberant, drug-fuelled 12,000-word account of his nearly-successful run for Sheriff of Aspen, Colorado. Punk Rock made its debut in 1973 (An October 1977 article by Charley Walters called Punk: Pretty Vacant Music dismisses punk rock music in general as “overly simplistic and rudimentary. It’s also not very good.”). The magazine got its first taste of MDMA in 1985 PJ O’Rourke’s Tune In. Turn On. Go to the Office Late on Monday. Readers also found it fun to simply browse through the early issues and admire its design.

On to the inaugural issue then and one-third of all content has been localised. Editor Radhakrishnan Nair acknowledges in the Editor’s Note that the kind of music covered in the magazine is anything bearing “a Rock & Roll sensibility. So don’t be surprised to find articles on the likes of Kailash Kher, Rabbi, Raghu Dixit and even the Malayalam rock band Avial in this issue”.

Concert announcements, reviews and write-ups of these artists—and others like Thermal and a Quarter, Shruti Haasan, Shaa’ir and Func, Talvin Singh—have appeared in city newspapers and magazines months before Rolling Stone noticed them. The first issue’s (localised) content that stands out is writer Amit Chaudhuri’s musical revelation, Samit Basu’s comic book project with Duran Duran and Sudeep Chakravarti’s coverage of Soul Mate, the blues band from Shillong. The reunion of Led Zeppelin and the deconstruction of Amy Winehouse are both excellent reads as well.

Personally, it is a tad disappointing to find that not a single Mumbai electronic act (besides Shaa’ir and Func) or deejay has made it to the inaugural issue, but then again, Rolling Stone has the rest of the year to catch up.