Rolling Stone: Britney Spears, Hanging on the Telephone (April, 1999)Īs a token of respect, Time removed its iconic red border for this issue (Image credit: Time) And in an surreal twist of fate, the cover was subsequently used by Simpson’s defence team as alleged evidence of racism and bias in the media. Time denied any malicious or racist intent behind its retouching, insisting that their art editor had simply editorialised the photo, but the publication was forced to apologise.
But with the two titles sat side-by-side on the newsstands, it was clear that Time had radically altered the Simpson photo, making his skin appear darker. Both Time and rival news journal, Newsweek, had the same cover image – the police mugshot of the double-homicide suspect. Ironically, its O J Simpson American Tragedy cover remains its most (in)famous cover, as it provoked an unprecedented scandal. Simpson: American Crime Story recreated it with actor Cuba Gooding Jr (Image credit: Time)įrom their famous, type-only 'Is God Dead?' cover to the (perhaps) less high-brow 'Yep I’m Gay' Ellen DeGeneres “confession”, Time has always proudly courted controversy.
Time’s notorious cover became such a significant part of the OJ trial, that the TV series The People v. The shocking photograph of Jackson, his face seemingly ravaged by plastic surgery, made for a morbid but entirely coincidental obituary. Music magazine Q was similarly struck by unforeseen circumstances when its Michael Jackson ‘unmasked’ issue went to press just before the singer’s sudden death. When Rolling Stone used this as the cover of its tribute issue to the singer, five weeks after his death, it had an entirely different context. This iconic photograph of a naked John Lennon curled around a fully clothed Yoko Ono ("That’s it! That’s our relationship", Lennon is quoted as exclaiming) was daring enough in its own right, with its provocative mix of sex, gender politics and the always outspoken ex-Beatle.īut Lennon’s assassination, just a few hours after this Annie Leibowitz photo session, transformed a provocative image into a tragic memorial. Sometimes a cover becomes controversial for reasons beyond the publisher's control. 1: Two Virgins – only Lennon agreed (Image credit: Rolling Stone) When Annie Liebowitz asked the couple to strip – not unreasonable considering their recent naked album cover, Unfinished Music No.
Rolling Stone: John and Yoko (January 1981) The Ali cover was doubtless the inspiration for Rolling Stone’s ' Passion of Kanye West' cover forty-eight years later, a non-too-subtle nod from one self-mythologising, ‘misunderstood’ celebrity to another.
At the height of the civil rights movement and with anti-Vietnam war protests at their most fierce, it was impossible not to have a strong reaction to Ali’s martyred pose. Carl Fischer’s resulting photograph of a bloodied Ali pierced by the arrows of his critics simultaneously addressed race, celebrity and contemporary politics with startling force. With Esquire’s Muhammad Ali interview focusing on the boxer’s dwindling star status and divisive political statements, legendary art director George Lois suggested that the beleaguered sports legend pose as Christian martyr St Sebastian for the cover shoot. If the 1970s hosted some of the worst examples of gory misogyny dressed up as liberalism, it also delivered some of the most politically engaged and memorable magazine covers. The impact of the beautiful cover photograph and stark design has not diminished with time (Image credit: Esquire)