Rolling Stone - USA (2020-02)

Editor’s Letter

GUIDE

The Greatest Music

Scenes in America Now

hoping to create the

next Austin. In Denver,

the Mission Ballroom

has a stage on tracks

to adjust floor size

depending on the

performer. Other leg-

endary cities like Chi-

cago and Nashville are

reinventing themselves.

Chicago is experienc-

ing a jazz renaissance,

where the speakeasy

Dorian’s Through

the Record Shop hosts

up-and-comers and

legends alike. With

growing indie and

punk, scenes, Nashville

is no longer limited to

country music. “The

goal isn’t to get signed

anymore,” says senior

editor Patrick Doyle.

“It’s to get in a room

and make some really

great music.”

WITH THE MUSIC

business booming,

ROLLING STONE intro-

duces a new annual

franchise to discover

the greatest cities and

venues in America. In

Tulsa, Oklahoma, we

found both a thriving

underground rock and

hip-hop scene, as well

as a local billionaire

pouring hundreds of

millions of dollars into

the city’s art scene,

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LATE LAST YEAR, a two-year-old recording by Detroit-born

singer- songwriter Lizzo, “Truth Hurts,” leaped above hits by

Taylor Swift, Shawn Mendes, Billie Eilish, and Ed Sheeran to

become the top song in America. With its loopy piano and

strings, and brashly hilarious message of self-empowerment,

there’s never been a song quite like it. And there’s never been

a pop star quite like Lizzo, a plus-size, classically-trained flutist

and freestyle rapper who struggled for more than a decade (in-

cluding a stint in a prog-rock band) before her song appeared

in the Netflix movie Someone Great (starring Gina Rodriguez

as a ROLLING STONE reporter) and suddenly, out of nowhere,

blew up. “Everything changed for her literally the next day,” says senior writer Britta-

ny Spanos, who wrote this month’s cover story. “It was Shazammed at a crazy rate.

All these memes started happening with it on TikTok. It was crazy.”

Spanos followed Lizzo from her home in Los Angeles to a Texas tour stop to

track her wild year. At first, Spanos says, “I felt like she was putting up a barrier

around me.” But when they met a week later, backstage before a Dallas Jingle Ball

show where Lizzo was surrounded by family and friends, the singer began to open

up about her experiences growing up in her grandparents’ Baptist church and her

decade-long musical and spiritual journey. “Therapy taught her to be more vul-

nerable and to open up about her self-esteem issues,” says Spanos, who notes that

Lizzo also consults regularly with a psychic and astrologer. “A lot of Lizzo’s con-

cert is really about inspiring people with how they live their lives — she’ll admit

that life is messy and sometimes you can feel really depressed, but you’re here,

you’ve made it to this moment, let’s enjoy it together.”

Spanos, who joined ROLLING STONE shortly after graduating from NYU in 2014,

has covered everyone from Stevie Nicks to Tom Morello, and has written cover stories

on Cardi B and Janelle Monáe. She grew up near Chicago as a die-hard fan of Green

Day and Nirvana (she has the band’s stoned smiley-face logo tattooed on her right

forearm) but has equal reverence for (and encyclopedic knowledge of ) artists from

Harry Styles and Fifth Harmony to Ariana Grande, which has earned her the role of

ROLLING STONE’s chief authority on pop music. “I went through periods where I was

like, ‘Pop is not supposed to be good music,’ ” she says. “But then I realized that if it

brought me joy, it is good music. Listening to a Jonas Brothers album made me feel

the way I did when I listened to Led Zeppelin. That’s why I hate the term ‘guilty plea-

sure,’ ” she says. “If it’s good, it’s good.”

JASON FINE

EDITOR

Lizzo’s Pop

Revolution

“When I say unity, I don’t mean everybody agreeing on policy.

I mean transcending every political disagreement.”

—PETE BUTTIGIEG

A truck

hauling

oil-and-

gas waste

in Ohio

ENVIRONMENTAL JOURNALIST Justin Nobel

spent two years investigating the potential

health crisis caused by toxic waste from the

oil-and-gas industry. “When you visit fracking

zones, you enter a surreal world of contam-

ination,” he says. “Residents are forced to

keep daily diaries of their health problems.”

Through hundreds of interviews, Nobel

reveals that the industry produces nearly a

trillion gallons of waste a year — much of it

radioactive — and what that means for the

workers in its path. “Oil-field radioactivity has

been downplayed for generations,” he says.

“My hope is this article will unveil the struggle

of workers and residents to the public.”

Facing the health risks of the oil-and-

gas industry’s underregulated waste

Radioactive

America

INSIDE THE STORY

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10 | Rolling Stone | February 2020