Top Five Historically Important Magazine Covers

Many people today blame a lot of things on the media when things go wrong. They never seem to compliment the media when things are going well, but if you study history then you know that the media has an amazing ability to document problems within society during specific periods. I have studied history as well as media publications, and I find it amazing when the media manages to capture attitudes with society. I have been collecting magazines for a long period of time and there are many that reflect history in addition to attitudes within society.

Playboy, October 1971 issue was the first time that Playboy ever placed a black women within the pages of their magazine. Many people within the United States were very outraged because they did not believe black women should be placed on the magazine. Playboy decided to put black women on the cover in order to show that black women should be admired just as any other women. This was a big step toward black women achieving equality within society and other races hated the magazine for this.

Vanity Fair, August 1991 was an issue that depicted a pregnant and nude Demi Moore on the cover. At the time people were outraged because they found it outside the bounds of beauty and acceptability. This magazine was responsible for adjusting attitudes within society and expanding the definition of beauty that we live by today.

Time Magazine, June 27, 1994 was an issue that depicted a very dark OJ Simpson mug shot. This picture showed that the publisher expected people to be more fearful of OJ if he was darker. These attitudes show that racism within society was still very much alive. This article on TMZ clearly shows that OJ is actually much lighter in reality.

Rolling Stone, January 22, 1981 is an issue that depicted John Lennon and Yoko Ono. This has been named the most famous magazine cover in the world because the picture was taken the same day Lennon was shot and killed.

Time Magazine, January 2, 1939 is an issue that named Hitler as man of the year. He had risen to power within Germany and now controlled almost all of Eastern Europe. The magazine didn't seem too concerned with the slaughtering of Jewish citizens or the possibility that Hitler could possibly take over the world. I believe this is the most historically important magazine of any ever published.