Top Eight Bands in the Rolling Stone Cover Contest Announced

Your votes have been counted and the 16 original bands from the Do You Want To Be A Rock & Roll Star? contest have been cut down to eight. A quick recap: Unsigned bands have been competing with each other to win a recording contract with Atlantic Records and to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone. It will be the first time that an unsigned act has been on the cover of the magazine.

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The eight acts to survive the cut are Skyler Stonestreet, Fictionist, The Romany Rye, Mod Sun, Empires, The Sheepdogs, Lelia Broussard and Tha Boogie. Last week they all flew to New York where they played a live showcase in front of Rolling Stone editors, music executives and Brent Smith from the band Shinedown. Then they went into a studio to record tracks with a major producer.

Photos: Random Notes

The eight groups will later be cut down to four and then just two, who will both play at Bonnaroo in June to compete for the grand prize. Jimmy Fallon will announce the winner of the contest on his show on August 1st.

Check out this video to see some of the artists respond to the news that they've made it to the final eight.

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Song Stories

“I'm Yours”

Jason Mraz | 2008

Jason Mraz re-emerged after his disappointing second album with this lead single, a Jack Johnson-esque ditty about giving yourself fully to someone else. The success of the reggae-tinged song (it earned two Grammy nods and a spot on the Billboard singles chart for well over a year) was something the folk-pop singer never predicted when he wrote it in 15 minutes at home. "I played a happy-hippie chord progression that would probably work without 50 different Bob Marley songs," he told Rolling Stone. "I thought, 'It's too novelty. This is a nursery rhyme,'" concluding that "you can never guess what's gonna be a hit."

More Song Stories entries »

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