The History of Music Magazines

THE HISTORY OF MUSICMAGAZINES

When did it all start? The first issue of Billboard magazine was printed in 1894 but it was in 1936 that it became well known. This gradually evolved into radio airplay and record sales charts (The Billboard charts). TBC provided different music genres and was the foundation for slots on the radio for programmes like ‘American Top 40’. The magazine is aimed at music professionals however, it is available to the general public.

Melody Maker began in 1926 and covered allaspects of the jazz scene. By the 50’s it hadcompetition from New Musical Express whichwas appealing to more of a younger generationas it had coverage on the up-and-coming rock nroll scene. They both offered weekly informationon upcoming record releases. The magazineshad newspaper formats but ‘music inkies’provided detailed coverage of independent labelartists not mainstream chart music. A glossymagazine format for Melody Maker wasintroduced in 1999 and merged with NME in2000 which are both owned by IPC media.

The music fanzine is said to have emerged inthe 60s from sci-fi and comic related amateurpublications. Crawdaddy and Bomp areexamples in rock folklore today. The arrival ofamateur publications highlights therelationship between music, fan-basedcreativity and the want to manuscript a‘scene’.

In 1967 Rolling Stone magazine was createdand documented music as an important partin the culture of youth with reflective articlesabout music and social change, and thepolitical concerns about music. Rolling Stonewas less about factual information and moreabout the culture of music.

The glossy fortnightly magazine Smash Hits wascreated in 1978 and was aimed at teens. Thismagazine is important to the development ofmusic because it covered music in a differentway as it was designed as a genre-specificmagazine (pop). Kerrang! was introduced in 1981and compared to Smash Hits, it is more of amusic orientated magazine. Kerrang!’s monthlycompetitor is Metal Hammer. In the 90s genrespecific magazines were produced, like Mixmag(dance/clubbing music coverage), The Source andHip-Hop (hip-hop/rap music) and Classic Rock(rock music for an older audience).

The Face was launched in 1980 by Nick Logan(ex-editor for Kerrang! And Smash Hits). The Facewas a monthly magazine that offered thecolourful layout of Smash Hits but aimed at aslightly older audience, embracing music andalso fashion and lifestyle. The layout consisted oflots of images and detailed articles, pages full ofcelebrities, musicians, fashion shoots andadvertising. This magazine stopped beingpublished in 2004 however it influenced othermagazines such as Q magazine, Mojo and Uncut.

In 1980 a monthly magazine called RecordCollector became available which was filledfull of adverts and contained sources ofbuying and selling music. It started out as aglossy A5 publication but in 2003 itrelaunched in full-colour in an A4 magazineformat.

Since then, magazines have become lesspopular as nowadays ways to get newinformation about the music scene is veryeasy to do. Most people use the internet andmagazine’s websites to find everything out.The internet has all the information you needfrom CD releases to new artists. You can nowalso use the internet to buy magazines.People can also download music online whicheffects CD sales and record shops.

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The History of Music Magazines

by hannahterrymedia on Nov 12, 2011

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