Music Magazines Decline and Fall

jill_valentine

Really interesting discussion about Pitchfork and it's influence, with a couple of Canadian musicians. Kind of interesting to see it from their point of view.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x30sjrK5RM8

Xavi6

Only spotted this thread now.

I buy the odd Q cause it's one of the only Briotish music mags available over here and it caters for 'my kinda music' even if a lot of the articles are written by up their own hole ****.

The ma posted me over a copy of Hotpress from August cause there was a big Muse thing in it and dear God they are some shower of pretentious cocks. Two years nearly I'd gone without reading an copy and I'd forgotten what a load of horse shit it is.

Went through a stage of buying Kerrang every week, but my real love was Melody Maker. That was a great mag.

I do love a good mag though, even if they are few and far between. Nothing better for the train journey into work or as toilet reading material!

P.S. NME can fuck off an die.

Feelgood

mike65 wrote: »

Has the internet killed the market for music 'zines?

Big time...

I actually think the problem is that most music magazines can be freely downloaded (illegally) over the net in PDF format and fairly easily.
Clicked into a website recently that had the October issue of nearly every magazine on the go from Playboy to Rolling Stone magazine and I'm pretty sure that every 14 year old kid knows how to do it at this stage..

KnifeWRENCH

I still get Q every month (I find it the most accessible/least pretentious) and I occasionally buy NME if a band I like is on the cover.
Bought Mojo and Uncut but found them a bit pretentious and heavy.

Undoubtedly the internet has had an effect on magazine sales, but I prefer to have real magazines that I can actually hold and turn pages! So I probably will keep buying magazines.

leincar

Now to show my age I have all 268 issues of Q and later on today will buy the latest issue. For the last 5 or 6 years I've just bought it knowing I will have read it in a day and it can go on the magazine shelf. The present editor Paul Rees is nothing on the original editor Mark Ellen. He seems to be more concerned about QTV and QRadio then the magazine.

Now they have changed the format again so all is not well on the shelf. At long last they have brought back the Who the hell does.... feature but the new review section is not good at all.

It is good to look back at old issues though. New music was sold on Album, Cassette and Compact Disc, Portable CD players could be got for the princely sum of £300 and in 1986 it was Dwight Yoakams year.

Seriously buying Q for me is purely habit

jill_valentine

I think the only thing more annoying than NME's bazillion Next-Big-Thing bands are the other magazines that just keep doing features on The Who all the time... There has to be some middle ground?

grumpytrousers

leincar wrote: »

Now to show my age I have all 268 issues of Q and later on today will buy the latest issue.....The present editor Paul Rees is nothing on the original editor Mark Ellen. He seems to be more concerned about QTV and QRadio then the magazine.

Mark Ellen was a legend. He still is. Again, leaving myself open to accusations of 'you shill, you, sir', nip over to www.wordmagazine.co.uk which he edits. Don't subscribe if you don't want to, but he does a podcast with the other bloke from Q back in the day, David Hepworth. Hilarious stuff.

leincar wrote: »

It is good to look back at old issues though. New music was sold on Album, Cassette and Compact Disc, Portable CD players could be got for the princely sum of £300 and in 1986 it was Dwight Yoakams year.

that's precisely what i was trying to get at a few posts back. Have a look through your collection for the ones around the summer of 1991 where they talk about these here fangled 'CD roms' which would, imagine, allow you to put a CD into a machine and it'd bring up lyrics on the screen.

old magazines are time-capsule-tastic!

---

Now playing: Duffy - Rockferry
via FoxyTunes

ZakAttak

Perhaps the real question here is: do people give a fvck about music critics and their opinions anymore?

Answer: Not nearly as much as they used to.

If you think about it, who is the most rock n' roll journalist in this country?

Answer: Eamonn Dunphy, I'm not his biggest fan but there he is giving opinions (right or wrong/informed or illinformed) on everything and not giving a ba||s bout what anyone thinks. He's far more like Hunter S. Thompson and Lester Bangs, then, say Dave Fanning- who, quite frankly, talks quickly, spits out dates, harps on bout U2 and, eh, thats about it.

Blisterman

leincar wrote: »

It is good to look back at old issues though. New music was sold on Album, Cassette and Compact Disc, Portable CD players could be got for the princely sum of £300 and in 1986 it was Dwight Yoakams year.

I do that too. I love seeing people's thoughts at the time, in the past, especially with the benefit of hindsight. I found an old issue of Q from the 80's, which had the headline: "Hothouse Flowers - The New Beatles?"

DenMan

Still a devoted follower of Metal Hammer. Have to keep the faith. I also love the idea of having a magazine in my hand that I can sift through. Although some of the previews/reviews really annoy me, pretentious writers. Have to take the rough with the smooth I'm afraid.

Dudess

jill_valentine wrote: »

I think the only thing more annoying than NME's bazillion Next-Big-Thing bands are the other magazines that just keep doing features on The Who all the time... There has to be some middle ground?

Yes indeedy. And for a while, Uncut was that magazine - featuring decent new groups (not faddy shyte like e.g. The Bravery - WATN?) along with the old skool indie from the late 70s to the early 90s, along with the dad rock. But then the dad rock, for some good marketing reason no doubt, eclipsed all. Mojo was doing that already though.

Actually, to be fair to The Bravery, I've just flicked Honest Mistake on on YouTube - as an 80sophile, I have to say it's Duraaaan-tastic!

leincar

Yes indeed I have in my possession Q issue 269 and as usual it didn't fail to disappoint. A full 7 pages before you hit any sort of writing and that is just a sidebar about a Fratelli turning Roger Daltry upside down at the Q awards. Oh well another space filled on the magazine shelf!

tony1kenobi

A mate of mine buys the NME and I'll remove it to the john if I think I've a long stay ahead of me...........It's all dung.....along with mojo and anything else I have had put in front of me ( I am unable to name names as I have not memorized the names of what is, essentially, expensive toilet paper ) .....Made up effectively of, who are your favourite bands/what bands will you dismiss so we can ask them for a response type journalism...........none of it is made up of new information...........I used to read music magazines in the early 90s and the opinions of the artists at that time appeared eye opening and interesting...those opinions could have been based on anything......but they were worth reading none the less...........now its only about who should be voted off "who came on my strict face" or whatever the latest ****ing tie in is called......also the ads are ****e because there are all year round festivals, which completely takes away from the "eventness" of a festival.....and all the bands looking for new members are dog**** anyway..........the best thing they could all do is begin reporting on me...at least I would make it interesting.........also nme.com is muck......its the sun website without the football......good lord but I need a new religion.