My daddy was a TV, my mommy was a magazine

[venta]

My previous post reminds me: I don't actually like lists of things as a form of entertainment. Which therefore poses the question "What on earth am I doing with a subscription to Q magazine?"

If you've never picked up a copy of Q, you perhaps won't know that it has some form of OCD relating to lists. Every issue... we reveal the top 20 songwriters! The top 100 songs of all time! 300 albums you must listen to before you DIE! 25 greatest gigs!

Et cetera. By the time you've added in their monthly charts, their double page spread on the 50 recommended downloads for this month, the list of top lists of all time... it's a complete fillerfest and there's barely half a page left for any actual content.

However, here's my dilemma... I read Vox magazine for years, until it packed in, and then started reading Q when I'm sure it wasn't so list-centric. But looking around the shelves, I simply don't see anything particularly appealing to replace my monthly Q.

Does anyone have any recommendations for good music magazines ? Select's packed in these days, and Mojo scares me by being far too grown up and worthy. There's a wealth of classical music magazines of varying qualities, but I'd like something that covers a more rock/pop/indie sort of area.

Comments

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

Plan B?

[venta.livejournal.com]

I've not heard of that one. However, you seem a person of discrimination and integrity so if you recommend it I'll buy an exploratory copy.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I lie (now I've looked at its website). I heard Everett True talking about it last year. I think because of the name I couldn't really believe it was a music magazine and figured it must secretly be about sci-fi :)

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

It's a bit indier-than-thou but generally good in bits.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

I like Word and Uncut, probably because they are not just music, but then I also quite liked Q (and Vox) so YMMV.

[venta.livejournal.com]

OK, I'm not familiar with Word or Uncut. If you say "liked" (past tense) Q then maybe you were reading it before it got sucky. And I was a big fan of Vox before it stopped publishing.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

I stopped reading Q some time around 1999, mostly because I decided I couldn't afford all of the ones I wanted to read and that was easiest to let go of...

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Word is probably the closest thing to 1990s Q, and I think is mostly the same people. But I think it and Uncut, like Mojo, suffer from being not really very interested in the majority of current music. The stereotype "Fifty Quid Bloke" is very much the target. "Classic rock" has now extended to cover the likes of Radiohead and Morrissey, and maybe a small feature on someone like British Sea Power to satisfy the lunatic fringe of the readership.

I suspect this is because people who are actually interested in current music tend to be younger, and so don't buy magazines at all.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Er... who is the Fifty Quid Bloke ? Does he hang out with the man on the Clapham Omnibus ?

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I first saw him defined in this article.

"The 50-quid bloke is a big user of the web, Hepworth says, but unlike his children, he wants to own things. He shops at Amazon as well as the high street. He loathes Pop Idol, telling the kids it devalues everything rock music stands for (the kids reply that it's only a TV show, dad). But he is defined more by his likes than his dislikes and, crucially, he wants to keep up. He likes the White Stripes, Coldplay and Blur and has persevered with Radiohead through the difficult last three albums. His latest buys are the debut albums from the Stands, who remind him of the Byrds, and Franz Ferdinand, who remind him of the Glasgow art-school bands of 1982. The fact that most of the new bands sound old is a definite help."

(That was a few years ago, the references need updating!)

[reddragdiva]

That would be me, except buying things means you have to put them somewhere. I'm a big fan of 500 gigabyte music buckets.

[venta.livejournal.com]

That would be me

Aha! I've always suspected you were a Coldplay fan ;p

[reddragdiva]

NO! NO! OLD OBSCURE POSTPUNK FROM THE OLDEN DAYS!

You know, where I go to MP3 blogs, listen to obscure early-early-early industrial and think, "... y'know, this stuff always did suck."

[venta.livejournal.com]

:)

Which reminds me, have you started dancing like a dad yet ?

[reddragdiva]

WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I STOPPED?

[venta.livejournal.com]

Heels.

[a-llusive.livejournal.com]

Seconding bopeepsheep but I haven't read either in years, so not a ringing endorsement.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I stopped getting Q a few years ago and found it highly liberating. (Yes, Mojo is far too tediously worthy and old-git-ish.)

I looked around and couldn't find anything decent, so I haven't got a music magazine at all since. And really haven't missed it -- I can get all the actual news and stuff from elsewhere, and it's also saved me a bunch of money.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Magazines made out of... paper? Wow!

[venta.livejournal.com]

I do like to think of myself as quaintly antiquated :)

[erming.livejournal.com]

The only magazine I get is Orkus (and cos I'm a masochist and trying to learn German I get the proper rather than the English version). This has the benefits of a free cd per issue that the English version doesn't have.

Actually that reminds me I really must get round to listening to some of the cds.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Is it any good ? I think it's a bit of a narrow spectrum of musical types for me, but I'm curious. Kaleidoscope and Meltdown always made me want to poke the editors in the eye[*] and I never got round to listening to the cover discs either, which isn't a good sign :)

[*] Only I didn't, because Natasha was far too scary and tall Meltdown man always seems so nice and friendly even if he needs a good proofreader.

[erming.livejournal.com]

Probably a little too narrow for you, but I like it as it covers bands that are massive in Europe (that I get to see at festivals) and often sound a lot better than the scene bands in the uk.

It is a little fawning over the artists, and indeed from reading the English one a couple of times I've been puzzled as to what style of music it is, but I like it. Luckily the German one usually has a sample on the cd. However production standards are way way higher than Meltdown or Kaleidoscope (and being a music magazine it doesn't tend to have a 3 page feature of a new lipstick that Meltdown tended towards).

Mike was always friendly (and indeed I knew a couple of people who used to write for Kaleidoscope). Went off it as once Frankie got involved it became very bleepy. Natasha is ok, but I braved the far scarier prospect of going to Ressurection Records to buy the thing (scarier as I always walk out a lot poorer than when I walked in).

[erming.livejournal.com]

http://www.orkus-mag.com/

http://www.orkus.de/

[erming.livejournal.com]

I guess I should point out German Orkus has a circulation of about 30k / month!!!