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[rts] Back in the 80s: Music Magazines
Mar. 5th, 2012 03:53 pmYesterday while I was perusing the web for research info on my Walk in Silence project, I found an interesting tidbit that took me back: the music magazine Star Hits premiered in the US in February of 1984. It was the American offshoot of the UK teen magazine Smash Hits which started in November 1978 (the US version would briefly change its name to that near the end of its run), and looked like any other teen magazine: thin glossy pages filled with color photos, lyrics to the latest hit songs, a penpal page, and short and lightweight (and often snarky) articles about your favorite musicians. I started reading it around 1985 or 1986 when I found it at Norm's Smoker across from the YMCA downtown...I was fishing around for magazines to read at the time and that one caught my eye, since it was heavily music-oriented. I most likely stopped reading it around 1988 or so when I lost interest in it, and it folded around 1990.
It got me thinking about how I learned about new music back in the 1980s, compared to how easy it is to find new things in the age of internet and satellite radio and other places. Now I can go to any college radio station that's streaming, log onto Save Alternative, sample songs from Amazon and eMusic, read the various and sundry music blogs that clutter up the internet, and listen to whatever the Sirius XM stations are playing. Even the bands themselves will let you know via an emailing list or their website when they have something new in the works.
Back in the 80s, my primary reference for new releases was the music magazine. For the most part it was Rolling Stone. My family briefly had a subscription to that magazine, and later I would read the latest issue at the local library. For the most part I flipped past the political commentary and the non-music sections as they didn't excite me all that much, and went straight for the music reviews. I found a lot of really interesting releases that way, and I wouldn't have heard of the Sgt. Pepper Knew My Father compilation if I hadn't seen the article about it in a December 1987 issue.
By the mid-80s a few other magazines such as Spin had arrived to let readers know what was new and who was in the studio or on tour. Most of these were major publications that catered the largest amount of people possible, so of course the reviews and listings would be in the Top 40, rock, or classic rock/reissue category. While that covered a lot of ground, they still passed up many other titles in smaller subgenres, which of course gave rise to the DIY zines of the early 80s such as Cometbus and Maximum Rock & Roll, both created here in the Bay Area and covering the local punk scenes. There was also College Media Journal (aka CMJ New Music Report) which started sometime in 1978 and was mainly sent to college radio stations, and later had a public run in the 90s and 00s, which offered a music compilation with every issue.
Growing up in midwestern Massachusetts, though, I didn't have access to those (let alone heard of them), so I had to make do with whatever was available. For me, that was Star Hits, which being under a UK umbrella actually gave me information on imports and new wave stuff. There were a few others out there--there's one whose name I can't remember (I seem to remember it being called One or something like that) that was a semi-pro magazine focusing on college rock, and that one introduced me to The The, Minutemen, and New Order.
When I started listening to college radio in the mid-80s and couldn't find information, I was lucky to find a copy of Ira Robbins' Trouser Press Record Guide at the library and later bought my own copy. This is where I found out about older releases from The Cure, Depeche Mode, and other college rock bands I was into at the time. Parallel to that, I was lucky to find various college and commercial stations that would announce new releases every now and again. That's about the same time I started to carry a small pad in my back pocket (still do to this day!) and write down all the releases I was interested in so I knew what to look for when my family and I headed down to the mall.
As I'd said earlier, in the age of the internets, it's pretty quick and easy to look up new release info. My main reference is the All Music Guide and the Newbury Comics new release newsletter, but I've found info on . It's even easier nowadays to buy them online rather than tempting fate and hoping they had it at the record store (or more to the point, knowing which record stores would carry it or at least order it for you), especially when it may not be a popular title. It seems that the supposed exclusivity of the indie scene of today is much different in that it's much easier to access, and that made a lot of hipsters angry back in the day, and in a way, the Indie Rock Pete character in Diesel Sweeties captures that 'so-underground-it-hurts' attempt at being as alternative as possible.
Still, now that the sounds have morphed and grown older to the point that retro is hip again, and that the avalanche of hip indie bands has subsided somewhat, it seems we've come full circle. We may not be searching for new sounds in music magazines as much as we have been, but it's gotten to the point again where we look for music on our own rather than sampling everything from everyone all at once.
It got me thinking about how I learned about new music back in the 1980s, compared to how easy it is to find new things in the age of internet and satellite radio and other places. Now I can go to any college radio station that's streaming, log onto Save Alternative, sample songs from Amazon and eMusic, read the various and sundry music blogs that clutter up the internet, and listen to whatever the Sirius XM stations are playing. Even the bands themselves will let you know via an emailing list or their website when they have something new in the works.
Back in the 80s, my primary reference for new releases was the music magazine. For the most part it was Rolling Stone. My family briefly had a subscription to that magazine, and later I would read the latest issue at the local library. For the most part I flipped past the political commentary and the non-music sections as they didn't excite me all that much, and went straight for the music reviews. I found a lot of really interesting releases that way, and I wouldn't have heard of the Sgt. Pepper Knew My Father compilation if I hadn't seen the article about it in a December 1987 issue.
By the mid-80s a few other magazines such as Spin had arrived to let readers know what was new and who was in the studio or on tour. Most of these were major publications that catered the largest amount of people possible, so of course the reviews and listings would be in the Top 40, rock, or classic rock/reissue category. While that covered a lot of ground, they still passed up many other titles in smaller subgenres, which of course gave rise to the DIY zines of the early 80s such as Cometbus and Maximum Rock & Roll, both created here in the Bay Area and covering the local punk scenes. There was also College Media Journal (aka CMJ New Music Report) which started sometime in 1978 and was mainly sent to college radio stations, and later had a public run in the 90s and 00s, which offered a music compilation with every issue.
Growing up in midwestern Massachusetts, though, I didn't have access to those (let alone heard of them), so I had to make do with whatever was available. For me, that was Star Hits, which being under a UK umbrella actually gave me information on imports and new wave stuff. There were a few others out there--there's one whose name I can't remember (I seem to remember it being called One or something like that) that was a semi-pro magazine focusing on college rock, and that one introduced me to The The, Minutemen, and New Order.
When I started listening to college radio in the mid-80s and couldn't find information, I was lucky to find a copy of Ira Robbins' Trouser Press Record Guide at the library and later bought my own copy. This is where I found out about older releases from The Cure, Depeche Mode, and other college rock bands I was into at the time. Parallel to that, I was lucky to find various college and commercial stations that would announce new releases every now and again. That's about the same time I started to carry a small pad in my back pocket (still do to this day!) and write down all the releases I was interested in so I knew what to look for when my family and I headed down to the mall.
As I'd said earlier, in the age of the internets, it's pretty quick and easy to look up new release info. My main reference is the All Music Guide and the Newbury Comics new release newsletter, but I've found info on . It's even easier nowadays to buy them online rather than tempting fate and hoping they had it at the record store (or more to the point, knowing which record stores would carry it or at least order it for you), especially when it may not be a popular title. It seems that the supposed exclusivity of the indie scene of today is much different in that it's much easier to access, and that made a lot of hipsters angry back in the day, and in a way, the Indie Rock Pete character in Diesel Sweeties captures that 'so-underground-it-hurts' attempt at being as alternative as possible.
Still, now that the sounds have morphed and grown older to the point that retro is hip again, and that the avalanche of hip indie bands has subsided somewhat, it seems we've come full circle. We may not be searching for new sounds in music magazines as much as we have been, but it's gotten to the point again where we look for music on our own rather than sampling everything from everyone all at once.
